Study of 7,700 workers: fully remote employees report the highest well-being

A study of 7,704 employees at MD Anderson, published in July 2026 in Frontiers in Psychology, upends the assumption behind most return-to-office mandates. Well-being tracked cleanly with distance from the office: fully remote workers scored highest, hybrid workers next, and fully onsite workers lowest. The data also undercut the isolation argument — remote staff were no less connected to colleagues, and were in fact slightly more likely to describe their workplace culture in terms of teamwork, inclusion, and support.

Work location itself didn’t strongly predict who quit. Instead, the effect ran through well-being: remote work raised well-being, and higher well-being predicted lower turnover a year after the 2023 survey. Co-author Stefanie Johnson of CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business attributes the gains to autonomy — control over one’s schedule and environment, plus the elimination of commute time and the daily logistics of childcare, pets, and getting to work.

Johnson’s read is blunt: leaders pushing RTO are following habit, not evidence, since remote and hybrid arrangements outperform mandates on the outcomes that matter. The study stops short of declaring the office useless — she notes face time still helps people early in their careers and that remote work goes more smoothly once colleagues already know each other. The broader takeaway for employers is to stop fixating on where people work and invest in well-being instead.