Man behind the term ‘presenteeism’ says bosses ordering workers back to the office are ‘the dinosaurs of our age’

Several companies have scrapped remote and hybrid work setups this year, which were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This week, Amazon became the latest in a string of companies to order employees back into the office full-time starting in January in a bid to strengthen company culture.

In August, the CEO of smartphone challenger brand Nothing said remote work was “not compatible with a high level of ambition plus speed.”

In a memo to staff, Nothing boss Carl Pei suggested those who didn’t want to sign up for the group’s RTO mandate should look for other employment.

These tech bosses reflect a wave that makes the returned norm of five days in the office feel increasingly inevitable. The banking sector was another early leader in returning staff under their noses full-time.  

In a KPMG survey of 1,300 executives last year, 63% of bosses said workers would be back in the office full-time from 2026.

The rationale for these bosses’ decisions is often the same, hammering home the benefits to collaboration and team culture. Many also have an underlying suspicion that their employees just don’t work as hard on remote days.

However, a management guru with decades of experience tracking the negative impacts of office work says the move is misguided. 

Sir Gary Cooper, a professor of organizational psychology and health at the University of Manchester, said Amazon and investment banks’ practice of forcing their staffers back into work five days a week goes against the evidence.

Cooper coined the term “presenteeism,” which refers to employees who are in the office but experience low productivity due to illness. He fears company-wide mandates for in-office work risk entrenching these issues rather than providing a silver bullet for growth-hungry firms.

“Unfortunately some organizations and companies are thinking of trying to force people back into the work environment five days a week. I think they’re the dinosaurs of our age. The old command and control type management style,” Cooper told the Guardian.

“If you value and trust people to get on with their job, and give them autonomy – and flexible work is one of those – they’ll work better, you’ll retain them, and they will be less likely to have a stress-related illness.

“If you micromanage, you won’t get productivity gains, and you won’t attract the next generation.”

While businesses push ahead with reducing flexibility for their staff, the U.K.’s new Labour Government is intervening to make flexibility in workers’ contracts into law.

Labour is creating a bill that could see the most significant overhaul of workers’ rights in generations, including the right to work remotely.

Jonathan Reynolds, the Labour Government’s Business secretary, says flexible arrangements could boost the U.K. economy and increase employee satisfaction.

Stressing his point, Reynolds namechecked Cooper’s eponymous presenteeism argument.

“I think it’s important to stress that good employers understand that workforce, to keep them motivated and resilient, they do need to judge people on outcomes and not a culture of presenteeism,” Reynolds told the Times.

The Labour Government is also mulling “Right to Switch Off” legislation that would prevent bosses from repeatedly contacting their workers after hours, as well as giving employees the legal right to request flexible working arrangements, including a condensed working week when they join a company.

The stakes are higher than they have been in decades when it comes to the welfare of staff.

Gen Z is struggling with a mental illness epidemic that means they are more likely to call in sick to work than Gen Xers 20 years their senior, the Resolution Foundation discovered earlier this year.

According to Cooper, spending more time in the office will not provide the tonic for these woes.