Remote Work Isn’t the Problem, Control Is. And Leaders Are Missing the Point.

The debate over remote work has reached a level of noise that would make you think the entire American workforce is trying to avoid working altogether. But when you strip away the talking points and the LinkedIn tirades, the truth, supported by data and what remote companies experience every day, is much simpler.

People aren’t resisting work. They’re resisting being told to work in ways that make no sense.

A 2025 study from researchers at the University of Houston makes this painfully clear. Researchers found that the best predictor of an engaged, productive, low-turnover employee isn’t how often they’re in an office. Instead, whether their work arrangement matches their preferences and whether they have the autonomy to control their time predicts their engagement and productivity. When employees have too little remote flexibility, engagement drops. And according to the study results, nothing predicted engagement more than schedule control. 

The study results aren’t surprising to those of us who work with remote teams every day. At FLEX Partners, we’ve built a fully remote, high-performance operation working with organizations across the country. And we’ve seen the results time after time: when people have agency over their work, they rise to the occasion. When they’re forced into a system that ignores their reality, they shut down.

The Remote Work Autonomy Matrix shows in black and white what many leaders still don’t want to admit: you cannot mandate belonging, engagement, or productivity. You can only create conditions where they become possible.

And real autonomy, not “you can choose between Desk 7 and Desk 14 on Tuesdays,” is one of those conditions.

For too long, we’ve been having a conversation about RTO mandates and flexibility, when we should be having an honest conversation about respect. 

Respect for the lives of our employees; for their time outside of work; for their ability to deliver results without being micromanaged. And ultimately, acceptance of the fact that the world of work has changed, and organizations that fail to respect their employees will lose talent to those that do. 

And that’s the part leaders should be most worried about.

The study found that forcing employees into schedules that don’t match their preferences increases burnout and turnover intentions, especially when autonomy is low. We see this weekly at FLEX when clients who approach us with a problem they don’t have a solution for: “We’re losing great people, and we don’t know why.” 

People rarely leave because the work is too hard. They leave because the environment is too rigid, too disconnected, or too indifferent to their needs.

At some point in corporate America, we’ve found ourselves hiring people–and then not trusting them to deliver. But what happens when companies hire driven professionals, set expectations, and then give them ownership of their time and trust them to deliver results? (And make no mistake, it requires trust on both ends–from the manager who lives in Texas and can’t pop into the office of an employee in Virginia, and from the employee who trusts that if they don’t deliver, they will be held accountable.) 

What happens is productive work. Autonomy builds trust. Trust builds performance. And performance builds culture–not the other way around. 

None of that happens because an employee scans a badge at 9:00 am. 

If organizations truly want to win on engagement, retention, and excellence, the path forward isn’t complicated: Listen to your people. Align where you can. Give autonomy everywhere you can. And stop equating control with leadership.

The future of work is already here. The only question left is which leaders will be brave enough to embrace it.