Amazon's recent decision to require corporate employees to return to the office five days a week is generating significant controversy. In a memo to employees, CEO Andy Jassy emphasized the benefits of in-person work, such as increased collaboration, innovation and cultural connection.

This stance flies in the face of a growing body of research showing the advantages of hybrid work models — not full-time office work — for productivity, employee performance and retention. Moreover, many organizations have tired of fighting return-to-office battles and have moved on to more important priorities, allowing their employees more flexibility. Thus, Amazon’s top-down policy stands out as a regressive approach, likely to backfire.

Government data, the best kind of evidence available, suggests that the large majority of employers, unlike Amazon, are moving away from rigid in-office requirements and embracing flexibility. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a year-over-year increase in the number of employees working from home either some of the time or all the time, from 19.5 percent in August 2023 to 23 percent in August 2024. The share of hybrid workers — those who work remotely some of the time — climbed from 9 percent to 12 percent over the same period; those who worked remotely all the time inched upward from 10 percent to 11 percent.

Senior leaders across various industries have started to realize that the effort to monitor........

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