Return to Office: The Misguided Push from CEOs Like Bolt’s Markus Villig
In recent years, the return-to-office (RTO) debate has taken on a life of its own, with CEOs like Markus Villig of Bolt now leading the charge. Villig’s recent memo, criticizing employees for working remotely from “places like Bali,” strikes a familiar tone.
He describes remote work as a “disgrace to our culture” and suggests it has fostered complacency, with disconnected teams and half-empty offices.
“We are too scattered, people feel disconnected, attrition is too high, and our offices lie empty,” Villig wrote. “I find it a disgrace to our culture that less than 50% of employees come to the office +2 days per week.”
He pointed to tech industry giants like Amazon, Tesla, and Apple, which have implemented varying forms of return-to-office mandates.
But behind this rhetoric, there’s a glaring misinterpretation of what work from anywhere truly represents and why it might be the exact thing that companies like Bolt need to retain their top talent.
Work From Anywhere: Let’s Focus On The Facts
First, let’s set the record straight.
Some CEOs seem to think work from anywhere means a bunch of their employees are sipping cocktails by some beach in Thailand, casually checking in on their work emails every now and again.
The truth is that this is completely misguided.
Are there people working remotely internationally from Bali in Bolt?
Yes, of course there are.
But it’s not about where they’re working from.
It’s why.
At Work From Anywhere, we have Fortune 500 companies and some of the biggest startups in the world using our award-winning Work From Anywhere platform, and the main reason companies are using work from anywhere policies is primarily for employees visiting family members abroad, not to have a cocktail by the beach in Bali.
This is why it’s time to challenge these outdated, misguided narratives that some CEOs seem to cling to.
Sure, some people do work remotely from vacation spots like Bali, but a workation is so much more than this for many people.
Collectivist Cultures & Framing Of Employee Benefits
Imagine allowing your software engineer from a collectivist national culture like Indonesia to spend more time working remotely by the side of their sick grandparent for a few weeks?
That’s a very different employee benefit when you frame it that way.
That’s not “insanity”—that’s compassion, and it’s a benefit that drives deep employee engagement and loyalty.
Especially when we’re talking about a limited timeframe of international remote work flexibility, like 30 days work from anywhere from a limited selection of countries. If put together in a measured, well structured way, you can keep control of compliance risks, maintain a healthy connection through a hybrid remote work policy but still offer some degree of international remote work flexibility to your employees.
Especially in countries like the US that have a very limited number of holidays, going the extra mile to offer 30-50 days work from anywhere can be a game changer for certain employee segments.
Will Bolt’s RTO Policy Succeed?
Far be it from me to look too far into the crystal ball for what this will bring for Bolt. Nobody can predict the future with 100% accuracy.
However similar efforts by Amazon have not exactly been welcomed with open arms.
According to CNBC, 73% of Amazon workers are considering quitting after a 5-day in-office mandate.
Not that this deterred the Amazon C-Suite. Quite the opposite, where he pointed out somehow that “nine out of 10 workers he has spoken with support the new policy.” He aggressively pushed back and said that those who do not wish to work for Amazon in-office five days per week can quit.
It’s likely that a material percentage of Amazon employees will leave due to this policy, so the same is likely to happen for Bolt you would suspect.
One early indicator is that there has already been a significant drop in the keywords of bolt careers just as there has been an uptick in Bolt RTO. Maybe a coincidence but let’s see how the weeks and months to come play out.
So Why Are Some CEOs Pushing For RTO?
But why the sudden push for RTO by CEOs like Villig and Amazon’s Andy Jassy? One uncomfortable truth is that many of these RTO mandates are, at least partially, a covert way to downsize. Forcing employees back to the office en masse, especially in expensive cities, is a tactic to prompt resignations without the PR disaster of mass layoffs. It’s a cost-saving strategy, and while layoffs might be inevitable in some cases, calling it anything else is disingenuous.
This leads us to a bigger issue: many companies don’t even measure the return on investment of their work from anywhere policies. When the CEO decides to pull the plug on remote work, it’s often done without understanding how those policies have benefited the company. In fact, research shows that many businesses are still flying blind when it comes to understanding the ROI of flexibility in their workforce. So, when a CEO makes a sweeping statement about remote work destroying company culture, it’s not backed by data, just gut feelings and ego.
Hybrid work has won the day. The majority of companies have settled into hybrid arrangements because they see the benefits. Yet, allowing employees up to 30 to 90 days of work from anywhere can be a meaningful way to retain top talent and increase job satisfaction. Done properly, with clear guidelines, guardrails and country limitations, it enhances, rather than diminishes, organizational culture.
CEOs pushing for RTO might find more understanding if they were transparent about the real reasons. If it’s about productivity, morale, or client needs, show the metrics. Explain why you’re making these decisions with the cold hard facts to back it up.
But more often than not, this transparency is lacking.
And so, employees rightfully see RTO as arbitrary and out of touch with the modern realities of work.
In the end, gravity will prevail.
Let’s check back in a year and see what the retention rates look like at companies like Bolt and Amazon.
Will they have managed to build a strong, connected culture with their RTO mandates, or will they be lamenting the departure of key talent that simply wanted a little more flexibility in their work-life balance?
Time will tell.
John is Co-founder of Work From Anywhere, a platform to help companies execute a work from anywhere strategy. John is a Chartered Accountant who speaks 6 languages and was previously the senior finance leader of a €4 billion division of FTSE-listed CRH Plc. John and his family are passionate about travelling and his eldest daughter, Rosa, while only 5 years old has already travelled to 25 different countries.
