Bay Area Companies Mandating Employees Come Back to the Office, Many Employees Saying No Way!

As I check out East Bay office buildings, I am still seeing many sparsely occupied parking lots…especially Mondays and Fridays but surprisingly, also mid-week.” In May 2026, data from WFH Research showed that about 28% of paid days were done from home in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland metro area. That number is almost exactly the same as in May 2025, and just a bit down from 32% in the same month in 2024.”   That is still down significantly from 40% back in 2021, but considering all the Fortune 1000 corporate mandates we keep hearing about, this is a big chunk of workers still working from home. In Chicago, the rate is 25%, while in Miami it is 33%. “Nicholas Bloom, one of the leaders of the SFH Research, said that one reason for the stagnant return to office numbers is that employees just aren’t complying with new mandates. He said that it is genuinely hard for managers to accurately measure and enforce how many times employees are coming into the office.  Managers “are basically saying, if you get your job done and you perform well, don’t worry about it,” said Bloom. “Because if you’re a manager of a team, ultimately, your bonus, your pay, depends on your team’s performance” not work-from-home levels.“.  Younger firms grow faster than older firms, and it if the old males over 55 who are most against working from home.

San Francisco Chronicle June 22, 2026