Companies are demanding employees spend more days in the office, yet they’re also reducing their office space. Here’s why that isn’t paradoxical

Return-to-office mandates are increasingly common, but companies are rapidly downsizing their offices and worried about whether they’ll be able to keep their current ones.

That’s the seemingly paradoxical upshot of a new survey by the Boston-based workplace strategy firm Robin, which questioned over 500 business owners and facilities managers about their office-space plans and remote-work and return-to-office policies.

The results show that 88% of companies now mandate that employees work a certain number of days in the office, up from 69% a year ago. Yet 75% plan to reduce office square footage next year, compared to 46% in 2022.