The Nefarious Impact of of the RTO Mandate

One beneficiary of the RTO mandate was VDOT. This photo was taken on the first Monday of RTO.

I could have simply used AI (readily available to any leader with an iPhone) to write this article. Google says:

“Return-to-Office (RTO) mandates significantly impact businesses and employees by often increasing turnover and making it harder to attract talent, as employees, particularly high-performers, women, and senior workers, prioritize flexibility and feel disconnected from their companies. While RTO policies aim to improve collaboration and culture, they can lead to decreased employee engagement, higher costs from replacing employees, and damage to the employer brand.”

Seems like a no-brainer to NOT do this. And yet…But let’s be clear: the DOGE Return to Office mandate was not about efficiency or effectiveness. It was one leg of a campaign plan to reduce the size of the government workforce by attrition, specifically an unprecedented targeting by an employer of its own workforce, with an outsized impact on:

• Women and Minorities

• Scientists and Researchers

• Senior workers

• Single parents and new parents

• High Performers with unique skill sets

Let’s remember that during COVID, many - if not most - office workers went remote, and showed amazing resilience and adaptability to get the work done. I remember checking in to my command and being asked (by my new boss) if I planned to be “a worker or a teleshirker” - and I explained that I had been told that I could telework since my spouse was high risk due to a physical disability. He acquiesced and was eventually happy with my performance (straight 5’s on my annual evaluation, 5 years running) but I never forgot that statement. After COVID, I was still allowed some telework as a way to maintain her quality of life. After 4 years of this flexible schedule we were all ordered back to the office - and her mornings changed dramatically without my ability to provide some help before heading in to work. This dramatically impacted her quality of life - and thus mine.

In this short post, I will use a few hypothetical examples (generalizations drawn from my personal experience) to illustrate the points here:

• Sally has 2 kids and her husband works. They were able to trade remote days and office days and have one of them stay with the kids and work from home. Now they pay for daycare and both leave home early in the morning so the kids have to wake up an hour earlier.

• Jim was a scientist and researcher supporting an office in a very expensive Fleet Concentration Area, where his salary would not support a decent quality of life. The RTO mandate made him choose between a short-notice move (at his own extent) for his family to a place they can’t afford. He resigned.

• Susan was a single mom whose flexible schedule allowed her to drop the kids at school and pick them up, while still accomplishing all of her work. After RTO, she had to pay for daycare, which consumed 20% of her income.

There’s a financial aspect as well: my commute to work was fairly typical for Hampton Roads - about 18 miles (fortunately no tunnels) so about $30-40/week in gas, and another $10-20 in tolls if I wanted to cut my commute from 60-90 minutes to about 35. That’s about $200-300/mo in additional costs due to RTO. Not a deal breaker for me, but painful for some. Then there is the cost of time and stress of a long commute versus none at all.

Finally, let’s talk about the “office”. The photograph below is the door to the only 2-seater bathroom in my office building, serving about 100 people. Its condition is representative of the entire Government building, which I unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) couldn’t photograph. You’re not missing much (think: puke green cinderblock, no windows).

A metaphor for many Government offices.

The crude diagram below shows the size and layout of my home office and work office - basically the same square footage, but one person vs. five or six. Plus at home my lovely wife can bring me an occasional coffee.

A comparison of “People per Square Foot”

So now the “new normal” is here, thousands have departed government service, and life continues. I for one have seen no metrics to indicate increased efficiency or productivity that have resulted from the RTO mandate - and it was one of the contributing factors to my decision to retire so I’m not affected anymore. But in speaking to my friends still in government, they generally share:

• Reduced Quality of Life

• Reduced productivity

• Increased stress

• Negative impact on family

Are there benefits for the organization? Perhaps. Many events are more effective in person. Personal interaction builds trust and improves communication. But perhaps a balanced approach would be better.

There are suggested ways to address these impacts; again, Google says:

“To mitigate these negative impacts, companies are advised to consider hybrid models, focus on employee well-being, and gather feedback to foster a more intentional and supportive return-to-office experience.”

Unfortunately the Government side is not pursuing any of these with any vigor: witness the recent cancelation of the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint survey. (Maybe the organization doesn’t want negative feedback on these decisions and policies - or do they even care?). Flex Time and hybrid work schedules are not delegated to front line supervisors, but held at the front office for approval. I was fortunate - my new supervisor approved an occasional sick day for mental health self-care to relieve stress (probably bending the rules but - he cared).

I get it. To a large extent, nobody cares. Many jobs did not translate well into remote work. But for those who could - and did - the removal of these flexible options served the intended purpose: to either drive them away or just to be cruel for its own sake.

Epilogue: My last day in the office, I tried to improve life for everyone else: I painted the damn door!

My small gift - even as a retired Navy Captain, I can still wield a paintbrush!