Workplace Civility And Return-to-Office Mandates

Companies are increasingly embracing return-to-office (RTO) mandates, but new SHRM research and data reveal an unexpected consequence of those mandates. The incidence of uncivil acts occurring in the workplace is substantially higher for employees whose employers have issued RTO mandates. According to the SHRM Q1 2025 Civility Index, employees at companies with RTO mandates reported 63% more acts of workplace incivility than employees without company RTO mandates. Likewise, employers who issued RTO mandates within the last year reported an average of 0.9 acts of incivility per day in their workplaces, which is more than twice the amount of 0.36 per day reported by employers with no recent RTO mandate.