Striking, suing, and secretly WFH: how workers are protesting the return to the office

The return to office debate is becoming a battle of wills between employer and employee. In the red corner, brands such as Tesco, Dell, and Amazon are ordering remote or hybrid staff to clock in. And in the blue corner, workers are fighting back.

Their main weapon is anti-work trends. Staff are endangering their career progression in the hope that they can hold onto the positive work-life balance that home working provides. Yesterday, Office for National Statistics (ONS) employees even voted to go on strike following a year-long dispute with bosses over how often they come into the office.

Below, we’ll explore the various ways that staff are ignoring, avoiding, or even outright protesting return to office (RTO) policies.

1. By going on strike

ONS staff have this week voted to take the most extreme response to RTO mandates yet. 92% of members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have agreed to strike after they refused to increase their office attendance to two days a week in May.

The dispute is not just about office hours, however. PCS members are also reportedly refusing to work overtime and out of grade (a kind of salary band for the public sector).

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote has called on the ONS to start discussions. “We said our members can work at home just as well, if not better, than being in the office,” he said. “That can change now we have authority to call a full strike any time in the next six months.”

2. By working from home (in secret)

Because the most publicised RTO mandates are those being implemented in large corporations, most of these initiatives have been brought in from the top-down.

This has resulted in many workers at middle management level “covering” for their reports by secretly allowing team members to WFH, in spite of the official return to office request.

According to research by Owl Labs, 70% of UK managers have admitted to allowing staff to defy RTO rules, in a workplace trend that is being referred to as ‘hushed hybrid’.

Take Dell Technologies. In March, Dell threatened to punish staff if they did not work in-office full-time. Three months later, Business Insider reported that one third of the tech firm’s global workforce remained at home. In the US, 50% of staff continued to work remotely.

3. By giving up promotions

Dell took things further than most with its RTO mandate. The tech firm told remote staff they were unlikely to be considered for promotions or pay rises if they worked from home, all but insinuating they would be cold shouldered by managers.

Given that a large chunk of the workforce has not changed their working pattern as a result of the ultimatum, it seems that Dell team members were unphased.

It’s not just the case for Dell. In a survey of 1,000 UK workers, 6% said they would pick having flexible working arrangements over a bonus. 7% would choose it over paid overtime, suggesting that employees now care more about home working policies than pay.

4. By rage applying

Amazon hasn’t had a great relationship with its employees this year. In September it confirmed it would raise staff pay for warehouse staff after months of pressure and strike action from GMB, the union that represents Amazon workers.

Unfortunately, its RTO mandate appears to have soured relations further. Admin roles have been told they must work in-office for five days a week at the start of next year.

Employees have responded by ‘rage applying’, a HR buzzword that describes a staff member sending out mass job applications due to feeling dissatisfied with their current role.

However, high turnover is actually an Amazon value. CEO Jeff Bezos says it helps to keep the business’ culture from feeling stale, and some experts have suggested that the ecommerce company’s RTO mandate is actually a smokescreen to axe jobs.

In a recent survey, one quarter of executives, and a fifth of HR professionals, admitted their RTO mandates had been rolled out in the hope it would result in staff leaving.

5. By career cushioning

Perhaps in light of the rumours that RTO mandates are about slashing the workforce, not supporting them, many employees have responded to policies by setting up a Plan B job, also known as career cushioning.

Rumours are abound that thousands of workers at Amazon and Boots (which told staff to return to the workplace for five days a week from September) have switched on ‘Open to Work’ on their LinkedIn profiles following their boss’ respective RTO announcements.

Given that many organisations have told staff to ‘work in-office or quit’, such as Manchester United FC, the move is a smart way to safeguard against any type of career catastrophe.

6. By showing up and giving nothing

Some workers and business leaders argue that RTO mandates are not necessary. They say they are more about “bums on seats” and do not encourage staff to do their best work.

Employees are fighting back against this trend by engaging in ‘presenteeism’. They will turn up to the office and ‘coast’ through the day by looking busy, but do the bare minimum. It’s also known as quiet quitting or coffee badging, for staff who turn up, drink coffee, and leave.

The trend gives employers what they want (improved office attendance) but ultimately results in a detached workforce. It’s become such an issue for businesses that the prime minister himself, Sir Keir Starmer, has reportedly made fixing it a key priority.

In August, Starmer condemned presenteeism, saying firms must find a “balance of making the most of the flexible working practices [to] ensure that people can stay productive.”

7. By suing the boss

After the Flexible Working Bill came into force this July, employees have greater protections regarding their right to flexible work. And many are exercising their newfound freedom.

Under the new legislation, staff can request flexible arrangements from their very first day on the job. Businesses that deny a request have to explain why; and many remote workers who feel dissatisfied with the answer are taking their case to an employment tribunal.

Emma (not her real name) told the Guardian this month she had opened an unfair dismissal case after she was told to report to the office more for “vague reasons”. Emma is based in the Midlands. She had been working remotely to care for her husband, who has a disability.

“I said I couldn’t do it as care costs £35 an hour here, it was just unaffordable. They weren’t going to budge, so I had to resign,” she said. Now she is hoping that she can win her dismissal case and be compensated for being all-but ousted from her role.

Dangers of an RTO push

Small businesses often look to larger corporations with established HR teams for guidance on how to treat their employees. When it comes to RTO mandates, the above case studies should provide a cautionary tale that aiming for more “bums on seats” can easily backfire.

Large organisations such as Amazon and Dell can afford to make the mistake of poorly rolled out RTO mandates. Many have flip-flopped between being for and against remote work. They can change their policy next year without wrecking their recruitment drive.

SMEs must tread more carefully. Personalised employee benefits are often one of the biggest incentives to working at a small company. If firms jeopardise this USP, the impact on a small or medium-sized workforce could prove disastrous.

Just look at the CEO of Nothing, a UK smartphone startup, who told staff to return to the office or quit. The online backlash sent the company viral (for all the wrong reasons).

Let these blossoming worker revolts be a lesson. RTO rules will likely have a negative effect on employer-employee relationships. Whether staff will eventually come around is unclear. But some empty desks is a small price to pay for an engaged, happy workforce.