Save Your Job from Return to Office Now: Keep Your Job at Home!

Written by: Jamie Hughes

Graphics by: Bailey Todd

During the pandemic, many workers were sent home from the office to work. The whole world was going wild! Stores were closing, everyone had to wear masks, and going out to eat became a distant memory. But office workers got the massive perk of getting to move out of the big city and do their jobs from the comfort of their homes. We all loved to work our remote job anywhere; from home, from the beach, from a cozy cabin in the woods. That beats a gray fluorescent-lit office any day, right?

However, employers everywhere are now trying to force their employees back to HQ. Just when we’d gotten used to being able to work alongside our cats, now we have to trade them in for that one guy in the next cubicle who sips his coffee really loudly! So what do you do? We've got ideas for negotiating with your employer to keep your position at least partially remote.

And Just When You Had Your Working From Home Ideas Worked Out…

So you’ve received an ultimatum from your boss: the company is enforcing a “Return to Office” mandate, or “RTO.” By next month, you need to be in the office to work full-time. But because of working your job at home for so long, you’ve got problems with that now.

Maybe you’ve moved across the country from your company office or sold your car, and you can’t take the bus to the office. Your kids probably made lots of friends, and they’ll be complaining for eternity if you move them to another school. What your boss doesn’t get is that your “normal” has changed, and now they suddenly want you back to the old “normal.” You can hardly believe your ears! Or maybe your eyes, if the news came by email. Companies can be different like that.

Why Doesn’t Your Boss Want You to Work From Home?

There’s a lot of speculation about why return-to-office mandates are becoming so popular with corporate leaders. Well-paying careers before the pandemic often took place in tricked-out offices with free cafes, lunch budgets or regular catering, on-site exercise rooms, and the list goes on.

None of that came cheap, but many of these companies recognized that high worker morale directly translated to higher productivity. Office real estate, especially in downtown areas, is also expensive, and only more so today. So, one might wonder why companies would want to return to that if it could mean skyrocketing operational costs. If workers could perform their jobs at home, why bother paying millions of dollars a year for prime downtown office space? My hometown’s local newspaper gets that. A little while ago, after their shiny new downtown office went largely unused during the pandemic, they decided to close it and let their employees continue working from home.

But larger companies like Microsoft, Google, and Target jumped on the RTO bandwagon. And their workers have been caught in this Catch-22, forced to find new, well-paying jobs at home. So now for the big question. Why are they doing this? Fast Company has a great article about this entire mess. What are the reasons they explain for RTO? Real estate and control.

Real estate is an easy excuse for employers. They spend millions of dollars on those offices, so why should they go to waste? Additionally, many companies lease their office space under a long-term contract. Unlike my hometown newspaper company, they may not be able just to throw that away. It also justifies the effort and expense of setting up so many facilities for their workers, as they have people to utilize them. Not to mention, the economies of many US cities depend on offices and the taxes they generate for the city governments.

The other aspect is control. On the tail end of the pandemic, Fast Company says that workers had a lot of leverage over companies that they didn’t have before. They negotiated the ability to keep their job at home, along with several other perks, including better pay and benefits. But many employers now see the pendulum swinging the other way. And now, they want all the things they’ve given us back. And it also sounds good to middle managers to be able to breathe down workers’ necks in person. It justifies their job’s existence if they’re able to call the shots more visibly. So, there are two halves to this argument: employers want to say it’s about real estate, and also to justify certain positions remaining. Some on the other side may say it’s about regaining control that employers lost during the pandemic.

But TikToker @shackletonjones has a fresher idea. Why does he think corporate leaders don’t want to continue working their job at home? First, he says, it’s important to know that the majority of company leaders in the US are men. According to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, in 2024, 91% of CEOs in the S&P 100 were male. @shackletonjones says that working in the office is a huge ego boost for these men. Being surrounded by people who look up to them means everything to many of these executives. At home? They’re stuck with no one but their wives and kids, who have expectations for them, including chores and errands. “These are people who are desperate to get back to the office because their crown is there, their identity is there,” he says. And if the entire point is having people present to respect them, then they need you there, too. Hence, the sudden obsession with RTO mandates. Middle managers need them, executives need them. And anyone beneath them is now stuck with their decisions. Or are they?

Why Does Remote Work Matter?

