Is Microsoft's recent return-to-office policy ruining Seattle's traffic? Highway travel speeds slow to a crawl during rush hour

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations, including Microsoft, adopted work-from-home and hybrid approaches to sustain their operations after movement restrictions were imposed to curb the spread of the virus. Although these approaches have proven effective in the long term, leading some companies to fully embrace remote work, others have developed detailed return-to-office (RTO) strategies.

In September, Microsoft announced its return-to-office (RTO) plan, citing that employees tend to work best when collaborating in person. By the end of February 2026, Microsoft employees living within 50 miles of a company office will be required to work onsite at least three days per week.

A new report by Inrix shows that Microsoft’s return-to-office policy significantly impacted travel on SR 520 between the weeks of February 23 and March 2, 2026 (via GeekWire). Microsoft's absolutely massive campus in Redmond, Washington, accommodates roughly 50,000 employees, most of whom commute by road to work.

According to the traffic analysis company, "Speeds dropped across all days during the first week, with speeds on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday showing the slowest travel speeds. Speeds fell Eastbound during the PM commute period between 5% and 20% throughout the week, with the biggest drops on Monday and Wednesday."

The report further details that travel speeds fell 16% on Tuesday, translating to 47 mph. Speeds fell 1% and 12% on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. It seems that most Microsoft employees perhaps prefer to work from the office on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as the report recorded the slowest travel speeds on these days.

On the other hand, travel speeds heading into Bellevue fell to 35% between Tukwila and Bellevue and as much as 25% between Lynnwood and Bellevue during the morning commute. The report indicated that Thursday was the most impacted day during the morning commute period.

The evening commute wasn't any better. According to the data, travel speeds fell 27% between Bellevue and Tukwila on Friday, and sank further to 21% Northbound between Bellevue and Lynnwood.

💬 Is Microsoft to blame for traffic in Seattle?

Traffic isn't a new phenomenon for most of us, especially during the rush hours when everyone is trying to make their way to the CBD for school and work. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman implemented strict in-person office work policies for his team, requiring employees to work from the office up to 4 days a week, which is a little over the top considering the company's general three-day mandate (via Business Insider).

The executive further revealed that he's not a fan of traditional offices with doors. Instead, he prefers an open plan layout with desks placed close together, further indicating that the approach is better for collaboration.

"Everyone can see everyone else who's in," Suleyman indicated. "You can feel the buzz, like there's a real intensity about the place, and it just creates a lot more, like informal collaboration. It's so much better."

The hybrid work and work-from-home approaches definitely helped ease the traffic on our roads, but as more organizations implement RTO plans and strategies, we're likely to witness more traffic on our roads, as is the case in Seattle following Microsoft's RTO policy implementation.

Elsewhere, I speculated that Microsoft Teams' controversial Wi-Fi location tracking feature launch date (though it was delayed again) suspiciously aligned with the company's RTO plan, potentially raising concerns whether it is merely coincidental or a deliberate effort to maximize workplace efficiency through surveillance and micromanagement.

However, Microsoft cleared up the confusion around the feature, clarifying that it's an opt-in experience expected to ship turned off by default in April 2026. Microsoft further indicated that the feature is designed to bolster collaboration, not to track employee attendance.

But at the very least, we don't have to worry about Seattle's situation getting any worse during Microsoft's annual developer conference, because Build is rumored to take place in San Fransico later this year, in June.

Do you think Microsoft’s return‑to‑office policy is making Seattle traffic worse? Let me know in the comments.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.