CEOs have offered many different reasons for calling workers back into the office—despite research that suggests working from home can be as effective, if not more effective, than in-office work.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in an RTO memo that “collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective” in person, and that “teaching and learning from one another are more seamless.” Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said his five-day in-office mandate would increase creativity, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink even suggested that getting employees back into the office could help offset inflation. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon famously derided video-call-heavy remote work as “management by Hollywood Squares,” and has argued that in-person work is crucial for mentoring, fostering innovation, and maintaining corporate culture.
But there may be another reason for work-from-home crackdowns and in-office mandates that CEOs haven’t mentioned: their own egos.
A new study from Wharton organizational psychologist Adam Grant and co-authors Marissa Shandell and Courtney Elliott found that leader narcissism was associated with greater resistance to remote work. A big reason? Power trips are easier to stage in-person.
