FDA Hits Reverse on RTO Mandate
Plus, the remote work gap between employees vs employers
👋 Happy Tuesday! A recent Ohio State University study reveals that workplace background music can significantly impact employee performance when it doesn't match what workers need. With approximately 13.5 million people working in environments where background music is common, researchers found that "music misfit" leads to increased fatigue, poor focus, and decreased job satisfaction.
In this week’s edition:
🍎 FDA Reverses RTO
📊 UK Flexibility by Company Size
💡 Remote Work Tug of War
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THIS WEEK’S FLEX FOCUS 🔍
FDA Reverses RTO Mandate for Key Staff
In a swift policy reversal, the FDA is now allowing key review staff to resume telework amid concerns about staffing shortages.
Just weeks after mandating full-time office attendance, the agency is permitting drug reviewers and other essential personnel to work remotely up to two days weekly. The change comes as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over recent layoffs affecting more than 15% of the FDA workforce, with critics concerned that staffing challenges could impede critical functions like drug approvals.
The flexibility appears to be an attempt to retain valuable talent in a climate where industry positions often offer more competitive compensation.
FLEX WORK QUICK HITS 💥
Stay ahead of the curve with our curated roundup of the trending flexible work stories making waves right now. Here's what you need to know 👇
Fortune: HR leaders face pressure with 56% pushed by CEOs to mandate office returns, despite 79% believing employee choice leads to better productivity.
Rolling Stone: The RTO movement is transforming workplace fashion as "workfluencers" turn office hallways into runways, blending comfort with professionalism in the post-pandemic era.
Business Insider: IRS employees struggle with RTO during tax season, facing overcrowded spaces, technical failures, and privacy concerns while working from conference rooms and cafeterias.
Mashable: The "great return" to offices threatens accessibility gains for workers with disabilities, as five years of remote work had boosted their employment to historic highs of 22.7% in 2024.
STAT OF THE WEEK 📈
UK Flexibility Trends by Company Size
Last year, we took a deep dive look at the flexibility trends of UK employers. What we found was that some trends hold, regardless of location, and company size correlating to flexibility is one of them. Small employers in the UK are overwhelmingly flexible, with 76% of companies under 500 employees offering Fully Flexible work arrangements.
But as companies get bigger, we see a divide emerge. Only 17% of UK employers with 25,000+ employees offer Full Flexibility; most are Structured Hybrid.
FLEXPERT INSIGHTS 🧠
Remote Work Reality Gap: What Employees Want vs What They Get
New data from WFH Research reveals a significant disconnect between employee preferences and workplace reality.
While 33.9% of employees desire to work remotely five days per week, only 23.8% have this arrangement. Conversely, 32.8% of workers are required to be in-office full-time, though merely 16.8% prefer this option.
The study, collecting data from December 2024 to March 2025, shows hybrid arrangements falling short, too – 16.9% want two remote days weekly, but just 16% receive this flexibility. This misalignment highlights the ongoing tension between employer policies and worker preferences in the evolving workplace landscape.
FLEX PERSPECTIVES 🎙️
ICYMI: Beyond Borders: Building Culture in a Remote World | Tony Jamous
In this episode of Flex Perspectives, Rob Sadow sat down with Tony Jamous, CEO & Co-Founder at Oyster. As a global employment platform, Oyster aims to remove the barriers to remote work and distributed hiring, making hiring people anywhere easier for companies everywhere.
Check out the full episode to learn:
How Tony conceived of Oyster before the pandemic’s impact
Oyster’s rapid growth to a fully remote organization
How Oyster builds culture without ever getting the full team together in person
Also available on Apple Podcasts.
COMPANY SPOTLIGHT ✨
PointClickCare, founded over 25 years ago, is North America’s leading provider of cloud-based healthcare software for long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) and senior care industries. The company connects care services and financial operations on a single platform, leveraging technology to optimize business operations, improve patient outcomes, enhance financial health, and foster innovation in care collaboration for providers, payers, and patients.
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