The Rise of the “Non-Complier”: Why the Remote Work Debate Isn’t Really Over
By 2025, the loudest battles over remote work appear to be finished—at least on the surface. The pandemic-era norm of white-collar employees working from home five days a week largely ended in 2024, as major employers pushed staff back into offices. Amazon led the charge, and Elon Musk famously accused remote workers of merely “pretending” to work.
Yet despite the return-to-office mandates, a new reality has emerged. According to commercial real-estate firm JLL’s September 2025 report on the future of hybrid work, a powerful new employee archetype is quietly reshaping how work actually happens: the empowered “non-complier.”
Who Are the Non-Compliers?
These workers are not disengaged “quiet quitters,” nor are they office traditionalists. Instead, they are high-value, highly skilled employees who selectively ignore office attendance rules—and have enough leverage to do so without consequences.
JLL’s Workforce Preference Barometer 2025, which surveyed 8,700 office workers globally, reveals a striking disconnect between policy approval and real-world behavior. While 72% of workers say they view office attendance policies positively, that approval does not necessarily translate into showing up.
The empowered non-complier is typically:
Between 30 and 34 years old
Employed in tech or knowledge-intensive roles
Based largely in North America
Often in management positions
Highly trained and relatively recent hires
Ironically, many of these employees work at companies with the most attractive offices—those offering childcare, concierge services, free meals, wellness programs, and high-end amenities.
Their resistance, JLL notes, is not rooted in hostility toward the office. Instead, it reflects practical constraints: caregiving responsibilities, long commutes, and a sense that their time pressures are poorly understood by leadership.
Power, Leverage, and Risk
Because these workers are high performers with in-demand skills, they are confident in their marketability. That confidence gives them leverage—and makes them a higher flight risk.
JLL characterizes their behavior as “less a rejection than a calculated decision based on their sense of empowerment.” However, the firm warns that this dynamic could shift quickly if labor-market conditions worsen. In a “low-hire, low-fire” environment—like the one Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has described—non-compliance may become riskier.
The phenomenon is not evenly distributed. Compliance rates with office mandates reach nearly 90% in countries like France and Italy, but drop to 74% in the United States, where this empowered demographic is most concentrated.
A Broken Psychological Contract
At a deeper level, the rise of the non-complier signals a fracture in the long-standing psychological contract between employers and employees—the implicit understanding that loyalty and effort will be reciprocated with respect, support, and opportunity.
Burnout is a key warning sign. Nearly 40% of office workers globally report feeling overwhelmed. When employees no longer feel valued, the relationship becomes transactional. Engagement declines, and workers begin negotiating narrowly: commuting stipends, rigid flexibility, or time-based concessions rather than deeper involvement in company culture.
JLL found that acceptance of office policies increases when workplaces feel “commute-worthy”—offering better technology, food, and environments than home. Yet almost 40% of respondents believe their offices still need significant improvement, citing noise, poor layouts, and inadequate nutrition.
Mentorship Gaps and the Gen Z Factor
Management scholars Peter Cappelli and Ranya Nehmeh identified similar dynamics while researching their book In Praise of the Office. They found evidence of a broken contract particularly among Gen Z workers, whose workplace mindset is often highly transactional.
“I show up, I do my job, I get out,” Nehmeh summarized. “I don’t want to be part of anything else.”
Ironically, Cappelli and Nehmeh argue for less remote work—not because senior employees need the office, but because junior employees do. Cappelli noted that while he personally functions well remotely, the broader system suffers when experienced professionals are absent. Without senior staff in the office, younger workers lose informal mentorship and learning opportunities, and attendance declines further across the organization.
This aligns with JLL’s findings: the empowered non-complier is often precisely the high-performing colleague who would be most valuable as an in-person mentor—yet they are among the least likely to be present.
From “Where” to “When”
Ultimately, the non-complier reflects a broader shift in how flexibility is defined. It is no longer primarily about where work happens, but when. Globally, work-life balance has overtaken salary as the top priority for employees, cited by 65% of respondents.
JLL argues that organizations relying on blanket return-to-office mandates are unlikely to succeed. Instead, they recommend a personalized approach—moving away from counting days in seats and toward managing outcomes, time, and autonomy.
For empowered non-compliers, flexibility has become the new currency of loyalty.
A Management Problem, Not a Remote Work Problem
As Cappelli bluntly told Fortune, the deeper issue may not be remote work itself, but deteriorating management practices. Remote environments have produced excessive meetings, unclear communication, and even “post-meeting meetings” to clarify what was just discussed.
“These things could be fixed,” Cappelli said. “But they’re not being fixed.”
The rise of the non-complier, then, is not just a challenge to attendance policies. It is a signal—one that suggests the future of work will depend less on mandates and more on whether leaders can rebuild trust, improve management quality, and offer flexibility that reflects how top talent actually lives and works.