Lead: In 2025 the long-running Return-to-Office debate has moved from a contest over place to a contest over time. A JLL Workforce Preference Barometer 2025 survey of 8,700 workers across 31 countries finds most employees accept hybrid location rules—66% report clear expectations on office days—but are now insisting on control over schedules. Work–life balance has overtaken pay as the top priority for 65% of office workers, up from 59% in 2022. That shift, JLL warns, is creating a new battleground employers must address or risk higher burnout and attrition.
Key Takeaways
- JLL surveyed 8,700 workers in 31 countries in 2025 and found 66% of global office workers have clear day-based attendance expectations.
- Work–life balance is now the leading priority for 65% of respondents, up from 59% in 2022, surpassing salary as the chief concern.
- There is a measurable “flexibility gap”: 57% of employees say flexible hours would improve life quality, but only 49% currently have them.
- Nearly 40% of global office workers report feeling overwhelmed, and among those thinking of leaving in the next 12 months, 57% report burnout.
- Caregivers and the “squeezed middle” remain underserved: 42% of caregivers need short-notice paid leave yet often feel unsupported at work.
- Employers are increasingly monitoring staff: Gartner reported 60% of employers were tracking employees as of 2022, about double pre-pandemic levels.
- Successful organizations are shifting from one-size-fits-all rules to “tailored flexibility,” emphasizing autonomy over hours and changes to building access and services.
Background
The Return-to-Office (RTO) debates that dominated corporate strategy after the pandemic focused largely on location: who should work at home and who must come to headquarters. Employers established hybrid schedules and attendance rules to balance collaboration goals with remote preferences. By 2025 many firms had formalized which days staff are expected on site, and employees largely accepted these place-based expectations.
But underlying cultural and labor-market changes have altered priorities. The pandemic reshaped how workers value time, caregiving responsibilities and wellbeing, while employers faced talent competition that raised retention stakes. Hybrid policies that counted days in-office did not address control over daily schedules, nor the uneven operational burdens on caregivers and those in demanding roles.
Main Event
JLL’s 2025 Workforce Preference Barometer shows a clear pivot: workers now prioritize control of when they work. Although structured hybrid policies are widespread—66% report clear day expectations—employees increasingly demand temporal autonomy, which they link directly to quality of life and retention. The report frames the change as a move from managing presence to managing time.
That evolution is visible in workplace behavior as well as survey responses. Practices such as “coffee badging,” where employees badge into the office briefly before continuing work elsewhere, illustrate a tactical response: workers comply with day-count policies while asserting control of hours. JLL did not quantify coffee-badging prevalence, but the pattern aligns with its broader findings about time agency.
JLL also identifies a “flexibility gap”: 57% of respondents say flexible hours would improve their life, yet only 49% currently enjoy that benefit. The report ties this gap to a fraying “psychological contract”: employees seek visibility, recognition and pathways for skill development as much as pay, and many say they would leave for better reskilling or career opportunities.
Burnout compounds the problem. Nearly 40% of office workers report feeling overwhelmed, and among those considering quitting in the next 12 months, 57% report burnout. For caregivers—42% of whom need short-notice paid leave—the mismatch between policy and lived need is pronounced, leaving many feeling poorly supported.
Analysis & Implications
The shift from location to time forces employers to rethink retention strategies. Pay remains a driver of mobility, but temporal autonomy now anchors why people stay. That means organizations that merely count desk days without addressing schedules, access and recognition risk higher churn and lower engagement.
Operationally, the trend pushes real estate and facilities teams to adapt. Offices built for a 9-to-5 occupation will underdeliver for employees operating asynchronously; JLL recommends extended access hours, smart lighting and flexible space-booking to support varied arrival and departure patterns. These changes carry capital and operating costs but can be positioned as talent-enabling investments.
There are managerial and performance risks if employers respond with surveillance rather than trust. Gartner’s finding that 60% of employers were tracking employees as of 2022 signals a temptation to police activity; history suggests that monitoring can worsen morale if not paired with transparent purpose and data protections. Organizations must balance measurement with dignity and development opportunities.
Finally, the trend has broader labor-market and equity implications. Tailored flexibility can improve retention for caregivers and those with nonstandard obligations, but it requires equitable policy design so that access to temporal autonomy does not become another axis of workplace inequality.
Comparison & Data
| Metric | 2025 (JLL unless noted) | 2022 (where reported) |
|---|---|---|
| Workers surveyed | 8,700 across 31 countries | — |
| Clear office-day expectations | 66% | — |
| Top priority: work–life balance | 65% | 59% |
| Employees saying flexible hours improve life | 57% | — |
| Employees with access to flexible hours | 49% | — |
| Workers feeling overwhelmed | ~40% | — |
| Among those considering quitting: report burnout | 57% | — |
| Caregivers needing short-notice paid leave | 42% | — |
| Employers tracking employees (Gartner) | 60% (2022) | ~30% (pre-pandemic) |
The table aggregates JLL’s headline figures and the Gartner tracking statistic to show the contrast between formal day-based hybrid rules and employees’ desire for schedule control. The data suggest a persistent shortfall in temporal flexibility that correlates with reported overwhelm and burnout.
Reactions & Quotes
“Workers want management of time over place and agency over when and how they work,”
JLL (Workforce Preference Barometer 2025)
JLL framed the shift around employee agency: time, recognition and reskilling matter as much as compensation in decisions to stay or leave. The report warns employers that ignoring temporal autonomy risks undermining engagement.
“We believed that if you worked hard you were rewarded for it,”
Suzy Welch, management commentator (Masters of Scale podcast, Sept.)
Suzy Welch linked current generational disillusionment and burnout to expectations about reward and career security. Her remarks underscore how perceptions of fairness shape willingness to trade time for work.
Unconfirmed
- The precise scale of “coffee badging” remains unquantified in JLL’s report and varies widely by region and role.
- How many employers will convert office infrastructure to extended-access models in 2025–2026 is unclear and contingent on budgets and security policies.
- The long-term impact of heightened employee tracking on retention is not fully established; outcomes depend on transparency, governance and legal constraints.
Bottom Line
The RTO debate has entered a new phase: location battles have largely been settled into standard hybrid patterns, but the next front is temporal. Employees prioritize control over hours and seek recognition, career pathways and wellbeing as part of a renewed psychological contract. Employers that treat flexibility as a checkbox—measuring days in-office but not addressing schedules, caregiving needs and burnout—face higher disengagement and turnover risks.
Practical responses include redesigning policies toward tailored flexibility, investing in facility access and booking systems that support asynchronous use, and pairing any measurement tools with transparent purposes and employee safeguards. In the near term, companies that align time autonomy with clear performance expectations and visible development opportunities will be best positioned to retain talent.