There’s a double standard about returning to the office, new survey says

Thirty-four percent of knowledge workers, those whose jobs center around thinking through tasks,  are back in the office full-time and they aren’t having a good time, according to a new survey from Future Forum. Of more than 10,000 knowledge workers surveyed across the world, fully in-person workers reported significantly lower work environment satisfaction, higher stress levels and worse work-life balance than those who are still hybrid or fully remote.

But those trends don’t hold true when we look purely at the executive ranks.

Only 19% of executives head into the office every day, the survey found, compared to 35% of non-executives — even though 21% of both executives and non-executives say they want to be in the office five days a week.

And despite having jobs that are usually considered more stressful, executives reported much less stress than other workers the study. Non-executives report about twice as much stress, and are 40% less happy with their work-life balance than their bosses.

This is a problem.