Bottom Line Up Front: The January 2026 return-to-office mandates sweeping across Canada aren’t failing because employees don’t value collaboration. They’re failing because leaders mandate outcomes without building the infrastructure that makes them possible (De Smet et al., 2025). You’re announcing solutions without diagnosing problems, measuring compliance rather than effectiveness, and dismissing resistance as a character flaw rather than as organizational design feedback.
The Pattern You Keep Repeating
When organizational change fails —whether it’s new technology, process redesign, or workplace mandates —it’s rarely because the change itself was wrong. It’s because leaders skip the belonging questions that determine whether change strengthens or fractures culture (Carter et al., 2024).
Organizations implementing RTO mandates are making predictable mistakes. More than 60,000 Ontario public servants will be required to return to the office full-time starting January 5, 2026, following similar mandates from Canada’s major banks requiring at least four days per week in the office (CBC News, 2025).
Research supports arguments on both sides of the RTO debate, but the real issue isn’t whether people should return; it’s that organizations are skipping the infrastructure questions that make any working model succeed.
For example, organizations are announcing with minimal consultation, assuming proximity equals productivity without measuring what actually drives performance, dismissing resistance as “not being team players,” measuring attendance instead of outcomes, and ignoring the infrastructure gaps that made remote work succeed in the first place.
Here’s what you’re not asking: If the office was already the optimal environment for people to bring their authentic best self to work, why did performance and engagement often increase during remote work?
The answer reveals an uncomfortable truth: For many employees, the office never provided the infrastructure they needed to perform at their best.
The Questions You Haven’t Asked
Before mandating presence, leaders must answer five infrastructure questions at three critical stages. These aren’t “nice to have” conversations. They’re the difference between building trust and destroying it.
BEFORE ANNOUNCING RTO
COMFORT: Have we explained why we’re mandating return and what specific problems it will solve?
Most RTO mandates start with the solution (" everyone back in the office”) without diagnosing the actual problem. Research shows that despite doubling in-office attendance from 34% to 68% between 2023 and 2024, employee intention to leave remains at 39%, virtually unchanged from pandemic peaks (De Smet et al., 2025). Suppose you can’t articulate the specific performance gap you’re solving with measurable criteria. In that case, you’re mandating proximity as a substitute for organizational design.
CONNECTION: What do we actually know about our teams’ working realities, and what information are we missing?
Before designing RTO policies, organizations need data about their workforce: How many people relocated during the pandemic? What percentage manage caregiving responsibilities? How many have disabilities requiring specific commute accommodations? What flexibility arrangements have people structured their lives around for the past three years? McKinsey research found that the intention to quit is significantly higher among caregivers who work in person, true for both men and women (Hancock & Weddle, 2025). Without this information, policies get designed around assumptions rather than realities, creating a gap that damages engagement and performance.
CONTRIBUTION: How are we inviting people to define what success looks like, not just react to our decision?
Canada’s four major banks (RBC, Scotiabank, BMO, and TD) announced four-day office mandates between May and July 2025, effective September, with employees learning about the changes through internal memos emphasizing culture and collaboration (The Globe and Mail, 2025).
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union reported that the province’s RTO decision was made without meaningful consultation with workers and without consideration for the realities frontline workers face (CBC News, 2025).
In both cases, HR experts noted that “mandates alone don’t drive morale—it’s careful consideration and clear communication of changes that make the impact” (NOW Toronto, 2025). If your first communication about RTO is the final policy, you’ve told employees their input doesn’t matter.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY: How does our organization actually capture and act on feedback?
Psychological safety isn’t just about whether people can speak. Before mandating RTO, ask: Can our people challenge decisions safely? How do we respond when something goes wrong, defensively or with curiosity? Are people confident they can raise issues without fear? Most critically, how do we capture feedback, and what do we actually do with it? When leaders respond to RTO concerns with “we need to trust each other,” they’re avoiding the systemic question: Do we have the infrastructure to translate employee feedback into organizational learning and adaptation?
WELLBEING: What time, energy, and resources does this change require from people?
