Since the pandemic, there has been tension between employers and workers regarding the return to the office, as many workers have preferred the flexibility of remote work and want to maintain some degree of autonomy over their time. As a result, new consultant companies have emerged to provide employers with guidance on how to navigate the return-to-office process. These consultancies are using psychological tactics to persuade workers to want to return to the office, rather than mandates which have exacerbated frustrations and resistance from workers. For instance, some of these return-to-office experts have recommended that employers expand the communal perks for those who commute to the office to increase engagement with coworkers and to vary in-office schedules by teams' needs. However, despite these recommendations, many large corporations have still dictated and enforced their return-to-office mandates requiring workers to be in the office a certain amount of time.
See "Amidst the return-to-office debates, new consultancies have emerged to help employers navigate bringing their workers back in-person", Emma Goldberg, New York Times, April 12, 2023