“Lead By Example”: CEO Forced To Backtrack His Return-To-Office Policy After Malicious Compliance

Few people are on the fence about working from home, as you usually either hate or love such an arrangement. Employees in this redditor’s company seemingly belonged to the latter category, as they had some sort of a remote work policy available even before Covid hit.

However, after the pandemic ended, one person—the CEO—was extremely eager for everyone to work from the office together. That was until the CTO used malicious compliance against him.

Scroll down to find the full story below, where you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with a Professor in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, whose research focuses on remote work, telework, and telecommuting, Dr. Timothy D. Golden, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions.

Nowadays, there seems to be two distinct camps when it comes to remote work, those who love it and those who dread it. For the former, working from the comfort of their home and not having to make small talk with colleagues during lunch is the best thing that has happened to them in their careers, while for the latter, having their personal space this intertwined with their professional one feels like one of the circles of hell.

“From an overall perspective, both in-person and remote work have both advantages and drawbacks,” Dr. Timothy D. Golden told Bored Panda in a recent interview. “In-person work is not perfect and has many aspects that present challenges (for example, commute time, politics in the office, and assertive people [who] tend to dominate in the office). Similarly, remote work is not perfect either, and extra care has to be taken to keep relationships vibrant and effective. So it seems the key may be optimizing the best of both in-person work and remote work.”

Be that as it may, the expert suggested that for those who prefer to work on their own, “There are a whole host of benefits to remote work, including greater flexibility and work-life balance, enhanced job satisfaction, and decreased work interruptions that allow for greater concentration and productivity.”

While during the pandemic—when many people made the change to remote work—there wasn’t much of a choice, quite a few employees decided to stay in their homes even after it ended. To this day, statistics seemingly show a larger group favoring working from home than going back to the office full time.

According to Dr. Golden, forcing employees back into the office can generate resentment among people. “Employees feel less trusted, and more constrained in how they conduct their work,” he said, adding that despite that, there can be benefits, too, such as people feeling less isolated from their coworkers, which may help facilitate work relationships.

According to a Pew Research Center survey from 2023, as much as 35% of people who have the opportunity to work from home full time use said opportunity. This is down from 43% in 2022 and 55% in 2020 when some people arguably didn’t have as much of a choice, but up from the pre-pandemic levels, when roughly 7% of people worked from home.

“Whether employees are permitted to work remotely or not depends largely on the type of work being conducted and the perspective of managers at the company,” Dr. Golden pointed out. “It is increasingly common for companies to have three work modes present in their company – full time remote workers, hybrid workers who spend part of their time working remotely and part time in the office, and full-time in-person workers. Having these three types of work arrangements in the same office represents how the nature of work and workplaces have evolved and changed, and represents the future of many modern workplaces.”

Other data from last year reveal that the overwhelming majority of employed individuals want at least some form of remote work. A 2023 survey carried out by FlexJobs found that for 95% of respondents, an ideal work environment entails working remotely at least to some degree – 54% would like to do that full time, while 41% would prefer a hybrid arrangement. Only 5% that remain would love to spend their time back at the office.

FlexJobs’ survey also sheds light on some of the benefits that people working from home experience, many of which were reportedly linked to better mental health. For example, working from home doesn’t require commuting, which is a huge stressor for nearly nine–of-ten employed individuals.

The survey also found that more than a third of surveyees reported less burnout, healthier food choices, and reduced anxiety and depression. Roughly 30% said they felt improvements in regards to sleep and exercise, as well as an improved overall physical health.

For the OP, their living arrangement was another contributing factor to wanting to stick to working from home. In the comments under their post, the redditor shared that they left a tiny apartment in Madrid for a nice house with a garden and a pool for the same price outside the city, and they couldn’t see themselves going back. That meant that if the CEO’s wish was to come true, the OP would likely have to move back to the city or to commute – two options neither of which are arguably that appealing. Luckily, they didn’t have to as the CTO’s malicious compliance against the CEO seemed to have worked.