CEOs Calling For Americans To Get Back In The Office

At an investing conference this week, Gorman made it clear that he wants Morgan Stanley employees to return to the company's New York City office.

"If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office. And we want you in the office," he said, according to The Hill.

"If you want to get paid New York rates, you work in New York. None of this 'I'm in Colorado ... and getting paid like I'm sitting in New York City.' Sorry. That doesn't work."

"If you want to get paid New York rates, you work in New York. None of this 'I'm in Colorado ... and getting paid like I'm sitting in New York City.' Sorry. That doesn't work."

As Forbes reported, most CEOs have echoed Borman.

David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, stressed that he wants his employees back at the office. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, has already returned to the office and wants his workers to do the same. Netflix cofounder and co-CEO Reed Hastings, meanwhile, recently said that he does not see "any positives" in remote work.

There are a few notable exceptions, however. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, recently told his employees that they may work remotely "forever." 

Employees have gotten used to the flexibility of working from home. As Newsweek reported, a recent study by the Best Practice Institute found that 83 percent of CEOs want employees to return in person. However, only 10 percent of workers want to come back.

Meanwhile, a Wakefield Research study found that 66 percent of employees are worried about the health risks involved with returning to the office, while more than 60 percent believe companies should make vaccinations mandatory and fear their employer will relax coronavirus safety measures too soon.

In a recent column for The Washington Post, writer Tracy Moore argued that a "seismic standoff" may be brewing between employers and employees.

The expansion of remote work that took place amid the coronavirus pandemic, Moore wrote, "suggested there was a different culture on the horizon -- one that accepted the realities of family, health, disability and more, and that, critically, treated workers as adults capable of managing their lives and their deadlines."

CEOs clearly want things to go back to how they were before the pandemic, will employees put up a fight?

Reports of CEOs demanding workers get back in the office emerged less than a week after ProPublica released a trove of IRS information detailing how the wealthiest men in America pay little to no income taxes.