tl;dr:

Contrary to the belief that RTO boosts company value, the analysis revealed that RTO mandates are more likely in firms with poor recent stock performance and have had no significant impacts on firm profitability or stock-returns. Moreover, a notable drop in employee job satisfaction was observed, further questioning the efficacy of these mandates.

Here’s a link to the referenced paper if you don’t want to read Forbes. It’s a lot more savage:

Results of our determinant analyses are consistent with managers using RTO mandates to reassert control over employees and blame employees as a scapegoat for bad firm performance.