So, you know you love working from home, but can you tell your boss why? We have some compelling reasons why working from home is a better option.

Here’s a list of key reasons why working from home is better, and I’ll go into detail on each one:

• ​Fewer distractions

• Better time management

• Higher productivity

• Less stress

• Not having to move

Fewer Distractions

Okay, this one might be a case-by-case basis. I personally end up getting far more distracted at home because of household chores, constant street noise, and my collection of game consoles. But, if you’re more “in the zone” in your home, then this reason is a big one for you!

Offices have a lot going on inside them. Your boss may say that the office is a work-focused environment and, therefore, less distracting. But offices come with their own set of distractions. Other coworkers, for instance, may strike up conversations. Or they might be eating in their cubicle, making noises that are Distracting with a capital “D.”

Other office distractions might include the environment itself. Fluorescent lights aren’t exactly pleasant to work under, and the air conditioning might be too hot or too cold. Maybe you work best in natural light, and your cubicle is in the center of the building, away from windows. Overall, the office is definitely not a distraction-free environment.

In that case, your home is a better work environment because it’s yours. You can choose where your desk is, whether anyone can bother you, and even whether the AC is under your command. In the office, you’d have to have a personal office rather than a cubicle to get that experience, and not everyone in an office usually gets that privilege.

Better Time Management

Full disclosure, I work retail for my current day job. During the pandemic, my store was classified as an “essential business” because one of our departments sold groceries. It meant two things to me. First, I got to keep my job. On the other hand, it meant working alongside many coworkers and customers during a viral pandemic. Thankfully, I remained safe. But working this job has taught me one big thing: commutes suck. This job doesn’t pay me enough for me to afford a car, so my commute involves the bus and a heck of a walk on top of that. Why am I saying this? Because if you have your job at home, you don’t have to deal with anything I’m about to tell you.

Let me give you the run-down of an average morning for me.

I typically wake up and leave home almost immediately at around 8 AM. My shift starts at 10. This gives you a basic idea of what’s coming. On most days, I have to walk downtown to catch the bus. The walk from my apartment to the bus stop is about 10 to 15 minutes. The bus going out to my work area leaves at 8:30. Then there’s the bus ride itself. Someone who has the luxury of a personal car would likely take 10 minutes or so to go where I’m going. (Again, the amount of time it takes me to get to the bus) The bus takes 30. I arrive at my store at around 9. That leaves me, usually, with just enough time for breakfast in the break room before clocking in at around 9:50.

If you got called back to the office, your commute won’t be quite this bad. But it can be. So working your likely much more well-paying jobs at home inherently means you will have better time management, because you’re not wasting an hour of potential working time just getting to your workplace. Take it from me, working is just way better if commutes weren’t necessary.

Higher Productivity

Okay, so the last one also ties into this. Having more time to work without a commute automatically translates to greater productivity. It’s just logical. But here’s a little more.

Working from home promotes an easier work-life balance. If you can work from your own living space, it’s super easy to switch between your job and your personal life. It’s as easy as simply standing up from your desk and moving to another room in your home. Okay, maybe your boss sees that as a downside. If you can just “turn off” your job at will, how will you manage to stay focused?

But that’s the entire point. I have AD/HD, but even neurotypicals find it stressful to focus on one task for the entire day. If you can take a breather, retreat to your most familiar environment, grab a sip of tea, and take a few minutes to relax, you'll return to your desk feeling completely renewed. And that means supercharged productivity. It’s a tactic professional authors use all the time to break writer’s block.

So, how else does working your job at home help your productivity? This time, I’m going to provide hard statistics. According to workforce analytics company ActivTrak, working from home can increase productivity by 35-40%. They say that remote workers make 40% fewer mistakes than in-office workers, and companies with flexible working arrangements are 21% more profitable. This flies in the face of middle-management “productivity paranoia,” or the fear that remote workers are less productive. As a good lawyer will always point out, the evidence contradicts this.

Less Stress

So again, these reasons are all interconnected. Having fewer annoyances and no commute leads to less stress and, through this, higher productivity. An argument that comes together neatly like this is great for any kind of debate. So, how does working remotely lead to less stress? Let’s review.

