Stop calling in your pajamas, back to the office. Back to office. For at least two years, in more or less nuanced forms and with different degrees from country to country, internal emails with this subject have begun to circulate in every company in the world. Bto. But in recent weeks the process has accelerated.
Stellantis: “That’s enough”
From 2027 Stellantis will impose a permanent return to office in Italy, overcoming the smart working introduced with the pandemic. Out of 30 thousand employees, around 10 thousand today work from home two days a week; in 2026 the 3-day in-person requirement will remain. CEO Antonio Filosa said it clearly in a plenary meeting with employees: “Dear colleagues, it’s time to go back to the office.” The unions and internal representatives criticize a decision communicated without discussion, with possible exceptions only on a case-by-case basis. There remain logistical issues regarding the spaces and the risk of reducing perceived attractiveness and benefits in a company already in difficulty.
We return to the office almost everywhere
Ubisoft, a multinational video game company, suddenly warned technicians, designers, programmers and graphic designers in Assago (Milan) to return to headquarters “five out of five”. The staff didn’t take it very well and decided to go on strike for three days. These are just two of the last two most relevant Italian cases. In a patchy pattern, the trend is quite clear. In several small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in a fragmented and non-linear way, there is a tendency to erode and change the contractual concessions on “subsidized work” from home.
What the multinationals have decided
Amazon, in the USA, has gone from a “hybrid” model (office and remote alternating) to full time for 350 thousand employees. Meta (Instagram) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, after initially promoting work “everywhere” in Meta (Facebook, Instagram), imposed the return for 5 days a week, citing “greater efficiency of junior engineers in presence”. Dell (IT), AT&T (telecommunications), the banking giants Goldman Sachs & JPMorgan (“Financial learning on the trading floor is better than at home”), PWC (consulting) with “attendance monitoring”, and Tesla (cars) have made similar decisions. Even Alphabet (Google), albeit with a softer line, has imposed 3 mandatory days in the office, linking physical presence to performance evaluations.
No, we didn’t understand anything
Thus, a very clear prediction made by many experts during Covid, 6 years ago (“We will never go back to working as before”), is proving to be at least inaccurate. The debate on greater productivity in smart working or on-site, in fact, is complex because the results vary enormously depending on the sector and the methodology used. There are studies that support both theses, but a trend is emerging that highlights the limits of remote working, especially in creative and collaborative processes. We are not just talking about the control obsession of executives and CEOs.
The problems (perhaps) of smart working
According to some scholars, spontaneous collaboration and the resolution of complex problems would drastically decrease remotely. “Random collisions” (informal meetings) generate innovation that does not occur on Zoom. In a video call, essentially, it is much rarer for “Thinking outside the box” to suggest innovative ideas. There is, then, a discrepancy in perception: while workers feel more productive at home, many managers suffer from “productivity paranoia”: in a survey commissioned by Microsoft, 87% of employees say they are productive at home, but only 12% of managers are convinced of this. This lack of trust is one of the key motivations for returning. Furthermore, according to critics, remote working weakens the emotional bond with the company. Less sense of belonging, less involvement. If the employee does not experience the office, he perceives work as a series of tasks and not as a common project. And companies have invested in physical locations whose costs (rent, heating, cleaning) are fixed. If the office is empty, it is a zero return investment.
Going back is not easy
In general, while in 2021 smart was seen as a way to save on fixed costs, in 2026 companies believe that economic savings are often canceled out by the loss of identity and the slowdown of innovative processes. But it’s not that simple to reset everything. The union protests demonstrate how the balance between private life and the “interference” of work is now a non-negotiable aspect – for the new generations – of a workplace. Added to this is the sensitivity to the environmental critical issues of commuting: traffic jams and pollution, fuel consumption, energy waste.
Some companies, for example, take action with a subtle “moral suasion” made up of benefits and extremely welcoming environments. In the wake of the iconic Googleplex, Bending Spoons (technology) in the Milan headquarters offers relaxation areas, paid holidays, free lunches and dinners. The office becomes a pleasant magnet. For now, however, that doesn’t seem to be enough.