5 Years Later: It's Time to End the Remote Work Stalemate
Letter to the CEOs
Imagine a long-distance relationship. Can you make it work? Of course. Can you make it work for 5 years? Hardly.
Well, it's been over five years since the lockdown, and most CEOs are still figuring out their relationship with the office. Most are tired of the WFH vs WFO debate, and, unfortunately, the issue didn't get resolved by itself. It has dragged on like a war of attrition, which needs to end soon.
I'm not against remote work, but I'm going to build the case for an office-first vs. remote-first approach. As the CEO, you can get quickly criticized for pushing people to the office (e.g. you don't trust your team, you have an industrial age way of thinking, you want to babysit your team, etc). Well, you can't make everyone happy, but you'll make no one happy if your company goes bankrupt.
I don't disagree that most (if not all) work can be done from home. Virtual tools became very powerful, but just because we can get a job done remotely, doesn't mean we should. It's not just about completing this week's to-do list. I know plenty of innovative companies that are fully remote. But they're usually the exception, not the rule. Just because unlimited vacation days work for Netflix, doesn't mean the same policy will work for your business. Remote work policies follow the same logic.
So why is office still relevant in 2025?
1. Informal Microinteractions Add Up Big
When working remotely, you and your team are missing subtle and non-verbal interactions that are happening throughout the day. You miss the moment when your sales director gets really upset after losing a sale. Or when your COO is very distracted. Or you don't see that your marketing manager is down and quiet all day.
How significant are these moments? Missing a few subtle signals won't break your company, but multiply it by 100x, and you have a problem. If your team spends three days a week together in the office, they're getting about 1,250 hours of formal or informal interaction per year. If they only get together once a month for team meetings, that number drops to 100 hours. That's a massive difference in relationship building and trust, but also in sharpening your instincts for reading team dynamics and individual needs.
Also, don't underestimate the value of work friendships. How many remote workers actually stay friends with colleagues after they leave? Pretty much none. This means many of your colleagues miss out on those crucial off-the-record conversations that often help resolve important workplace issues.
This is consistent with multiple findings that link workplace friendships with increased job satisfaction, stronger organizational commitment, and lower turnover rates. Research also shows that these informal "microinteractions" improve trust, psychological safety, and cooperation, particularly in interdependent teams.
Now, some of your team members will tell you they don't need those informal interactions. They just want to get their work done. However, since you’re the CEO and you're trying to build a company that can adapt quickly and stay strong in moments of crisis, those little moments that your team experienced in the past will help your company navigate the challenges better. Those who are least attached to your business are the first ones to jump ship.
✅ Microinteractions help build your company’s stamina.
2. Unplanned Discussions Matter
There's a deeper question about how spontaneous interactions affect innovation. Creative ideas don't only happen in scheduled brainstorming sessions. They happen when someone overhears a customer call and connects it to a technical solution they've been working on. They happen after an all-hands meeting when someone semi-jokingly throws out a crazy idea that actually works.
The spontaneous, informal, and no-pressure conversations help break down hierarchies and generate the fusion of ideas needed for innovation. These interactions are really hard to replicate digitally when your day revolves around video calls, messages, emails, CRM notes, to-do lists, etc.
One study found that while remote teams can be productive, they are significantly less likely to produce breakthrough innovations compared to teams that work in person. The University of Pittsburgh found similar results, pointing out that remote teams just aren't producing as many truly disruptive ideas.
✅ Spontaneous discussions lead to out-of-the-box ideas.
3. Employee Engagement Is Fragile
Low employee engagement is one of the biggest challenges that you as the CEO face today. On the surface, your remote team seems to be engaged. But there's a pattern that typically emerges around the 12-16 month mark of working remotely where things start to shift.
First, remote workers are twice as likely to feel lonely compared to office workers. And lonely employees are more disengaged, less creative, and more likely to leave when you least expect it. 36% of lonely employees were actively looking for a new job, compared to just 20% of their non-lonely peers.
Second, informal learning and mentorship are critical for staff, particularly junior. Your recent college grad hire naturally learns by watching how senior people handle difficult conversations, picking up on company culture, and building relationships that help their careers. All of that becomes much harder when everyone's working from home.
What's interesting is that disengaged employees won't often admit that remote work made them feel detached from your company. They'll cite "limited growth opportunities" when the real problem is they never felt connected to you or their colleagues.
✅ Time in the office helps your employees build stronger bonds with each other.
Easy Fixes? Probably Not.
The negative impact of remote work may not happen for a little while. You may even see productivity boosts for six months or even a year. When COVID first hit, everyone's productivity levels suddenly went up. We were all ecstatic about that. But the numbers started surprisingly dropping over time. Why? Because the initial benefits started wearing off. It's like putting all your energy into sprinting through the first mile when you're running a marathon. You need a balanced technique to run long-distance.
If you believe your company will benefit from more in-person time, you need to create an environment people actually want to be in. This is where your remote workers are correct: if your office sucks, why bother going there?
Besides having the right office, the reality of bringing your team together is also more complicated:
- Your team is distributed and spread out all over the world.
- Your team has people who are vocally against the office.
- Your team has developed certain lifestyle habits, which they won't be willing to give up unless you pay them more.
How do you fix it? Well, the solutions are out there, but they are likely not going to be easy ones. The purpose of this post was to show why you need to have an office-first approach, not how to get there. It deserves a separate post, and the right path will vary from company to company.
It's Time To Make a Decision
You're not in this alone. Your competitors are facing these challenges too. The ones who will win are those who make intentional choices based on what their business actually needs, not what's trendy or what makes people happy in the short term.
This isn't about being the cool CEO who lets everyone work from home, or the tough CEO who brings everyone back to the office. It's about doing what your business requires to stay competitive.
What you need is a plan and the rigor to stick to it. The worst thing you can do is continue to hope that things will work themselves out.