If you’re working your remote job anywhere, such as from home, that’s an arrangement that places you first. And everyone likes that. You can work anywhere a stable Internet connection exists, even from the beach, or a cabin in the woods! By placing yourself in an environment where you feel at peace, you inherently reduce your stress. Your home, for instance, is easy. It’s really a temple to you; it’s where you sleep at night, where most of your meals take place, it’s filled with your stuff, and possibly it’s pretty quiet. Since your home is your domain, being there will allow you to feel more at peace. And when you’re at peace, logically, you’re not going to be stressed.

But not all homes are created equal. Mine, as I’ve mentioned, has serious problems with street noise coming in from outside. Many other people also have families to support. Families introduce their own distractions and stresses, especially when they include young children. So in that case, your remote job comes to the rescue again.

Whenever I visited a cafe, I'd see people there working on their laptops. It’s a lifestyle that is very intriguing to me. When I started this article, I got the idea to try it out myself. I think cafes are truly the next best place to work a remote job, aside from your home. Cafes offer workers many perks that even your home may not. You have direct access to high-quality coffee, tea, and food. Most cafes offer reasonable accommodations for those working, including comfortable seating and free WiFi. And you get to present yourself to the world as someone getting things done. During my first stay, I felt giddy. Rather than just grabbing my coffee and leaving, I got to relax and enjoy my drink while also taking in the cozy environment this particular cafe had to offer.

Altogether, working in cafes can be a great way to reduce stress, particularly if your home has its own stressors. If your home is stressful or too monotonous, you can visit a cafe to get yourself outside, and your town or city may even have multiple to choose from! In this case, either your home or a cafe, compared to an office, offers higher flexibility. Having flexibility in where you work is the key to reducing stress.

Not Having to Move

One of the biggest stressors with RTO may be that you no longer live within the area of your company offices. In this case, returning to the office would be far more than just a time-consuming commute or a lack of distractions. It would mean upending your entire life and incurring an enormous personal expense if your company isn’t covering relocation costs.

Therefore, if you fall into this category, then you should start with this. Now, your boss’s response may be that they are, in fact, reimbursing relocation costs. But even without the expense part, you’re still giving up a lot more. Moving means leaving behind a community that you may have integrated with since adopting the remote work model. That creates significant emotional distress for most people, with a substantial impact on employee morale and, consequently, productivity. And your family also comes into play.

If you began your job remotely, relocating to HQ may mean leaving your parents and siblings behind. If you have children, including them in the move will have a significant impact on them. The kids will have to leave behind friends, acclimate to a new school, and learn to live in a completely new neighborhood. Coping with the stress of moving is so significant for kids that it has become a common narrative trope in Hollywood films and children’s television. Why should you put the most important people in your life through that? You shouldn’t. That’s why negotiating to keep your job at home is so important.

So overall, working remotely reduces stress. And workers who are less stressed are directly more productive and more profitable to their company. We’ve got these reasons down to a science. So now for the next part.

Here's How to Negotiate Keeping Your Job at Home.

Just like a job interview, discussing your continued remote work arrangement with your boss is a negotiation. In this case, the worst option is simply complying. You already have some solid reasons to give your boss for why working from home is so important. So don’t give up just because your company is serious about RTO. To do this right, you need to use your powers of persuasion. Ensure that you have practiced and memorized your reasoning. The reasons I mentioned before are sufficient proof for the average person, but your boss is the representative of a company, which is an entity with different priorities. So your persuasive techniques have to work for them, not you.

So, to bolster your argument, you should first provide your boss with something any manager would understand: hard numbers. If you have access to your current and historical productivity metrics, then use them! Show your boss that the time you spent working from home was verifiably more productive than your time in the office. This will help soothe your boss’s “productivity paranoia,” where they irrationally think working from home is inherently less productive. You can tell your boss something like, “For the past two years, I’ve delivered for this company while remote. Why change something that works?”

You can also mention what competitors are doing and what happened to them as a result. Like you, many others dislike RTO. And many employees are mobile and have been moving to companies that offer their workers well-paying jobs at home. Fast Company backs this up, saying that 8 in 10 companies have lost talent due to RTO mandates. What good is any productivity gain from returning to the office if you risk losing your most productive workers anyway?

Your Boss’s Counter-Arguments.

