{"id":5015,"date":"2025-05-13T17:45:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T17:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=5015"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:46:09","slug":"an-overlooked-challenge-of-rto-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/an-overlooked-challenge-of-rto-mandates\/","title":{"rendered":"An Overlooked Challenge of RTO Mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

It may be counterintuitive, but if leaders and managers are willing to be more flexible in how employees manage their own time, then they may get more productivity out of them. That goes against the grain as the U.S. federal government, tech giants including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, and financial-services titans including J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock have all issued return-to-office (RTO) mandates.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Abbie Shipp<\/a> of Texas Christian University, who coauthored an Academy of Management Annals article <\/a><\/em> on the how we experience time with Karen Jansen<\/a> of North Carolina State University, said that the subjective nature of how we perceive time and the variance of which hours people are most productive at work are factors that contribute to the \u201csquare-peg-in-a-round hole\u201d awkwardness of requiring employees to be in the office five days every week from nine to five.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThat’s why things like the return-to-office mandates can be challenging. Even things as simple as saying, \u2018We\u2019ll do a hybrid schedule, but you\u2019ll need to be in the office during these hours on these days of the week; here\u2019s when we\u2019ll be back,\u2019\u201d Shipp said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThat assumes that schedule works for everyone, and it\u2019s hard to meet individual needs while you impose collective schedules,\u201d she said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that we shouldn\u2019t think about it; it means, in fact, we should think about it more\u2013but it takes a lot of talent to do this.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

People appreciate flexibility<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\u201cFirst of all, we have to be aware that people need individual flexibility, so from a leadership perspective, we have to start asking employees, \u2018What do you value? When do you like to work? What\u2019s meaningful to you? What\u2019s your background about time management?\u2019\u201d Shipp said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of leaders do that, because if they don\u2019t know their own personal views and uses of time, they\u2019re certainly not assuming that employees are different from them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMy research would indicate that individuals could be very different about people\u2019s scheduling preferences and time-management habits, yet leaders make those assumptions and never have them become explicit.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Shipp\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n