Oedipus and the RTO debate

Here we are, more than three years into the return to office (RTO) debates. Some leaders are determined to bring their people back into the office, even in the face of employee defiance. (Google “RTO rebellion” for a sense of how this is going.)

The story of Oedipus provides an analogy here. Oedipus desperately attempts to use reason and logic to escape the Oracle’s devastating prediction, but in the end, it isn’t enough. Defiance is a natural human instinct, especially when we think we’re losing control. But sometimes the act of rebellion itself accelerates the outcome.

I’m not talking about the WFH loyalists—the real rebels are the leaders who are blind to the truth: Work isn’t going back to the way it used to be.

Trying to arbitrarily force people back into an office environment is the worst way to lead when people see the value in being closer to home. There are real advantages to hybrid work, and we should be in conversation with our people about those advantages—not dictating from the top in defiance of what people know to be the future.

(Related: The 18 Coffees team just developed a POV on hybrid work, outlining what we see to be the “4 Ps” of employee experience that leaders looking to implement effective hybrid workplaces need to consider. Check it out.)