Surging Gas Prices Fuel Employee Pushback Against Return‑to‑Office Mandates

With gas prices exceeding $3.70 per gallon, employees are demanding to work from home.

BY BRUCE CRUMLEY @BRUCEC_INC

There’s been no shortage of reasons why employees have resisted tightening return to office (RTO) mandates—from cramped workspaces to on-site perks that have lost their appeal, as well as simple loss of job flexibility. But the spreading disruption across the Middle East as the U.S. and Israel wage war on Iran is giving many workers another compelling argument for demanding to work from home: surging gas prices.

With the over two-week conflict vastly reducing oil tanker traffic in the region, the price of Brent crude rose to $105 per barrel over the weekend—sending the cost of gas up with it. According to the AAA, the average price per gallon now stands at $3.718, up 35 cents from a week ago, and almost 70 cents more than in February. And despite President Donald Trump’s repeated assurances the conflict will end soon—often followed by contradicting messages—experts say even a quick end to the hostilities won’t rapidly relieve the financial pinch commuters are feeling at the pump.

“Prices aren’t likely to drop back fully down to pre-war prices until later this year, since seasonal factors will prevent a full drop back down,” a petroleum analyst for the Gas Buddy app, Patrick De Haan, warned in a social media post on X on Saturday. “If only politicians were petroleum analysts they may realize they can wish for things but they don’t always get them.”

The same can be said for U.S. drivers—including commuting employees. According to De Haan, average prices per gallon of gas over the weekend were about 78 percent higher than those between January 2021 and the same month in 2025.

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As a result, business consultancy Korn Ferry cautions company owners and managers will likely be hearing loudly about those increased gas prices from staff. Many employees, its recent blog post on the topic said, are already using those additional costs to once again pushback against tightened in-person requirements that countless employers introduced over the past year.

“Return-to-office efforts seemed complete… (t)hen came an oil crisis in the Middle East,” a trio of Korn Ferry experts wrote. “With average gas prices jumping up more than 15 (percent) in a week, and the cost of filling up a tank exceeding $50… (in) another week, gas could cost over $100 daily for a worker who commutes from a distance. Managers find themselves in a quandary.”

That bind comes from employees who still mourn the loss of job flexibility to RTO now jumping on the higher cost of gas to lobby for renewed work from home (WFH) permissions.

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