Get High at Work!

“Full RTO!”

Written by

Kevin Sandlin

in

So, now that we’re 2 weeks in to 2025, who has returned to the office full time? Amazon? Anyone? Beuller?

We (TRANSCEND LV) visited a very cool space today, in which the IT staff is preparing for “full RTO”. They’re updating conference rooms from old tech to new, updating WiFi access points, and otherwise preparing for hundreds of employees to return to working from the office.

They’ve done happy hours, regular office get-togethers, RTO bonuses, and totally upgrading the “office experience”.

But nobody is RTO-ing. Ruh roh, Raggy.

Why do you think that is? Why, other than “I don’t want to”, are employees resistant to RTO?

I’ve read a lot about WFH vs. RTO, and one thing that hasn’t been talked about much, if at all, is this:

They moved.

Yeah, they moved. The employees saw WFH as an upgrade for their own lifestyle and as a cost cutting and employee attraction/retention tool for employers.

They bet that WFH was not going away. Ever.

And they moved.

To the beach. To the mountains. To the country. To a farm. To someplace they always wanted to live. To a much lower cost of living destination.

You name it. They moved.

They’re not going to RTO not so much because they don’t want to (they don’t), but more so because it’s now a 17-hour commute.

With that in mind, we’re kind of getting close to a crossroads, where the rubber will meet the road for mandatory RTO employers and employees who have enough value to tell those RTO employers to kick rocks.

Who wins? Well, I say everyone does. The free market in this scenario means WFH people can look literally all over the world for employment, with several years of WFH production to bank on.

And RTO employers can refresh their view of the local workforce, while making “special exemptions” for those REALLY key employees that will WFH forevermore.

Do you know anyone who moved when WFH became really cool?

Unrelated: I think this wall mural is cool. It’s in an office. Not at your home.

Comments

Leave a comment

More from Kevin

  • Try a sample, then eat the whole cake

    Have you ever seen a big tasty-looking carrot cake in the window of a bakery, then run in and bought that $21.99 carrot cake, and then you get home, nuke a piece, dive in, and…ugh. That’s how my grandmother made carrot cake!! Where are the raisins? It’s so dry! But you bought the whole cake, and…

  • 4 Steps to Determine How Well You Know Your Brand

    This post originally appeared on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. How well do you know your brand? DO you know your brand? Actually, “brand” is an uncomfortable topic for many startup founders and small business owners, simply because they weren’t thinking about their brand when they started. It’s not a knock on them. Every entrepreneur…

  • It’s easier – and better – for someone else to tell your story

    Since transitioning from a simple content aggregation publication into a content marketing service, I’ve had dozens of meetings with entrepreneurs and marketers about “telling their story.” A consistent pattern has emerged out of those meetings that has become predictable in all my initial consultations with potential clients: It’s easier for me to tell your story…

  • How and Why to Segment Your Website Audience

    This post originally appeared on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. When you go shopping for new clothes, online or in a brick and mortar store, which section do you hit first, the men’s or the women’s clothing? Good. OK, when you need a new power cord for your computer or smartphone, do you go…

  • 4 Steps to Predictable Marketing Outcomes

    One of the greatest achievements in starting a business is when you reach the point at which you can conduct a marketing campaign and predict with great confidence the outcome of the campaign, regardless of the end goal. When you can accurately predict the outcome of each individual marketing effort, you can then grow your…

  • Digital marketing summed up in six simple points

    Last Thursday, I led a 2-hour version of the six hour version of the 10-week Digital Marketing class at General Assembly. I really enjoy teaching these short, impactful sessions that serve as great introductions or primers for folks who want to learn to talk the talk in Digital Marketing or determine if they’d like to…

  • Digital Marketing 101: Glossary of Digital Marketing Terms

    This post originally published on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. 1. Analytics – information resulting from the systematic analysis of data or statistics. In digital marketing, analytics is the information resulting from systematic analysis of data gathered from marketing activity such as email marketing, landing page A/B testing, or Google Adwords purchases. 2. Average…

  • Digital Marketing 101: Creating Your Digital Marketing Calendar

    This post originally published on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. This post is part of our Digital Marketing 101 series. Sign up to get the full series! Everything we’ve discussed so far in this Digital Marketing 101 series has focused on what to do and a bit about how to do it. But in…

  • Digital Marketing 101: Understanding the Digital Marketing Funnel

    This post originally published on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. When we started our latest session of Digital Marketing at General Assembly’s Atlanta campus, I told the class, “the term ‘digital marketing’ is a misnomer. It’s marketing, but we focus on getting our message to our audience digitally. But it’s still marketing.” What I…