It has been three years. We enjoy working from home as corporate employees. There are countless benefits that employees have been enjoying with) this work format when it comes to no commute time, random pick-ups and drop offs and countless other tiny work life balance options.
A lot has been discussed about what will happen to the WFH culture that has flourished like a wild plant in the last three years. Pundits predicted that the full-time office work is dead, and the remote work is here to stay.
It looks like the remote work has now been the second best behind the Hybrid Work model where workers are required to come to the office two or three days a week. Our office and many others I know require us to go to the office 2-3 days a week.
Incoming tussle
There are large organizations out there calling on employees to come back to the office for more than three days a week. JP Morgan chase made a wave when it asked the top people manager in the bank to come to office in-person. No remote work for the top brass of the bank. Is that a signal for other organizations to follow?
Royal Bank of Canada called their employee to be back to office for 3 -4 days from May 1 onwards. RBC is the biggest bank in Canada with almost 100K employees. The decision sent a huge signal to the market that is crying out loud for not having enough economic activity in the Toronto downtown core and other major cities. One way to spur economic activity is to ask workers to come back to the office and make more footfall.
I made a post on 
There are three issues that are adding pressure to the commercial real estate spaces.
Rising interest rates-- this is adding debt and payback loans
Depreciating value---the value of the property is depreciating and there are fewer options to offload
Lowering rental --this is the third issue that we have been focusing where office spaces are not being rented and not providing the much-needed cash flow to the owners
All three pressures are now forcing banks to make sure their clients are not defaulting on their mortgage loans. Look at this number reported by a news report
Banks represent 54% of the overall $5.7 trillion CRE market, with the small lenders holding 70% of CRE loans, according to Citigroup analysts. More than $1.4 trillion in U.S. CRE loans will mature by 2027, with some $270 billion coming due this year
The one way to solve this issue is to change the way we work to ensure the rental income from office space is circulating in the economy. The shift to in-person work is not all about team culture and collaboration, money is on the link for big banks. As we all know, the big banks do not hesitate to influence policies when it is in their interest. employees will push back-- flexible work hour- now, they know it can be done
Higher vacancy rates
This is the reason the media is picking up vacancy rates, loan default risk and bank insolvency as problems lately. The solution they can think of is to force the work power to go back to office make sure the established system works without collapsing.
What about the investment made into Remote Work infrastructure?
Many benefits were identified such as higher employee retention, an option to recruit from a wider pool of talents and no office space to pay rent for. Employees value flexibility over salary growth and that could save a lot for employers.
Companies would not want to go in vain for those big investments they made betting in hybrid work model. There are three interests in play with this issue here - the creditors, employers and employee. Looks like most of the sides are for hybrid work model except for one.
Final Thoughts
Not sure what the future holds but we may have to give up the flexibility we have been enjoying for the last three years in one form or the another. Companies are beginning to ask workers to come to the office at least 3-4 days a week in person to promote collaboration and team culture. Employees will fight back for more flexibility citing the good work that they have done in the last three years. Work is not in question here, but the money is. Workers will have less bargaining power when the economy cools down fueled by higher interest rates.
There are multiple factors that are play here. Let's see how this issue unfolds going forward.