Some of the economy's most in-demand workers are about to discover how much power they have over where and how they work.

Many tech companies, including Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Microsoft Corp., have started back to work after months of rework.

As more employers ask employees to return to the office, how the emerging power struggle plays out will be a telling indicator of how influential remote-work converts in other industries are. A competitive job market, combined with the relative ease with which companies have adjusted to working from home over the past two years, has given many professionals the courage to try to leave the office for good.

According to a survey of more than 32,000 workers by the ADP Institute, two-thirds of the workforce said they would find a new job if asked to return to the office full-time. Of those who quit their jobs in 2021, 35 percent said they wanted to move to a different area, according to the Pew Research Center.

But if high-skilled tech workers struggle to reach their market value, so too will many other remote workers who want to stay put.

Some tech pros have already thrown this out. Ian Goodfellow, Apple's director of machine learning, announced to employees this month that he would be stepping down, in part because of the company's return-to-office policy. According to a tweet from The Verge, Goodfellow wrote in a farewell letter: "I firmly believe that more flexibility is the best policy for my team. Mr Goodfellow declined to comment. Apple declined to comment.

A group called Apple Together said more than 1,400 current and former employees signed an open letter to company executives asking them to reconsider their return-to-office policy, which required employees to start Monday, March 1, 2018 from last month. Come to the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Apple has more than 165,000 employees.

"Stop thinking of us as schoolchildren who need to be told when, where and what to do," the letter said.

- The Wall Street Journal