{"id":3595608,"date":"2024-10-31T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/article\/3595608\/get-back-to-your-desk-mandates-spark-office-refill-revolution.html"},"modified":"2025-05-22T02:43:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T06:43:57","slug":"get-back-to-your-desk-mandates-spark-office-refill-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/article\/3595608\/get-back-to-your-desk-mandates-spark-office-refill-revolution.html","title":{"rendered":"Get-back-to-your-desk mandates spark office refill revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the pandemic eased in 2022 and 2023, US core business centers in large and small cities continued to suffer the after effects or remote- and hybrid-work policies<\/a>, which led to a 20% to 40% reduction in office space use<\/a> and a devaluation of properties. The big switch to remote work left many downtowns largely empty for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, commercial areas have seen a slow but steady return to the office, with average office occupancy rate hitting more than 60%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, many offices remain partially or completely empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are approaching 20 quarters of contraction in the office market,” according to Peter Miscovich, global future of work leader at Jones Lang LaSalle IP<\/a> (JLL), a commercial real estate and investment management services firm. “There are signs of stabilization of vacancies in certain parts of the country.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One trend affecting the repopulation of corporate cubicles involves a rash of return-to-office<\/a> (RTO) mandates. Last month, for example, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees to get back into the office five days a week<\/a> beginning in early 2025. Ericsson recently tightened its policy for office attendance<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Dell Technologies ordered many workers to return to their corporate desks<\/a>, and more recently told its global sales team to work in office five days a week<\/a>. And just last week, 3M ordered senior employees back to corporate headquarters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to one recent survey, most companies are pushing for RTO mandates in 2025. The survey by ResumeBuilder found that nine in 10 companies will enact RTO mandates<\/a> based on data from 764 companies that transitioned to a fully remote work model during the pandemic. But the data is nuanced. Not all RTO policies, of course, require employees to be in the office five days a week.<\/p>\n\n\n

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