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# Return to office might be making workers miserable

Dive Brief: About one third of workers are unhappy with their paycheck, April 3 survey results from tech company Kizen suggest. Up from 19% the year before, 27% of survey-takers cited their wages as a [source of workplace dissatisfaction](/content/content/news/2023-kizen-survey-results/index.html).
- The number of respondents citing lack of flexibility as their source of workplace dissatisfaction more than tripled between 2022 and 2023 — from 9% to 33%.
- Kizen researchers suggested the return-to-office is “stifling” flexibility. “Lack of flexibility was not in the top four last year and likely is up due to companies requiring employees to come in the office post-COVID,” researchers wrote when sharing their study with HR Dive.

**Dive Insight:**  
Anecdotally and quantitatively, Kizen’s findings are on par with trends HR Dive has previously spotted. A March 2023 report from Executive Networks comes to mind, where the majority of survey takers said their organization is not making [return-to-office worth the commute](https://www.hrdive.com/news/working-on-site-isnt-worth-commute/645073/).
Considering the resistant attitudes captured in the Kizen study, value added in returning to office should outweigh the value of freer, more flexible schedules, experts have suggested.

[Employers] need to make coming to the office more purposeful and ‘commute-worthy,’” Jeanne Meister, Executive VP of Executive Networks [said in a statement last month](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/employees-say-working-on-site-is-not-worth-the-commute-according-to-executive-networks-new-research-301765020.html). “This will require employers to be clear on why and how working in the office can optimize collaboration and innovation.”

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Originally Published: [HRDive](https://www.hrdive.com/news/return-office-workplace-dissatisfaction/646773/)

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