This trues up with what I'm anecdotally seeing in my clients. RTO-3 days or even RTO-5 days is being pushed aggressively in some of them, and the general feeling amongst their rank and file is it is a stealth layoff (no severance for those leaving due to the policy switch is a big financial incentive for the companies). A big challenge I'm not seeing really addressed though is
a lot of staff at my clients stepped up big time to do more with less during the pandemic and put in more than full time hours, reasoning that they'll just work during what normally would have been their commute time. That slack their companies enjoyed is now being yanked out of the ecosystem as many simply don't have more to give once they start commuting again. Quite a few put in even put in way more.
I saw this organically happen both pre- and post-pandemic. Pre-pandemic, it was rare if a Slack or email I sent to client staff was answered off hours. During the latter half of the pandemic and post-pandemic with those in WFH situations, it became much more common as staff learned to communicate all the time during brief idling periods while going about their off hours days and evenings. I'm going to miss this low-latency communication, but it is what it is.
If this is an actual secular trend instead of mere n=1 anecdata, then it will stack on the demographic trend baked in of ever-fewer workers for the next 20-odd years (assuming there is a baby boom in the next 3-4 years, which by current family and household formation statistical trends is still looking unlikely).