The costly issue Newsom didn’t consider when forcing state workers back to the office | Opinion

At the beginning of March, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order mandating that state workers return to the office four days a week. But as California, companies and government agencies push forward with return-to-office mandates, they risk exacerbating a workplace problem that many have failed to address adequately: gender discrimination.

New research from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management highlights how in-person work environments expose women to significantly higher levels of workplace bias and mistreatment compared to remote work.

A study conducted by Professors Laura Doering and András Tilcsik that surveyed over 1,000 professional women in hybrid roles found that gender discrimination was nearly twice as common in the office as it was when working remotely. When women worked on-site, 31% reported experiencing discrimination, compared to just 17% when working remotely.

The disparities were even more pronounced for women in male-dominated workplaces. Among those who worked primarily or exclusively with men, the likelihood of facing gender discrimination in the office skyrocketed to 58%, compared to only 26% when working remotely. These findings suggest that physical office environments exacerbate existing biases and create conditions where discrimination flourishes.

Younger women, particularly those under 30, were also more vulnerable to workplace mistreatment. The study found that 31% of younger women reported experiencing discrimination on-site, compared to just 14% when working remotely. This highlights how return-to-office policies disproportionately impact early-career women, potentially discouraging them from remaining in their roles or even in their industries.

The types of discrimination women faced were not limited to isolated incidents. The study assessed 11 different forms of gender-based mistreatment, including inappropriate attention, having ideas ignored or stolen, being assigned non-promotable tasks, being excluded from workplace discussions and being addressed with sexist language in meetings. These slights contribute to a toxic work culture that erodes job satisfaction and increases burnout.

Case in point: When Tata Consultancy Services, a 600,000-employee Indian multinational firm, mandated a full-time return to the office in 2023, reported cases of sexual harassment more than doubled within a year. This aligns with the findings from the Rotman study, suggesting that office environments often lack the safeguards necessary to prevent discrimination. If companies and agencies enforcing return-to-office mandates fail to address these risks, they could find themselves facing a wave of legal challenges similar to Tata’s situation.

Possible legal problems

Forcing employees into an environment where they are more likely to face gender discrimination is not just an ethical issue, it’s also a potential legal and financial risk. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission consistently reports high settlement costs for gender discrimination cases. In 2024 alone, the commission secured $700 million in monetary benefits for victims of discrimination, including sex-based workplace discrimination.

These cases often result in financial settlements and costly legal fees, reputational damage and increased employee turnover, which further drives up operational expenses. More broadly, companies are facing record average damages from lawsuits recently, with damages growing faster than inflation.

The financial burden of full-time return-to-office policies does not fall solely on company executives or agency leaders, it ultimately affects shareholders and taxpayers. Publicly traded companies like Amazon, which has faced backlash for its aggressive return-to-office push, risk seeing their stock prices decline due to legal liabilities and employee attrition. Shareholders will bear the cost of lost productivity, settlement payouts and damaged brand reputation.

For the federal government and state government agencies mandating full-time office work, taxpayers are the ones who will foot the bill for discrimination lawsuits, increased turnover and reduced workforce efficiency. For organizations that choose to ignore these warnings, the consequences will be severe. Increased legal liabilities, talent attrition and reputational damage are all on the horizon for those who fail to create safe and equitable workplaces.