RTO is a f*cking joke

I don't buy that 5 day RTO will improve collaboration or any performance metrics. In fact I expect productivity to get worse. Here's why:

Increased commute

This one is probably the most obvious, but with thr average commute times being around 30 mins, that's an extra hour of your day gone. It's hard to give your best when you're 1) tired from commuting 2) feeling worn down because you have less time in the day to attend to personal life

That's not even considering the extra fuel needed to commute more, putting more financial pressure on employees in an already difficult economy

Familiarity breeds contempt

I've worked fully remote, fully in office and hybrid. In my opinion, hybrid is the sweet spot where you continue to manage social relationships with your coworkers which is very useful for productivity. However, seeing/having lunch with your coworkers after a few days a week gets old and annoying. More time spent together also means more chances to get tired of the little annoying things they might do. Like a dripping faucet. Hybrid allowed a nice reset so I felt ready for interaction again

More hassle

Prompting everyone to return means more struggle to find parking, more traffic, more accidents (I've seen an unreal amount of them the past couple weeks).

Meal prepping for the entire week lest you have to eat out and spend unnecessary money. I know this is what they want, but it's frustrating nonetheless

Less privacy/deep thought

In office is okay when trying to purely execute on a task from muscle memory but for those who require quiet for deep concentration, it's not the place, especially for an open floorplan office.

Additionally, coworkers will sometimes interrupt when you're in a flow state which really hurts overall productivity

When I worked fully remotely, I ended up getting promoted off of working 5-6 hour days because I was so much more productive working at home alone.

Additional factors

More likely to get sick. It's winter and everyone is sick. They advise to stay home when sick but I honestly think it'd a badge of honor/dedication in the US to show up even when sick...I don't get it

Worse for the environment

It's the in thing for companies to claim they're sustainable or going green these days, but unecessarily forcing people to commute in more often completely opposes that.

Meetings are a huge waste of time

There is this culture of forced delinquency in meetings where you may or may not be needed, but you may sit in a 90 min meeting and only spent 5 mins talking. That time could be used for mindless tasks like packing the dishwasher or folding clothes while still listening and contributing when necessary

All in all, 5 day RTO seems completely unnecessary for people who can do their jobs remotely and it's infuriating to be micromanaged like this as an adult. As long as my semi annual reviews are good, who cares how often I'm in the office?