Tesco, Boots and Barclays have joined the growing number of companies trying to force employees back to the office after several years of remote working that began with the pandemic. They're likely to be in for a battle.

While some bosses have argued remote work is responsible for reduced innovation, productivity issues and lack of creativity, many employees believe it is good for their well-being and work-life balance.

Some organizations have already found that simply mandating workers show up full time or for a set number of days a week isn't enough, and have introduced policies to discourage and even punish remote working, such as excluding people from promotion.

The problem is that there's limited evidence demonstrating that mandated in-office working is significantly better for an organization than remote working, and plenty showing that forcing employees into the office can have a detrimental effect. But many bosses retain a presumption that working from home is worse.

Research has found mandates don't improve company or employee performance. And other work has shown that back to the office mandates can make it much harder to retain staff, with women and millennials identified as being more likely to quit. This doesn't just apply to rank and file workers, either. Other evidence suggests it can lead to a loss of senior talent as well.

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