Leeds study: fully remote workers report the highest well-being

A new University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business study is cutting against the return-to-office narrative pushed by CEOs like Jamie Dimon and Elon Musk. Researchers analyzed survey data from 7,704 employees at a large healthcare organization and found that employees who worked fully remotely reported the highest levels of well-being, while those who worked entirely onsite reported the lowest.

What the study actually found

Fully remote employees reported the highest well-being, at an average score of 4.22 out of 5, hybrid employees came in at 4.12, and onsite employees trailed at 3.89, according to the study, published in July 2026.

The time-lagged design pulled data from 7,704 employees across three work environments: remote (n = 1,869), hybrid (n = 2,099), and onsite (n = 3,736). The sample came from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, split roughly one-fourth remote, one-fourth hybrid, and about half onsite.

The connection argument takes a hit

The study also found little evidence that remote workers felt less connected to colleagues or workplace culture. Remote workers were slightly more likely than their hybrid and onsite peers to use words associated with teamwork, inclusion and support.

“This suggests you let people work remotely if they want to work remotely,” said Stefanie Johnson, professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at the Leeds School of Business and co-author of the study, published in July 2026 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. “Taking away people's choice of how they work is probably not going to help them in terms of their well-being.”

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Turnover followed the well-being, not the location

Turnover followed a similar pattern, with fully remote employees leaving at the lowest rate, 7.8% within a year of the survey, compared with 8.8% for those onsite. Location alone wasn't what predicted retention, though. Well-being was.

Despite these outcomes, remote work remains far from the norm. Only about 13% of full-time employees work fully remote today, compared with 26% hybrid and 61% fully onsite, according to WFH Research, a Stanford-affiliated initiative that tracks work arrangements.

Why it matters for the RTO debate

Business leaders, from JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon to Tesla's Elon Musk, have argued that workers need to get back to the office in the name of productivity and collaboration. But a new study suggests the opposite may be better for employee well-being, and even company bottom lines.

“Our findings challenge the idea that simply bringing people back into a building will automatically make them more engaged, connected, or likely to stay,” co-authors Stefanie Johnson and Courtney Holladay, chief learning officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, told Fortune. “The mistake is treating physical presence as the outcome rather than asking what organizations are trying to accomplish through it. If the goal is collaboration, mentoring, innovation, relationship-building, or organizational culture, then employers should design experiences that actually produce those outcomes.”

Options market and stocks to watch

The RTO debate is a real earnings and margin variable across sectors. A few names traders may want to watch:

• JPM: Jamie Dimon has been the most vocal RTO advocate on Wall Street. Watch for headline risk around policy shifts or attrition data.
• TSLA: Musk has publicly pushed onsite work. Watch for how workforce policy plays into engineering retention narratives.
• ZM: Any softening of RTO mandates is a tailwind narrative for remote-collaboration tools.
• TEAM: Atlassian has leaned into distributed work. Watch for demand commentary tied to remote-first hiring trends.
• Office REITs and coworking names: Watch for occupancy commentary as more studies question the RTO thesis. See other news for related coverage.

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