Every hour spent commuting is an hour not spent sleeping, exercising, caregiving, or recovering. Organizations must care for people as whole humans, not just performers (Carter, 2022). Suppose you’re not accounting for the realistic time and energy cost of transition in your workload expectations. In that case, you’re asking people to maintain the same output with fewer resources; a recipe for burnout.
DURING RTO IMPLEMENTATION
COMFORT: Are we communicating clearly about what success looks like?
“Return to office to strengthen culture” is not clear.
“We need more spontaneous collaboration” is not measurable.
Transparency, clarity, and predictability make people feel at ease (Carter et al., 2024). If people don’t understand what success looks like, they can’t achieve it, and you can’t measure whether RTO is working.
CONNECTION: Are we designing in-office time around meaningful collaboration, or just requiring presence?
McKinsey research found that only 49% of mostly in-person employees reported feeling collaborative, compared to 51% of remote and 55% of hybrid employees (De Smet et al., 2025). Understanding people and their needs through relationships and empathy is essential for connection (Carter, 2022). If your best performers figured out how to collaborate effectively remotely, forcing them back into an office designed for 2019 workflows destroys what was working.
CONTRIBUTION: Have we recognized people who made remote work successful?
Recognizing and valuing others’ input to influence decisions builds belonging (Carter et al., 2024). The people who maintained productivity and kept culture alive during remote work made your organization resilient. If your RTO announcement doesn’t acknowledge their contribution, you’ve told them their effort did not matter.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY: Have we committed to measuring outcomes, not just inputs?
If RTO does not work as planned (if innovation does not increase, if engagement drops, if your best people start leaving), will you admit it? Organizations must model reflection, acknowledge mistakes, and respond non-defensively (Carter, 2022). McKinsey’s research reveals a fascinating gap: CEOs push for in-office work, expecting productivity and innovation booms, yet there is no evidence that a return to the office improves any individual metric (Hancock & Weddle, 2025).
WELLBEING: What supports are in place to prevent burnout during this transition?
Commutes are exhausting. Office environments are overstimulating. Organizations must assess workload, offer flexibility, and address burnout (Carter et al., 2024). Are you tracking stress indicators like sick days, late arrivals, and resignation conversations?
AFTER RTO IMPLEMENTATION
COMFORT: Are we sharing honest data about whether RTO is achieving its goals?
Suppose you are not sharing data about whether collaboration, innovation, or culture has actually improved. In that case, people will assume you are either not measuring or not willing to admit it’s failing. Transparency builds trust; silence destroys it.
CONNECTION: Are we measuring relationship quality and goal alignment, not just attendance?
Butts in seats is not a culture metric. If you’re measuring office days but not mentorship quality, cross-functional collaboration, or innovation outcomes, you’re measuring compliance, not effectiveness. Ontario’s government targets reducing turnover to 4.2% and boosting applicants per vacancy to 42.8 (CBC News, 2025), yet rigid RTO mandates may undermine both goals.
CONTRIBUTION: Are we showing people how their feedback influenced improvements?
Thousands of Ontario public servants have sought exemptions to RTO mandates. However, the province’s response has been enforcement rather than adjustment (The Globe and Mail, 2025). Suppose you are dismissing concerns as “adjustment period complaints” instead of treating them as data. In that case, people stop contributing when their input is ignored.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY: Are managers empowered to use judgment, or forced to enforce rigidity?
If your highest performer needs flexibility and you say, “Policy is policy,” you’ve told them that compliance matters more than performance. High performers do not stay in organizations that value process over people.
WELLBEING: Are we monitoring stress, retention, and performance—or just tracking attendance?
Federal departments report compliance rates with three-day mandates ranging from 31% to 93%, with the Department of National Defence showing just 31% compliance in the National Capital Region (CBC News, 2025). These numbers signal deeper issues than “adjustment periods.” They reveal that infrastructure for successful in-office work doesn’t exist.
The Infrastructure That Was Never Built
Organizations are focusing on the wrong question, not whether RTO is strict enough, but on the practices that make any working model effective. McKinsey’s research demonstrates that the policy mandate itself is far less important than the work environment organizations create and the practices that accompany implementation (De Smet et al., 2025).
The office was never a magic solution. Proximity does not create belonging, psychological safety, collaboration or trust. Hallway conversations do not automatically spark innovation. Open floor plans do not build trust.
