As someone who worked in the corporate world for 15 years, my LinkedIn feed is filled with discussions about “Return to Office” mandates.
This post isn’t about whether companies should require in-office work. Instead, I want to explore an interesting tension I’ve noticed between corporate and public-sector work, drawing from my experience as a mostly virtual corporate employee turned entrepreneur supporting public institutions.
A lot of the return-to-office debate highlights issues like childcare shortages, expensive commutes, and limited in-office support services—problems that disproportionately affect hourly and service workers.
But here’s the irony: highly compensated corporate employees argue against returning to the office because lower-paid hourly workers aren’t “showing up” to provide the services that make office life feasible.
At Radar, we’ve navigated this tension firsthand. We built a remote-first team post-COVID, and I wouldn’t trade our all-stars for anything. Yet, I can’t ignore the optics when I take a sales call from my home office while my customer is expected to be onsite every day. Or when one of our remote recruiters interviews a candidate for a rigid, in-person shift.
What message does that send? Could we inspire change by showing up ourselves? And if we lead by example, could it ripple out to our customers—and beyond?
What are your thoughts?