Just because the boss makes the rules, doesn’t mean the employees will follow them.
But the ongoing mandate-compliance gap isn’t just a result of workers pushing the boundaries of RTO mandates, but also managers too burnt out to enforce them.
“If I’m the manager and I’ve got a solid performer and they’re coming in two or three days a week, but not five, I’m not going to fire them,” Elliott told Fortune. “Lack of compliance with the policy is not nearly as important as somebody delivering the goods and getting their work done.”
“Especially given all the pressure that managers are under, policy compliance falls pretty low on the list of things for me to be concerned about,” he added.
“Like a market crash, we’ll see a significant downturn in manager well-being, performance, and the ability to continue taking the lead as the change champions,” Alanna Fincke, head of meQuilibrium’s content and learning, wrote in the 2024 report.
“It’s no wonder that managers themselves are often not only burnt out, but the ones that are the most frustrated by this entire conversation,” Elliott said.
