RTO Disconnect: how mandates are missing the mark
Does physical presence really equate to better collaboration and culture? Drawing on learnings from Taylorism, this article argues that RTO mandates risk overlooking the true drivers of workplace success
The Return to Office (RTO) debate has resurfaced in 2025 as companies set their agendas for the year ahead. While large organisations such as JP Morgan, Amazon and the UK advertising business WPP have made their stance clear on remote work by mandating employees into the office, employees are continuing to prioritise flexibility and choice.
Reflecting on F.W. Taylor’s Scientific Management, it’s clear that one of his core convictions was the tension between workers’ intrinsic motivations and external expectations. Taylor believed that workers needed to be tightly controlled and monitored because, in his view, they weren’t motivated to put forth their best effort unless supervised. Fast forward 125 years, and we still see echoes of this mindset in the current RTO debate.
Much like Taylor’s belief that strict oversight was necessary to counteract workers’ tendencies to ‘underwork,’ RTO mandates miss a critical point: the fundamental drivers of culture and collaboration lie not in physical presence, but in organisational paradigms, structures, procedures such as reward systems, promotion practices, leadership behaviors, trust and psychological safety.
‘The fundamental drivers of culture and collaboration lie not in physical presence, but in organisational paradigms, structures, procedures’.
Below are four key issues that enshroud RTO mandates in today’s world of work:
Physical presence does not mean collaboration
The assumption that being in the office automatically leads to better collaboration ignores a critical truth — culture and engagement are nurtured through leadership practices, organisational systems, and, most importantly, how safe employees feel to contribute, challenge ideas and innovate. Being in the same room doesn’t create trust or a sense of belonging; it’s the behaviours exhibited by leaders and the systems in place that do.
Collaboration is not the same as cooperation
Effective collaboration requires alignment around common goals, transparent communication and shared success. If reward systems incentivise individual achievements, those who place themselves at the centre of attention will take it all. Until reward systems prioritise collective success over individual achievement, true collaboration will remain out of reach. Simply mandating RTO will not create this change.
RTO might achieve the opposite intention
Forcing employees back into the office with the belief that it will resolve collaboration and culture gaps can actually undermine those goals if the organisational culture and leadership don’t evolve to support this shift.
If the organisational culture doesn’t evolve alongside these mandates and leadership doesn’t demonstrate flexibility, empathy and a commitment to employee wellbeing, RTO can end up being a hollow gesture. The result? Disengaged employees who feel resentful, unmotivated, and disconnected from the organisation’s goals.
This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the very mechanisms intended to address collaboration and culture — such as RTO mandates — fail to do so, reaffirming Taylor’s mechanistic view of workers as mere cogs in the machine, needing strict control to functions.
Output vs. Outcome: The RTO Misstep
One critical aspect often overlooked when mandating knowledge workers back to the office is the very nature of their work. Leaders and managers who are stuck in an output-focused mindset tend to treat knowledge work like production-line tasks, equating time spent at the desk with productivity. This approach ignores the outcome dimension of knowledge work — the value created by the work, not just the time spent doing it.
Knowledge workers often need time and space for creative thinking, reflection and connection, which is not always possible when tied to a rigid schedule in the office. Sometimes, stepping away — whether it’s taking a walk, mowing the lawn, or having an unstructured moment — can be exactly what is needed to ‘connect the dots’ and generate innovative ideas.
Forcing employees back into the office without acknowledging this nuanced reality may stifle the very creativity and problem-solving that organisations rely on. Even the most inspiring office spaces can’t foster the creative and reflective processes knowledge workers need — at least not if activities like using a meditation room are still viewed as distractions rather than essential elements of productivity and innovation
Following the RTO debate feels a bit like a worker with a hammer: Everything turns into a nail, just because of the tool. Instead, we need a different approach — one that takes a more systemic perspective, challenges long-held beliefs, and role-models openness to learning and transformation.
