Some company headquarters offer restaurant-style cafeterias with buffet breakfasts, daily specials, free cafes and fully stocked fruit and salad bars. Many other workplaces remain no-frills, with sputtering coffee machines and empty refrigerators, despite memos mandating in-office days. Mandatory three-day office policies increase commuting costs and can force interaction with colleagues outside immediate teams, promoting a corporate identity crisis. A 2025 Gallop poll shows 93% of remote-capable employees want hybrid or fully remote arrangements, and 64% of exclusively remote workers would likely job-search if flexibility were removed. A majority of workers favor hybrid models over full-time office attendance.
A friend of mine recently returned from a work trip to his company's head office, and his description of the experience made my jaw drop. Honestly, he said, it felt less like an office and more like a five star restaruant. He described a buffet style breakfast with daily specials, a free cafe, and a fully stocked fruit and salad bar. The picture he showed me from lunch was a plate loaded with roasted chicken, seafood, and linguine. All of it was free.
Meanwhile, many other companies with return to office mandates came with no frills. For them, the office kitchen has the same sputtering coffee machine and sad empty refrigerator it did in 2019. Memos announcing mandatory three-in-office days speak of synergy and in person collaboration, but the reality for many is a costly commute, working with co-workers that aren't even part of your team. This is where you start to see the major corporate identity crisis among workplaces.
According to a 2025 Gallop poll, The preference for flexibility is nearly universal: 93% of remote capable employees want either a hybrid (60%) or fully remote (30%) work arrangement. The same Gallup research revealed that 64% of exclusively remote employees would be extremely likely to search for a new job if that flexibility were taken away. Other studies, like one from SHRM, show a consistent majority of workers favoring a hybrid model over being fully in office.
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