It has been a year since the United States hit its historically low unemployment rate.

In that time, people had to get resourceful. Many workers who were laid off turned to freelancing as a way to keep up with the cost of living, while others used their unemployment time to determine what they really wanted to do in a career. And as we are re-entering society and the unemployment rate has leveled out, workers are in a unique position where they can be choosier with which jobs they accept.

For years, employees have been asking their employers for remote options – and they have workplace trends on their side. In a 2018 IWG report, 70 percent of global workers surveyed were working from home at least one day a week and 53 percent of those respondents work remotely for half the week. In the same report – and remember, this is two years before COVID-19 hit – an overwhelming majority (80 percent) of employees said if they were faced with similar job offers, they would choose the opportunity that allowed the most flexibility.

Then COVID-19 brought most of us remote, immediately enlightening workers to the benefits of not only working from home, but working in a flexible format.

Those workers have now had a year of remote life and with more and more of the population receiving COVID-19 vaccinations, we are about to see how much of “normal life” employers are able to get away with – and all signs point to not a lot.

The reason?

The power is now in the hands of the talent. And we are about to enter a war.

Employees have discovered the flexible lifestyle, and they’re not budging

That 2018 IWG report was a great predictor of where we currently are and where we will be headed if CEOs can’t meet their employees’ wishes. Three years ago, 85 percent of workers said having more flexibility with work makes them more productive.

Now we are seeing it all play out on a grand scale. And guess what? We learned workers know what’s best for them. In a Gartner 2021 Digital Worker Experience Survey, only 26 percent of respondents said productivity fell when they were offered remote options. These workers also cited poor connection and a learning curve with technology, so that number could decline as we become more tech literate.

It’s something IWG Chief Executive Mark Dixon knew years before his colleagues.

“If you offer workers the chance to work where they need to be, and not where they are told to go to, it completely transforms their view of the company, they are more productive,” Dixon said in a cnbc interview. “If they can work at an office near to where they live or near to where they need to be, it’s totally transformational.”

Think about it. Every person has a unique working style. When they’re forced into a style that isn’t natural, performance may suffer. With flexibility, employees have more room to experiment with a workflow that caters to their strengths. When employers allow flexibility in schedules, many workplace anxieties are relieved. Parents and pet parents can take care of their families without stressing if missing an afternoon at the office will be held against them. Workers who don’t do well in open-office layouts now have the choice to work from home in solitude.

What’s happening is workers are realizing the forced-flexibility COVID-19 brought on last year has drastically improved their day-to-day work life. And those workers are willing to jump ship if their employer makes them go back to the cookie-cutter office ways.

Compromise is no longer an option, it’s a necessity

There’s a problem with this new worker enlightenment, and it exists because business leaders are getting in their own way.

Despite overwhelming evidence citing worker wishes, as well as increased engagement and productivity, CEOs still expect their employees to continue working in person once it is safe to do so. In a Best Practice Institute survey, 83 percent of CEOs said they expect their employees to be at the office full time. Echoing those findings, Morgan Stanley chief James Gorman did not mince words when it came to his stance on continuing remote work.

“If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office. And we want you in the office.”

And though it appears Gorman is firm in his stance, he will soon be in for a big surprise when Morgan Stanley’s best talent starts resigning in favor of opportunities with more flexibility. It’s a burgeoning trend CoStar has already gotten ahead of. To encourage employees to come into work, the real estate data company randomly awards vaccinated employees with cash, paid vacations and a Tesla.

After working remotely for more than a year, workers know they can be productive without having their colleagues and managers surrounding them for eight or more hours a day. Now that CEOs are requiring employee attendance, those employees are calling B.S. They’ve seen what’s possible and they don’t see a reason to go back.

In fact, workers put more weight in a flexible employment opportunity than they do a hefty pay increase. In a survey of 3,000 employees from 45 companies, two thirds would turn down a $30,000 raise in favor of a full-time remote working option.

The longer business leaders hold out on employee wishes, the more employees they will watch head out the door.

Entering a war

With the vaccination rate increasing and states getting rid of COVID-19 restrictions one at a time, business leaders either have their back-to-normal plans in place or are currently working on them. These procedures are crucial, as every company will find out if they will trigger an exodus.

And it’s not just CEOs versus workers in this talent war. Businesses are now opening and will soon be fully operational if they are not already. Those openings come with positions that need to be filled. And with vaccines providing talent with a sense of safety, more people feel comfortable seeking out employment.

ZipRecruiter is already seeing the beginning of the talent war, with the company’s labor economist Julia Pollack noting an increase in remote positions on the website, as well as candidates holding out for positions that offer flexibility.

“People who could only find in-person retail work before are now hearing of friends and family who got remote jobs in business services, insurance, and finance,” Pollack told Inc. “And those are very attractive to them.”

For businesses looking to attract the best of the best, offering flexibility is a good starting point. If that is not possible, it’s important for those business leaders to work with employees on what would make the office a better place to spend their time.