What creates belonging—and therefore performance—is answering these questions before making decisions, not defending them after.
Belonging requires five key indicators: Comfort, Connection, Contribution, Psychological Safety, and Wellbeing. These indicators create the infrastructure that enables people to bring their best selves to work (Carter, 2022).
The gap between senior executive experience and employee reality is creating a chasm. Executives who control their own schedules and experience the office as a place of influence are designing policies for employees who experience the office as a place of surveillance and interruption. These are employees who were told their remote performance was excellent, only to find it’s now not good enough.
You are not mandating presence. You are mandating that people choose between their job and their life.
What Happens If You Don’t
Come January 2026, predictable patterns will emerge: Your highest performers will start conversations with competitors offering flexibility. Your most innovative thinkers will quietly quit. Your engagement scores will drop. Survey data shows that among public sector workers, 53% oppose full RTO mandates while only 36% support them (Angus Reid Institute, 2025). Your “collaboration” mandate will create resentment, not connection.
Moreover, you’ll blame “quiet quitting.” You’ll blame “people not being team players.” You’ll blame everything except the truth:
You are mandating outcomes without building the infrastructure that enables them.
Start Here Tomorrow
Pick ONE indicator. Ask ONE question this week:
COMFORT: Do people know why we’re doing this, not just what we decided?
CONNECTION: Whose working reality did we not account for when designing this policy?
CONTRIBUTION: How are we showing people their expertise matters, not just their compliance?
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY: How do we capture feedback, and what do we actually do with it?
WELLBEING: Are we measuring stress and retention, or just tracking attendance?
The office matters. Collaboration matters. Innovation matters.
However, without infrastructure that enables people to bring their best selves to work—not just their compliant selves—you’re not building a return-to-work strategy. You’re building an exodus plan.
The question is not whether people should return to the office. The question is whether your organization has asked the questions that deserve their return.
Belonging isn’t built by intention. It’s built through consistent action: one question, one choice, and one conversation at a time.
— Andrea D. Carter | Belonging First Methodology™
©Copyright 2025. Andrea D. Carter. All Rights Reserved.
References
Angus Reid Institute. (2025, September 3). Canada is mixed on ending hybrid work. https://angusreid.org/canada-mixed-on-ending-hybrid-work/
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News). (2025, August 14). Ontario is ordering public servants back to the office full-time. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-public-service-work-from-office-mandate-remote-1.7608742
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News). (2025, March 3). Thousands of public servants in the biggest federal departments are breaking remote work rules. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/public-servants-remote-work-1.7471868
Carter, A. D. (2022). Belonging within the workplace: Mixed methods constructivist grounded theory study for instrument validation and behavioural indicators for performance & governance [Doctoral dissertation, Adler University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/openview/df3bede74f97b31ba91c846f316515e6/1.pdf
Carter, A. D., Richardson-Bryant, A. W., Da Silva, E., Mutilva, S., Melgar, C., Mohamed, H., … & Halbert, J. (2024). Belonging in the workplace: Methodology for fair and equitable data analysis. CIM Journal, 15(3), 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/19236026.2023.2267941
De Smet, A., Weddle, B., Hancock, B., Mugayar-Baldocchi, M., & Lauricella, T. (2025, February 14). Returning to the office? Focus more on practices and less on the policy. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/returning-to-the-office-focus-more-on-practices-and-less-on-the-policy
Hancock, B., & Weddle, B. (2025, February 6). How to get return to office right. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/how-to-get-return-to-office-right
NOW Toronto. (2025, June 13). As Scotiabank, RBC and other Canadian companies push for 4 days in office, experts say success hinges on flexibility. https://nowtoronto.com/news/as-scotiabank-rbc-and-other-canadian-companies-push-for-4-days-in-office-experts-say-success-hinges-on-flexibility/
The Globe and Mail. (2025, July 23). Bank staff play musical chairs with desks as return-to-office orders squeeze space. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-banks-return-to-office-mandate-space-real-estate-covid-pandemic/
The Globe and Mail. (2025, September 19). Thousands of public servants seek exemptions to Ontario’s return-to-office mandate. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-return-to-office-mandate-protest/