The Return to Office Mandate Is Backfiring on Employers

Hiring & Firing with Fexingo: Recruitment, Performance, and Workforce Decisions · May 25, 2026 · 8m · transcript

By late May 2026, a growing number of companies are demanding employees return to the office five days a week — and the data is showing it may be hurting more than helping. Lucas and Luna dig into a specific case: a mid-size tech firm in Austin that issued a full return mandate in January and has since lost 18% of its engineering staff, many to fully remote competitors. They examine the attrition numbers, the hidden costs of losing tenured talent, and why some employers are quietly reversing course. Along the way they discuss what behavioral economics calls the 'endowment effect&#x27…