Tech companies that pioneered remote work now are enforcing stricter return-to-office mandates amid layoffs and shrinking office footprints.

As economic headwinds begin to gust, a showdown of sorts—maybe we should call it a "last stand"—is developing over whether and how to intensify efforts to cajole people into returning to the office. Tactics range from coercion (think performance reviews) to what we'll charitably call a dignified form of begging. Few observers think hybrid work patterns will fade, but several major employers are drawing the line on how flexible they're willing to be about work-from-home days.

On the coercion side of the scale, Google, which like many Bay Area tech giants has loosely enforced a three-days-per-week in-office policy for the past year, warned employees last week that "non-attendance" will be a metric in upcoming performance reviews.