“RTO mandates hurt employee satisfaction but do not improve firm performance.”
Mark Ma and Yuye Ding checked S&P 500 firms that ordered everyone back and found no gain in profitability, revenue growth, or firm value. Satisfaction dropped. That is the entire result. Four years of executives insisting collaboration and culture required badge swipes, and the financials never moved. The mandates were about control and about justifying the lease, and now there is a paper trail saying so.