Office workers still spend much of their time in virtual meetings, report finds

Although companies require employees to come in an average of 3.74 days a week, workers report attending just 2.59 days. Many who do commute say their meetings remain virtual.

3 Nov 2026

Office attendance mandates are not necessarily producing more in-person collaboration. A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that 49% of employees who commute to an office still do not have fully in-person meetings.

Even when colleagues are together at the office, 37% of workers said they had attended at least one entirely virtual meeting. Meanwhile, 45% said their company uses a “One Zoom, All Zoom” approach, moving a meeting online if even one participant is remote.

The report found that workers spend 6.3 hours of a typical workday in the presence of colleagues, compared with 7.1 hours before the pandemic. Among employees in jobs that cannot be done remotely, time spent alone rose from 1.5 to 2.4 hours per day.

Employers require office attendance for an average of 3.74 days per week, but workers report actually going in for 2.59 days. At one unnamed Fortune 500 company, 63.6% of employees complied with a four-day attendance policy.

The findings suggest that setting attendance requirements alone may not make office days more collaborative. The report points to defining a clear purpose for working on-site as a way to help employees make better use of their time in the office.

Sources: TechRadar.