The Office Is Creative Direction

Insights
Written By Rachel Allgood

Change the space, and you change the culture faster than any memo ever will.

Six years after COVID, the data is clear:

  • Hybrid remains the dominant model with roughly 55–80% of companies with a public policy run some form of hybrid (Savills top 200 Fortune 500 analysis; Buildremote Fortune 500 tracker, July 2026).

  • Fully in-office (5 days) sits in the 13–30% range, higher among the largest companies.

  • Actual attendance has stabilized around 50–67% of pre-pandemic levels (Kastle Back-to-Work Barometer; CRE Daily / Savills, 2026).

Companies spent years writing return-to-office policies. The ones that moved the needle fastest didn’t just change the rules. They changed the room.

New layouts. Better light. Spaces designed for the work people actually come in to do: collaboration, mentoring, problem-solving.

The physical environment is a silent, constant signal. It tells staff and customers what the organization values before a single all-hands meeting does.

Policy is easy.

Space is harder. And far more honest.

Rachel Allgood

I have two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, as well as working as an executive for the Fortune 500, including Cablevision and Cox Media Group. I have launched new companies and brands, corrected courses with leadership teams, and reinvented businesses. My outside perspective enables me to objectively view obstacles, discover opportunities, and clarify messaging. Often times, the primary deliverable is a website and I am so grateful to Squarespace for creating a rapid development tool that scales and provides an e-commerce option at a reasonable cost.

https://rachelallgood.com/
Next

The White-Collar Handicap: Why Corporate America Is Getting Outsmarted by the Trades