Every time a big‑tech chief executive announces that it is time to badge in Monday to Friday, it feels as if we are being dragged back to 2019. Yet the latest report from the University of Konstanz, based on 18 survey waves, brings the debate back to earth after five years tracking thousands of workers.
First point: the “mass return” to the office is, statistically, a myth. Only 8% of companies still require people to be on site five days a week. In fact, the push to get people back to their desks has eased over the past year: just 19% now say they are being pressured to come in more often, down from 22% in 2024. The reality is that 75% have already settled on a hybrid pattern as their natural way of working. It is not that people never want to see their colleagues; it is that they are no longer willing to surrender control over their time.
Burning people out
One finding in the study is particularly cynical. In organisations where there is serious anxiety about redundancies or cutbacks, the demand to return to the office jumps to 33%. It does raise a question: is this really about productivity, or is it a way of nudging those who depend on flexibility to leave of their own accord?
If we look at performance, the 2025 figures are fairly blunt: staff with flexible arrangements report, on average, about 5% higher perceived productivity than those working under enforced office attendance. What ramps‑up in office mandates do coincide with is a sharp rise in emotional exhaustion. In other words, we are burning people out without any clear upside.
A new mindset
Another wall that is starting to crumble is middle‑management resistance. Team leaders have learned how to run distributed work, and their fear that internal communication will suffer has fallen from 43% to 24% in a single year. The real resistance is dug in at the top: 32% of chief executives still long for packed corridors, while only 16% of frontline managers feel that level of office presence is actually necessary.
Step back, and this is not just a German quirk or a matter of personal comfort. Other studies — such as this working paper from the ifo Institute — frame telework as an environmental lever: fewer commutes mean fewer emissions, although the overall balance depends on how distances, transport modes and rebound effects change.
The end of a myth
For the kind of talent that really moves the needle, this is no longer up for debate. Some 71% of candidates say that, when they look for a new job, the possibility of working from home will weigh heavily in their decision. Telework has stopped being a perk and become a basic condition of workplace hygiene. In the end, companies that carry on managing by “hours in the chair” rather than outcomes and trust will find themselves alone in very large offices — and very empty ones.
This article is republished from Futuribles. Here's the original article in Spanish and English.