Ignore The Return-to-Office Noise And Learn From This Leader Who Treats Employees Like Adults

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• Only 10 U.S. companies enforce strict 5-day office returns, with 68% offering flexible work options.
• Some forward thinking leaders advocate for empowering employees to choose work locations, focusing on collaboration, customer engagement, and community.
• The future of work is about empowerment, not control—leaders must focus on autonomy, trust, and outcomes instead of rigid office policies.

Stop debating return-to-office policies. 

Start learning from the leaders who have already moved on — those who are redefining where and how work happens. 

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And, as data shows, there are plenty of them. 

Recent research from Dr. Mark Ma and Yuye Ding at the University of Pittsburgh found that, as of 2024, only 10 U.S. public companies are enforcing a strict five-day RTO policy, compared to just eight in 2023. 

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Even among those, most apply the mandate selectively. For instance, Dell’s RTO requirement only covers its global sales team, while AT&T is the only company implementing an Amazon-style, company-wide return-to-office plan. 

Meanwhile, the Q4 2024 Flex Index reports that 68% of U.S. companies now offer work location flexibility, a dramatic change from 2023, when the balance between flexibility and full-time office work was nearly even. 

Even in industries traditionally tied to in-person work — like restaurants and food services — 39% of companies now allow flexible work arrangements where possible. 

Rather than focusing on the few companies clinging to outdated mandates, it’s time to learn from those who are leading the way forward. 

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The real shift isn’t happening among companies reviving old office habits — it’s coming from those innovating new ways to collaborate, lead, and build thriving organizations. 

Rethinking the Office’s Role in a Flexible Work Future 

One such leader is Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ, a company at the forefront of AI and quantum technology, valued at $5.3 billion after raising $300 million. But beyond technological innovation, Hidary is pioneering a new model of leadership that moves beyond traditional office structures. 

In a conversation for The Future Of Less Work podcast, Hidary challenged the RTO debate, arguing that it’s time to stop forcing employees back into offices and instead empower them to determine where and how they work best. 

“What if we stopped asking employees to return to the office and instead empowered them to decide where and how to meet?“ he said, proposing a leadership model where leaders go to employees rather than the other way around. 

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This flipped approach isn’t just a logistical tweak — it’s a fundamental shift in how organizations operate. It reshapes leadership, collaboration, and culture, replacing outdated notions of control with trust, autonomy, and results-driven work. 

Collaboration Happens When and Where It Makes Sense 

Hidary challenges the assumption that collaboration must happen in a central office. Instead, he suggests asking: 

“If they’re already thriving in a place where they have their support structure — their friends and family, childcare, the gym they go to, their walking paths, their community — why would you want to uproot that? It just makes no sense.” 

Rather than dictating a location, organizations should provide budgets and autonomy for employees to collaborate where it makes the most sense. 

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Hidary advocates for a Three Cs approach to guide workplace flexibility: 

• Collaboration: Teams determine the best way to meet — whether in person or remotely — focusing on results rather than physical location. 

• Customer: Employees embed with clients or meet at customer locations to deepen relationships and drive impact. 
• Community: Companies support employees in thriving where they live, through resources like childcare, wellness programs, and professional development opportunities. 

While this approach requires investment, it reallocates existing office space budgets toward team-driven collaboration — from offsite retreats to dynamic local hubs that better suit team needs. 

Leaders Must Go to Employees, Not the Other Way Around 

One of the biggest shifts in Hidary’s model is rethinking how leaders engage with their teams. 

Traditionally, employees were expected to gather where leaders were — inside office buildings. But in a distributed work model, leadership needs to be mobile. 

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“Leaders should reverse the traditional flow: rather than employees coming to them, they should meet employees where they are,” Hidary says. 

This transforms leadership into a service role, where executives travel to team offsites and collaborative hubs to support alignment, build trust, and create stronger connections. 

Beyond the Office: Innovation Requires Cross-Pollination 

Cross-functional collaboration is often cited as a reason for returning to the office. However, under Hidary’s model, teams drive cross-pollination through external engagement rather than proximity. 

At SandboxAQ, every employee is encouraged to give external talks — whether at conferences, universities, or industry events — at least twice a year. This ensures that knowledge flows not just within the company but between the organization and the broader ecosystem. 

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Likewise, new hires are not simply thrown into office environments and expected to absorb company culture. Instead, managers proactively immerse them into team offsites and collaborative events, ensuring that they build relationships through purpose-driven interactions rather than passive office encounters. 

From Control to Empowerment: The True Future of Work 

The shift away from mandated office attendance isn’t just about where people work — it’s about how they work. 

Instead of relying on rigid policies, companies can drive engagement through autonomy, trust, and outcome-based performance models like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). 

Hidary emphasizes that great leadership isn’t about measuring keystrokes or monitoring office presence — it’s about creating conditions where teams can succeed, innovate, and grow. 

“As a leader in the company, whether you’re managing one person or a whole team, your job is to make your team succeed. That means paying attention to each person, doing one-on-ones, noticing how you can help them, and addressing challenges proactively,” Hidary explains. 

This philosophy of empowerment over control is what distinguishes companies that thrive in the modern workplace from those struggling to recapture the past. 

The Workplace Has Changed — Leadership Must Change, Too 

As we move forward, the real question isn’t whether employees should return to the office. 

The real question is: Are leaders willing to adapt to the future of work? 

The best people don’t work because they have to. They don’t work because they’re told to. They don’t work because they’re measured on it. They work because they want to — because working for your organization aligns with their purpose. 

Forward-thinking companies understand this. Are you ready to lead the future of work?

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