Amazon, Ubisoft… The list of companies rolling back remote work policies only to face employee resistance continues to grow. Is this battle destined to drag on?
Stop or Go? For several months now, debates about rebalancing remote work have been gaining traction. After its rapid and unprecedented rise during the pandemic, working from home has, in many cases, become the new normal for organizations.
“Remote work forced its way into our lives,” says Jean-Claude Delgènes, founder of the consulting firm Technologia.
Perhaps too much? That’s increasingly the sentiment among business leaders, some of whom are taking drastic steps: ending remote work entirely. A recent example? Amazon’s announcement that, starting January 2025, its 300,000 administrative employees will be required to return to the office five days a week. A surprising move from an e-commerce giant.
“Looking at the last five years, we still believe that the benefits of being together in the office are significant,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explained in an internal memo.
This decision, however, was met with near-universal employee disapproval. According to Fortune, an internal survey showed a satisfaction rating of just 1.4 out of 5 (“1” meaning “strongly disagree”).
A New Social Right?
In France, video game publisher Ubisoft, well-known in Canada, faced a three-day strike involving over 700 of its 4,000 French employees. The protest arose despite the company promising not to mandate full-time office work but rather requiring employees to come in three days per week.
“Remote work is no longer optional; it’s truly considered a social right,” says Laetitia Niaudeau, Deputy Director General of France’s Executive Employment Association, commenting on the situation.
She attributes these high-profile conflicts to the expiration of remote or hybrid work agreements, typically signed for three years following the pandemic. According to her, such disputes are likely to become more common in the coming months.
Comfort, Mental Health, and Productivity
This issue touches on several underlying questions. For one, the economic slowdown has weakened the job market, leaving employees with less bargaining power in negotiations with employers.
At a recent Stanford conference, researchers noted that return-to-office policies often come from companies facing poor financial performance—a case in point being Ubisoft. In these instances, the move may be a way to push employees out indirectly, akin to layoffs by attrition.
Additionally, the trend prompts deeper questions about how work is structured. According to Nick Bloom, a Stanford economics professor cited in The Conversation, productivity—though difficult to measure—is similar between 100% in-office work and hybrid models, with hybrid setups being 1-3% more efficient. Fully remote work, however, may result in a 10% productivity loss. Nevertheless, working from home offers significant comfort and time savings, especially for employees with long commutes.
On the other hand, some companies argue that creativity and alignment with organizational culture suffer in remote setups, particularly due to fewer informal conversations. Remote work also raises mental health concerns, such as isolation, overworking, and gender inequality—issues explored in Jean-Claude Delgènes’ book.
In a recent Isarta interview, Louis Duchesne, President of Cossette’s Quebec and Eastern Canada division, explained his company’s three-day in-office policy by distinguishing between individual and collective productivity. According to Duchesne, no one has left the company over the policy, and engagement scores have even increased, demonstrating that some returns to the office can proceed smoothly.
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