---
title: Top bosses want you back in the office — like, right now
description: Execs’ return-to-office push isn’t walking on eggshells anymore.
---

[Hustle News ](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news)

# [Top bosses want you back in the office — like, right now](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/top-bosses-want-you-back-in-the-office-like-right-now)

 Written by [Ben Berkley](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/ben-berkley) | May 9, 2023 9:28:27 PM

Let’s recap the last few weeks:

- IBM’s [Arvind Krishna](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-03/remote-work-can-hurt-your-career-ibm-ceo-says?sref=3Ac2yX40&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=business&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business): “Your career does suffer” when you work remotely.
- OpenAI’s [Sam Altman](https://fortune.com/2023/05/05/openai-ceo-sam-altman-remote-work-mistake-return-to-office/): Going fully remote was “one of the tech industry’s worst mistakes” and “the experiment on that is over.”
- Lyft’s [David Risher](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/business/lyft-return-to-office.html), reneging on the company’s flexible-work policy: “Things just move faster when you’re face to face.”
- Billionaire [Sam Zell](https://fortune.com/2023/04/23/remote-work-bullshit-real-estate-legend-sam-zell-office-situation-will-change/): Remote work is “a bunch of bullshit.”

#### **They aren’t alone…**

Execs who’ve publicly railed on remote work form a corporate America all-star team: Bob Iger, Marc Benioff, Jamie Dimon, Elon Musk, and Howard Schultz.

You’ll repeatedly see numbers like these used to back their cause:

- US workers’ Q1 productivity dipped, down [2.7%](https://fortune.com/2023/05/05/remote-work-productivity-5-straight-quarters-decline-gregory-daco/) YoY from 2022.
- Low employee engagement cost the global economy [$7.8T](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace-2022-report.aspx) in 2021.

#### **But is that the whole story?**

Of course not. It’s also not hard to find [data](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights/americans-are-embracing-flexible-work-and-they-want-more-of-it) and [studies](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/09/20/1123560338/bad-boss-lose-remote-work-wars) that back the case for remote work.

Plus, the economy isn’t a monolith — the merits and demerits of in-office, hybrid, and remote work arrangements vary by company and industry.

Economist Gregory Daco [told](https://fortune.com/2023/05/05/remote-work-productivity-5-straight-quarters-decline-gregory-daco/) *Fortune* it all comes back to trust: “The office isn’t essential. Work can be done remotely. The question is… is there trust that employees are actually working?”

As the remote-work battle heats up, here’s to hoping everyone can rally around this universal truth: There’s but one truly perfect form of employment — [getting paid](https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/05/02/Fast-and-Furious-Claims-Adjuster/8831683045110/) to track damages from every crash in *The Fast and Furious *franchise. (It’s remote.)

[View full post](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/top-bosses-want-you-back-in-the-office-like-right-now)

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