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The Unintended Consequences Of “Return To Office” Mandates

Dr Stuart Woolley
CodeX
Published in
5 min readMay 24, 2024

Lessons in how efficiency is actually reduced by forced return thanks to the usual failing management practices.

“Image generated using OpenAI’s DALL·E.”

We hear from time to time, especially from work sponsored publications such as The Economist, the gift that keeps of giving from the BBC’s Worklife column, and endlessly from the corporate shills on the back slapping yet vacuous love in that is LinkedIn that a “return to office” mandate is slowly gaining ground across the Grand Game of Software Engineering.¹

I’d naturally argue with the scale of this, primarily from my own experience and that of a rather large amount of anecdotal experience from erstwhile colleagues, but you know how it is — management and its press stooges and propaganda outlets do have a way of amplifying their message so much more loudly that it is in actuality.

Be that as it may there are companies pursuing a “return to office” mandate.

Whilst I’m not quiet cynical enough, yet, to say that some companies can’t survive without everyone in the office, what I would say is that most definitely can — especially ones that are heavily technical and have sufficient competent people to make it work effectively.

Various reasons are given for this rigid, and unwanted, mandate:

  1. The company is…

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Dr Stuart Woolley
Dr Stuart Woolley

Written by Dr Stuart Woolley

Worries about the future. Way too involved with software. Likes coffee, maths, and . Would prefer to be in academia. SpaceX, X, and Overwatch fan.

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