The push to bring employees back to the office is colliding with a quieter workplace reality: many workers — and even their managers — are simply ignoring the rules.
Fresh data from Flex Index shows the “hushed hybrid” trend, where employees quietly work from home despite return-to-office (RTO) requirements, is still going strong. And it’s not just workers pushing back. Burnt-out managers, increasingly unwilling to enforce mandates, are fueling the gap between company policy and day-to-day practice.
Across 14,000 companies, required office time has climbed 12% since early 2024, from an average of 2.57 days in the office per week to 2.87. Yet actual attendance has barely budged, rising just 1–3%. The mismatch underscores the limits of executive pressure in the face of employee preference and managerial fatigue.
Why rules aren’t sticking
“Hushed hybrid” gained traction last year as employees demanded flexibility and managers sought to preserve morale. For many workers, the case is practical: if teammates are scattered across offices and time zones, spending a day in the office just to join Zoom calls makes little sense.
Brian Elliott, CEO of Work Forward, which publishes Flex Index, noted that managers often look the other way. “If I’ve got a solid performer who’s delivering results, I’m not going to fire them for coming in three days instead of five,” he told Fortune. “Policy compliance is low on the priority list compared to productivity.”
The real driver: manager burnout
While employee burnout has been widely covered, managers are showing sharper signs of strain. MeQuilibrium warned in late 2024 of an impending “manager crash” in 2025, predicting steep declines in supervisors’ well-being and leadership capacity.
Their days are increasingly consumed by busywork: Deloitte found nearly 40% of managers’ time goes to last-minute problem solving and administrative tasks. Only 15% is spent on strategy, and just 13% on mentoring. Add in larger team sizes, fewer resources, and pressure from above, and managers often lack both the energy and desire to police RTO rules.
“It’s no wonder that managers themselves are the most frustrated by this entire conversation,” Elliott said. “They’re not just burnt out — they’re resentful.”