Fall 2026 Invisible Sun Back-to-the-Office Index
America’s office spaces, measured.
We surveyed 646 U.S. workers in August and September 2026, as fall marks a back-to-business mindset and one of the busiest times of the year for offices. What they told us connects shared-space cleanliness to whether people come in, how they see their employer and whether they stay.
- Office workers see dirty shared spaces as a problem
- 1 in 3Office workers see dirty shared spaces as a problem
- Say the office environment hurts their desire to go to the office
- 58.3%Say the office environment hurts their desire to go to the office
- Say it hurts their perception of their employer
- 48.3%Say it hurts their perception of their employer
- Say it makes them consider leaving their employer
- 40.7%Say it makes them consider leaving their employer
The impact
What the office environment does to workers.
Nearly six out of 10 office workers (58.3%) say the office environment negatively impacts their desire to go to the office. Nearly half (48.3%) say it negatively impacts their perception of their employer, and more than four in 10 (40.7%) say it prompts them to consider leaving.
None of that shows up in a cleaning report. A worker who stays home, thinks less of the company or starts looking elsewhere has not filed a complaint, and is rarely counted.
Ranked by impact
- 1Less desire to go to the office58.3%
- 2Lower perception of their employer48.3%
- 3Considering leaving their employer40.7%
Share of surveyed office workers reporting each effect, from the Fall 2026 Invisible Sun Back-to-the-Office Index.
The new imperative for building owners
Cleanliness is now a tenant retention metric.
Ensuring the office environment is clean is one of the most vexing responsibilities of building owners post-Covid-19. Proof-of-presence technology makes the work verifiable, and verified cleaning is what protects tenant relationships while vacancy rates stay hard to manage.
Increase in tenant retention for office buildings in the top quartile of cleaning satisfaction
Value of Clean®, The Association for Cleaning & Facilities Solutions
Maintenance and operations line item that cleaning compliance and operating costs affect
Invisible Sun Technology
Launch of the Invisible Sun Contactless FM Value Calculator for building owners and janitorial companies
Invisible Sun Technology
The fall return
Workers are back, and many did not like what they found.
Fall is one of the year’s busiest times for offices, according to The Hub, a Miami-based co-working space. That puts shared desks, kitchens and bathrooms under their heaviest load exactly when workers are forming their opinion of the workplace.
Office workers see dirty shared spaces, from desks to kitchens to bathrooms, as a problem
Say the office environment prompts them to consider leaving their employer
The good news for employers is that more workers are back in the office now that school is back in session and fall has arrived. The bad news is many of them didn't like what they saw when they returned.
Methodology
How the index was built.
The Invisible Sun 2026 Fall Back-to-the-Office Index surveyed 646 workers across the U.S. in August and September 2026. The survey is statistically significant, with a ±5% margin of error at a 95% confidence level.
Prior research cited in the release includes Value of Clean® from The Association for Cleaning & Facilities Solutions, which shows office buildings that earn top-quartile cleaning satisfaction rates can increase tenant retention by up to 25 percent.
See how this applies to workspace managementWorkers surveyed
646
Fielded
August – September 2026
Margin of error
±5% at 95% confidence
Workers do not judge the office by its best day. They judge it by the shared spaces they walk into when they return, and that judgment follows them into decisions about attendance and retention.
A clean office is a retention strategy.
Invisible Sun connects occupancy-driven cleaning, hands-free Proof of Presence and AI Inspections so every shared space is serviced, verified and measured.