The best employees in the world are trusted to work where they want, when they want, and how they want. Not because no one is watching, but because they’re capable adults with talent, character, and integrity. When you hire people like that and give them autonomy, they consistently deliver more than any mandate ever will.
A five-day RTO policy sends the opposite signal. It tells top performers they aren’t trusted. And they respond the way the market always does, they leave. What’s left is a shrinking, less competitive talent pool made up of people with fewer options, the bottom quartile of talent.
If connectivity and flexibility are truly our product, we should be the company that proves it works, not the one that contradicts its own message.