NYC Business Leaders Survey: RTO Continues Ticking Up in 2026 & Beyond

Return-to-office mandates from major tech companies, financial institutions and even the federal government made headlines in the recent past, making it seem like hybrid is losing ground. Still, office utilization rates hover around 50-60% of the pre-pandemic benchmark, varying by day and industry. Six years after the pandemic forced remote work into the mainstream, the remote versus hybrid versus in-office status quo is still in flux.

We wanted to get a close-up view of how innovators and scale-ups are navigating work models today. To get a true ground-level read, we went to the very people who decide work policies — CEOs, founders and other executives involved in New York’s startup ecosystem. Our questions ranged from current arrangements and how satisfied they are with them to difficult topics such as enforcing office attendance and changing work models. Here is what they told us:

Key Points:

• Occupancy will continue ticking up: While 50% of leaders report they plan to stick with current models, far more plan to shift to more office work (28%) than more remote work (3%).
• Hybrid is the popular compromise: Almost half of respondents lead hybrid firms. Although satisfaction levels are more divisive for the various forms of hybrid, it still brings an effective compromise that’s hard to replace.
• The five-day workweek is not the goal for most: Although many leaders would like to see more office attendance, very few are eyeing full return-to-office mandates, citing diminishing returns compared to hybrid models.
• Office attendance is mostly nudged, not enforced: 48% of leaders moderately enforce office days without disciplinary measures, while 31% merely encourage attendance and 18% leave it entirely up to employees.

See below for our full findings and breakdown:

Current State of Work: Hybrid Still Leads Work Models in 2026; Remote Companies Still Aim to Offer In-Person Interaction

Hybrid work is still king among start-ups and innovators. Among the more than 125 New York City leaders and decision-makers we polled, almost 50% reported their company’s working arrangement as hybrid.

Hybrid: Why Choose It & How Are In-Office Days Set?

Elaborating on why they chose their current model, leaders of hybrid firms primarily said the model offered a perfect balance of face-to-face knowledge sharing and flexible remote work.

Of course, hybrid models can vary wildly from one organization to another. The most common way to offer hybrid was allowing employees to come in when they want, which is the practice for 38% of the companies in our survey.

The second-most popular option with 34% of responses is having set office days, such as making Wednesday a designated anchor day with everyone in the office. Mandating a certain number of office days per week came in third at 25%.

Remote: Should Remote Companies Still Offer In-Person Activities?

For fully remote companies (43% of respondents) the main draws were access to talent regardless of geography and cost savings. Still, more than two-thirds of remote-only companies said they offered remote workers the chance to work or interact in-person.

The most common face-to-face activities for these organizations include hosting team-based or company-wide social activities, hosting in-person development meetings or offering access to coworking spaces for collaboration.

In-Office: The Best Solution for Knowledge Sharing & Operational Compliance?

Meanwhile, in office-only organizations (9% of responses) said they relied on the collaborative and knowledge-sharing aspects of their arrangement. Onboarding new hires and helping them align with company values is also easier face-to-face, while some employers also cited productivity and mental health gains in offering a place to work that’s completely separate from employees’ homes.

Full office work was also reported as the most beneficial for company culture, which is not surprising given that preserving and passing on company culture is one of the most commonly cited reasons for return-to-office mandates. Even so, the effect was perceived as mostly positive or neutral even in fully remote firms.

Hybrid companies also reported significant company culture gains, though they were mostly situated in the “Positive,” rather than “Very positive” range.

How Leaders Are Working: CEOs Gravitate to In-Office Work

Leaders with companies in arrangements that involved more office work generally reported higher satisfaction levels. Given this, it comes as no surprise that our respondents trended more toward in-office work compared to the policies of their companies.

Based on our survey, 12% of respondents work from the office full-time compared to 9% for the organizations they lead. Hybrid work is also more widespread among leaders, with almost two-thirds of respondents saying they personally combine remote and office work compared to 49% for their companies.

Among respondents leading hybrid companies, 83% adhere to a hybrid work model. In this case, around two thirds of leaders say they work from home more often than from the office, while one third value office time more. Additionally, 10% of CEOs and founders of hybrid companies lead by example by working in-office all the time.

Leaders of remote-only companies also value time in the office. In fact, only 56% of those in this category of respondents work exclusively remotely, whereas the remainder maintain an office presence for themselves.

Office Attendance: Two-Thirds of Hybrid Firm Leaders Happy With Current Attendance, 40% Avoid Stricter RTO Policy Due to Attrition

We also asked NYC’s hybrid startup leaders if they’d like employees to come to the office more or less often.

We found that a majority of respondents — 51% — are happy with current office attendance, saying they’d like employees to come to the office as often as they currently do. Paired with the fact that 16% responded with “I don’t mind” to the same question, the conclusion is that a significant share of companies have found their hybrid footing and settled into steady arrangements.

At the same time, 23% of leaders would like more office attendance, while another 2% would like employees to come to work much more often. This leaves the door open for further return-to-office mandates among companies that want to emphasize in-person interaction.

Although many leaders are happy with where their companies are in terms of office attendance, employee retention is a major concern even for those that would like more in-person interaction.

Among our respondents, 40% believes employees would quit if the company became stricter about office attendance. Extra flexibility still ranks high among employee demands, and leaders looking to boost attendance may find themselves forced to introduce changes slowly or provide other benefits in exchange.

For comparison, just over a third of respondents are neutral on whether stricter policies would increase attrition, while another 23% said they disagreed with the statement. It’s worth noting that employers who were happy with current attendance were also more likely to believe that stricter office attendance would not cause employees to quit, whereas churn is a greater concern for those who said they would like to see higher attendance.

The Road Ahead: What RTO Looks Like for NYC’s Leaders

Given that many of NYC’s startup CEOs would prefer more activity in their offices, we wanted to gauge how many of them were planning actual policy changes for their companies in the next 12 months.

More than half of the leaders we polled said they were sticking to their current workspace strategy, with a further 14% unsure about any potential changes. However, a significant 28% said they were planning to shift to more office-based working, compared to only 3% who reported that they plan to increase the amount of time employees work remotely, strengthening the idea that office attendance will continue ticking up. Plus, as many as 45% of respondents who are implementing more in-office time foresee employees quitting as a result, but they believe the benefits will outweigh any temporary retention costs.

At the same time, only 4% of leaders in remote or hybrid companies plan to implement a full return to the office. While return-to-office mandates are mostly a one-way street, a full five-day workweek in the office is not the goal for most companies. Instead, organizations that haven’t reached their perfect balance yet will continue to incrementally increase their employees’ time in the office while maintaining flexibility.

Hybrid companies are more likely to mandate more office attendance compared to fully remote firms, indicating that the benefits of in-office time are more evident for hybrid companies already implementing them. Meanwhile, many leaders at fully remote companies are still evaluating the road ahead, with 22% of respondents in this category unsure about what changes the next 12 months will bring.

The steadiest workplace setup in terms of foreseen changes was fully office-based, with 90% of companies operating in this way reporting no new plans and the remainder merely keeping their options open.

Methodology

Responses were collected via an in-house survey hosted on Hubble, a flexible office platform connecting teams with inspiring workspaces.

A total of 126 responses were collected. Respondents were asked about their organization, company role, team size and various questions about their company’s workspace setup. Responses were collected between November 29, 2025 and January 10, 2026.