I asked Grok 4 and ChatGPT 5 Thinking about the no 1 reason for RTO: guess the answer

Prompt for both:

If we could hypothetically isolate RTO's cause to one single main reason, just one, what would that be, all things considered?

Grok 4:

If we isolate the cause of return-to-office (RTO) mandates to a single main reason, it boils down to employers’ lack of trust in employees’ ability to maintain productivity while working remotely. This skepticism drives many companies to mandate in-person work, as evidenced by surveys showing that a significant majority of leaders doubt remote output and view RTO as a way to monitor and boost performance. While other factors like culture, collaboration, or economic leverage play roles, trust issues emerge as the core motivator when synthesizing global employer sentiments and employee perceptions.

ChatGPT 5 Thinking:

*Managerial legibility.

RTO is primarily about reasserting control by making labor easy to see, count, and discipline. Everything else reads like cover stories: “culture,” “serendipity,” “real estate,” “productivity.” In practice, attendance is a crude proxy for performance that preserves hierarchy, protects middle-management relevance, and shifts uncertainty from managers to workers.*

Conclusion:

It's not about culture, productivity, collaboration. It's about lack of trust and, hence, control.