86% of CEOs polled in a recent survey say they “will reward employees who make an effort to come into the office,” giving them better assignments, raises, or promotions than they offer their remote employees.
The news isn’t surprising: As a group, CEOs have strongly pushed for a return to the office in recent years. Amazon, one of the biggest proponents of the idea, has recently decreed that employees must all work five days a week starting in January of the next year.
What’s driving CEOs’ love for in-office work? One popular theory is that many tech companies have over-hired, and are now trying to force remote employees to leave on their own in order to avoid layoffs.
Most CEOs Foresee Much More In-Office Work
The new survey, out from consultancy group KPMG, polled 400 US CEOs across topics like AI, cybersecurity, and in-office work.
According to those executives, a return to the office will continue picking up speed across the next three years: They predict that the working environment for corporate employees will be 79% in-office work, a statistic that has risen from 34% earlier this year.
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Employees, in contrast, would prefer to remain remote. One survey from earlier this year found that nearly half of workers would consider quitting rather than return to the office.
In fact, an argument could be made that the current CEO-led push for in-office work isn’t even a “return” to the office in some cases. Amazon’s new five-day in-office mandate is more stringent than the company’s policy prior to the COVID pandemic that spurred a shift towards remote work in 2020, according to one employee.
Are CEOs Trying to Push Remote Workers Away?
Here at Tech.co, we’ve long tracked the number of high-profile tech companies that have shifted away from remote work across 2023 and 2024. We’ve also covered the companies that have issued huge layoffs during the same time period.
Those two big trends might be more connected than they look: Tech companies may be trying to shrink their workforce without the cost and hassle of official layoffs and may be using “rewards” for in-office work in order to push remote workers to resign.
This theory has some evidence, too, and it comes in the form of executives agreeing that it’s correct. A survey of VP and C-suite executives, released last June, found that one in four of them “admit they hoped for some voluntary turnover during an RTO.”
CEOs Also Think AI Won’t Lead to Fewer Jobs
Another interesting tidbit buried in the new CEO survey? They don’t think that AI will “fundamentally impact” the number of jobs offered in the workplace.
More specifically, the report finds that “72% of CEOs say GenAI will not fundamentally impact the number of jobs but will require upskilling and existing resources to be redeployed.” In a bit of a contrast to that view, 27% of CEOs say that AI will create more jobs than it eliminates.
The hype surrounding AI across the last few years has led many to fear that they’ll be competing against AI for their jobs in the future. Many CEOs don’t share those views, however — even if those CEO do want to put a finger on the scales when it comes to whether those jobs are accomplished at home or in the office.
