RTO Telenovela: Season One – The Battle for the Office

Following the RTO series feels like binge-watching a telenovela: there’s the villain – the company enforcing return-to-the-office, the underdog – the employee fighting for hybrid work, the challenger – the competitor boasting about their remote work, and the unexpected heroine who is… drumroll, please! – the office itself.

What’s missing from this telenovela are real examples of top execs showing how they juggle intense work, school pick-ups, and the horrific commute in their own lives.

Oh, wait! We do have an example: the Starbucks CEO, who commutes from California to San Francisco on a company jet. That must be tough.

If you are only mandating and not actually leading, what do you expect?

We’d all love to see the heroine have a happy ending in Season 1, but the marriage between employees and the office feels a bit uncertain. Maybe some of them are in an open relationship with flexible workspaces—or just ghosting each other?altogether. Who knows?

Anca Serban , Head of Marketing @Pluria

Thought Leadership

Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2025 (Gartner)

Global Digital Home Study Report 2024 (EY)

Germany 4 Day Week Trial Results (4 Day Week Global)

Work From Home and Equity Prices (University of Melbourne)

Future of Work News

RTO (Return to Office)

Starbucks tells corporate workers to return to office or risk being fired (The Guardian)

Amazon workers 'appalled' by AWS CEO’s return to office remarks (Reuters)

Hybrid and Remote Work

One Company A/B Tested Hybrid Work . Here’s What They Found (HBR)

Nearly 8 in 10 employers do not support fully remote work arrangements (MSN)

4 Steps To Make Your Hybrid Team More Effective (Forbes)

The CPO of Pinterest says they’re all-in on flexible work (Yahoo)

Future of Work Trends

Silent firing is the new quiet quitting (Fast Company)

Dignity At Work: How To Make The Future Of Work Work For Everyone (Forbes)

The Future Of Less Work : Why People Get It, And Organizations Don’t (Forbes)

The Right to Disconnect : What it Means for the Future of Work? (UC Today)

Algorithmic Management and the Future of Work in Europe (Social Europe)

Team Management and Crisis Response

Managing a Distributed Team Through Natural Disasters (HBR)

LinkedIn Buzz

How many workers are juggling a full-time job and a side hustle ?

(Photo by LYCS Architecture)