Some CEOs Are Choosing Control Over Trust. It Could Prove Costly.

Jonathan Tobias likes his job in tech, in part because it allows him to work remotely.

Signing on from home means it’s only a five-minute walk from his Brooklyn apartment to day care pickup.

“I’m definitely lucky,” he told Business Insider.

Tobias, 39, also knows his employer’s allowances are increasingly rare. After years of talking up flexibility and work-life balance, leaders across industries are taking a firmer approach — mandating office attendance, tightening performance metrics, and pushing AI-driven productivity.

“It’s very much an employer-driven market, which allows for businesses to behave like this,” said Alex Bouaziz, cofounder and CEO of the HR and payroll platform Deel, referring to measures like return-to-office orders.

Yet CEOs reasserting control could risk overstepping, corporate observers warn. Workers might be hugging their jobs now, but prioritizing control over trust could backfire by damaging morale, engagement, and, ultimately, retention, they say.

‘This is the new normal’

Many CEOs are “demanding more” from workers these days, Rajesh Namboothiry, senior vice president at the staffing firm ManpowerGroup, told Business Insider. That might mean asking people to work longer hours or clock in over the weekend.

“They’re seeing this efficiency boost as a one-way,” he said of CEOs.

Leaders know they can “push the envelope” a bit more, he said, because the labor market is tighter than only a few years ago, when both corporate veterans and job-hoppers could win big pay hikes. Now, Namboothiry said, some CEOs are saying, “‘OK, this is the new normal.'”

It makes sense that in a tighter labor market, CEOs can enact stricter rules. Yet Namboothiry said that driving too hard could further erode worker engagement, which is at its lowest level in more than a decade in the US, Gallup reports. Beyond that, there’s a concern about workers quitting when the job market eventually gets stronger, he said.

Regaining predictability

Given the widespread economic uncertainty and the impact of AI, some leaders might argue that it’s reasonable for CEOs to exert more control over their workforce, said Marlo Lyons, an executive coach and host of the podcast Work Unscripted.

“Employers are simply trying to regain predictability in an unpredictable world, using structure and technology as tools for control,” she told Business Insider.

However, that control can come with a price. Employees who see their employer as “unempathetic” report greater rates of workplace toxicity and mental health issues, reports Businessolver. This can reduce productivity and increase instances of workers calling in sick, according to the employee benefits company.

“We tend to have a very strong memory for the things that have happened and the way we’ve been treated when times are tough,” Dion Love, a labor market strategist at the research firm Gartner, told Business Insider.

Flipping the script

Workers might also remember what their employers didn’t do, such as helping train them to use AI. In a recent EY survey of about 400 US executives at large companies, only about one in four respondents said investing in their workers in the next few years was a primary concern.

Employers need to educate workers about AI, said Dan Kaplan, managing partner and head of the HR practice at the consulting firm ZRG. Otherwise, he told Business Insider, employees who worry that AI will take their jobs are likely to resist adopting it. “You’re afraid this is the enemy,” Kaplan said, even as CEOs themselves embrace the technology.

Gartner’s Love said that bosses who navigate this moment skillfully have a chance to “flip the script” in an employers’ market by investing in workers and offering greater opportunities for employees for career development, for example.

The workers who still have power

While many employees might have little choice but to accept CEOs’ stepped-up demands, some workers have a better chance at calling the shots. For in-demand talent, like machine learning specialists, there is still “legit competition,” said Matt Martin, CEO and cofounder of Clockwise, which uses AI to optimize workers’ calendars.

He said that money flowing into AI firms could prompt some workers who are dissatisfied with their bosses’ demands to consider joining these growing companies.

In-demand employees are also more likely to balk when companies mandate things like RTO — and flee for more flexible employment, Deel’s Bouaziz said. That’s benefited his remote-first company, he said.

When Tobias, the tech worker in Brooklyn, posts about corporate life on social media, he sometimes hears people say that pre-pandemic office norms, such as having little say over where you work, are a thing of the past.

Yet as more CEOs tighten the reins, he expects those days are making a comeback — at least at some companies. Workers early in their careers could feel the pressure the most, he suggests.

That “could harden them and get them used to the corporate world — or it can eventually backfire,” Tobias said.

Do you have a story to share about your workplace? Contact Tim Paradis at tparadis@businessinsider.com or Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert at ktl@businessinsider.com.