Now your boss will have their own thoughts. They’ll likely have been given a list of reasons by upper management or the C-suite that they must adhere to. Your company’s counter-arguments may be as follows:

• ​Social connection in the office

• Erosion of company culture from work-from-home

• Better ability to collaborate in the office

• Better management oversight

• Higher productivity

• Better physical and informational security

• If others are still returning, it’s unfair

  
  

Counter Those Counters

So how do you counter their counters? Well, here’s to your persuasive techniques! Since ancient Greece, people have been studying the concept of persuasion. So, you’ll be drawing on a long line of people who have used the same skills you’re using now.

So here are the ways to fight back against your boss’s possible counter-arguments:

Social Connection:

“I’m already getting along well with coworkers remotely. Would meeting face-to-face change anything?”

Culture is Fading:

If everyone is far apart: “We can hold remote get-togethers.”

If everyone lives in the same town: “We can hold team gatherings in a public place like a park.”

Better Collaboration:

“We can schedule (Or we already have) online video collaboration sessions every week.”

Better Management Oversight:

“I’ll send a weekly update to make sure we’re aligned. It’ll save you more time.”

Security:

“I’ll use (or already use) approved VPNs, secure WiFi, and all other IT protocols while I’m working remotely.”

Unfair if others return:

“We should evaluate whether everyone necessarily needs to return. Some jobs don’t necessarily need to take place in person.”

Nonetheless, you shouldn’t just bring along problems with RTO; you should also bring solutions. Some of the example quotes mentioned before are good ways to keep your job at home while still satisfying management. At my job, for instance, my management is off-site. Because of that, I provide my manager with sales updates throughout the day through the company chat threads. We also have weekly team meetings over video, allowing largely the same collaboration as in-person, despite being far apart. Anything is possible with technology.

If Your Boss Isn’t Convinced

If your boss isn’t budging at all, then at this point you have a choice: you can escalate the issue to higher management. If they’re more open to your ideas, then they would have greater power to implement them. However, make sure to keep this tactic respectful. Only escalate if talking with your boss isn’t working. Going over your boss’s head is a surefire way to make someone angry, and at this point, keeping your job is far better. But don’t be a wuss either. If your boss is being too obstinate, then escalation is a very valid tactic.

Then there’s your other option: compromise. It’s what democracy is built on. You know, the biggest perk to living in our proud USA. So if your boss still isn’t convinced, and higher management isn’t an option, then it’s time to start moving slightly closer to your boss’s position. In this case, instead of remaining fully remote, consider transitioning to a hybrid model. You could only come into the office for meetings or to work on collaborative tasks.

This would still mean having a commute at least once per week and relocating if you live outside the area. But if your boss isn’t budging on letting you stay at home all the time, then it’s the next best option to just coming to the office full-time.

Maybe, for instance, there’s a neighborhood you’re thinking of moving to that offers good low-cost housing. Except it’s so far out of town that a regular commute would be awful. In that case, a hybrid model would make more sense, reduce stress, and offer the benefits of in-office work without sacrificing productivity by spending half the morning and evening stuck in traffic.

At the End of Your Rope

If you’ve given your boss all your reasons, potentially escalated the issue to upper management, and still have no wiggle room at all, you have another choice. You can either comply with and follow the company's mandated working plan or allow yourself to be laid off and collect unemployment as you search for a new job. While many companies are instituting RTO mandates, others, such as my hometown newspaper, are shifting to remote or hybrid models.

However, the latter option means having to go through the trouble of a job search in a troubled employment market, so that should be your absolute last resort. But at the same time, you may end up with a better job, based out of the area you already live in, which may even have a better salary than your old one. But it’s really a game of roulette based on the employment landscape in your area, with some job markets having better-paying jobs than others. However, the good news is that a company based in a large city that pays well may offer a fully remote job, and a remote job can be worked from anywhere, including a small town with more affordable housing.​

And That Brings Us To Our Conclusion!

A remote job offers numerous benefits that many senior executives in companies often overlook. They have their own reasons for wanting people to return to the office, but for many workers, it’s a sacrifice they can’t or won’t make. 

We live in uncertain times, but workers still have some power. Negotiation remains a valuable skill to utilize, and even if all else fails, many other companies still offer remote work options. Keeping your job at home isn’t rocket science, but it isn’t a cakewalk either. In the end, it’s your decision, and everyone is different. So make the right decision for you.

Have a Super Day!