From Fortune:

Despite return-to-office mandates, office occupancy rates have held steady at 50% since vaccines were available. CEOs push for a full office return by 2026, but new research by University of Pittsburgh’s Mark Ma and Yuye Ding shows no link between in-office work and financial results. Experts advocate for flexible work arrangements instead of mandates. Employees see the mandates as a means for managers to regain control and shift blame. Researchers find that the primary reason for return-to-office mandates isn’t for financial performance, but rather to reassert control over employees. Ma supports a “magnet, not a mandate” approach, which encourages workers to return to the office without forcing them. He also calls into question data showing slightly elevated productivity among in-person workers, indicating that employees may react negatively to being forced back to the office after enjoying the benefits of working from home.



Read more: Bosses using RTO mandates to ‘blame employees as a scapegoat,’ new research finds