These (Well Known) Companies are Bringing Employees Back to the Office

For the last three years, employees have had flexible schedules working from home, but that may become a thing of the past sooner than we thought. Employers have seen the signs of quiet quitting and declines in productivity, creativity and collaboration – and they’re concerned. Tech CEOs who originally embraced remote work as the way of the future are blaming it for diminishing productivity and many companies are setting mandates to bring their employees back to the office.

We’ve compiled a list of some well known companies that are asking for a return to the office, and what their new office policies look like:

Google

In April 2022, employees were told to return to the office for at least three days a week. In August 2023, Google updated its hybrid three-day-a-week office policy to include badge tracking and noted attendance will be included in performance reviews. Also, employees who have already received approval for remote work may now have that status reevaluated.

Zoom

Even Zoom doesn’t want to Zoom anymore. Leadership is mandating employees that live within a 50 mile radius of an office return to the office at least 2 days per week – they plan to roll out this new policy by September 2023.

Citadel

They’ve been back in the office since June 2021 and it's contributed to their best year to date in 2022, with about $28 billion in revenue. Ken Griffin, Founder said in a June interview "We make so much money because our competition plays in their pajamas – and that's just been a home run for us."

Amazon

As of May 1st 2023, all corporate employees must spend three days in the office per week. The CEO believes that in person work will encourage employees to collaborate. After the surprise announcement, employees joined a Slack channel to discuss the new mandate. Some of which started the process of filing a petition against the change. 

Meta

Back in March 2022, employees were asked to return to the office 50% of the time. Now, as of fall 2023, Meta is ordering employees back to the office 3 days per week.

Apple

Back in August 2022, the CEO announced that all employees must return to the office at least three days a week. Just like Amazon, they believe that in person work will help collaboration among employees.

Twitter

In November 2022, Elon Musk stated to employees that not showing up to the office when they’re able to was the same as a resignation. He also emailed all employees saying that remote work was no longer allowed and that they were expected to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week unless given approval to work elsewhere. As of now, Twitter is looking to sublease up to 200,000 square feet of NYC space in Flatiron.

Salesforce

The company is requiring non-remote employees to go to the office three days a week, “customer-facing” roles are required to go in four days a week, and engineers are being required to go into the office 10 days per quarter. During this transition, they will also be letting go of underperformers. 

BlackRock

BlackRock will require its employees to work from the office four days a week starting September 11, 2023. 

Starbucks

Starting January 2023, the CEO stated that all employees within commuting distance would have to return to the office at least three days a week. Like Amazon and Apple, employees signed an open letter protesting the return-to-office mandate. 

IBM

The CEO has encouraged employees to return to the office for three days a week. He isn’t enforcing it, but he did make it clear that employees who work from home will have a harder time in their career, as they may struggle to get promotions. 

Uber

In April 2022, the CEO told employees that they must return to the office at least half the time. He also mentioned that the other days they were allowed to work remotely, and that some could be entirely remote if they get clearance from their managers. 

Goldman Sachs

Back in March 2022, the company asked employees to return to the office five days a week. In October 2022, only about 65% of employees were working in the office but as of Summer 2023, all revenue producing employees are back in the office. GS leadership continues to ask employees to return to the office 5 days per week. 

JP Morgan

In August 2022, the CEO pushed back on remote work and asked half of their employees to return to the office five days a week and another 40% to go in a few days a week. They’ve been collecting data on staff activity, which includes attendance. Following this strategy, as of Spring 2023, they mandated that all managing directors must come into the office five days a week, believing this will shape the rest of Wall Street’s work from home rules. 

Disney

Back in March 2023, all employees who were working a hybrid schedule were asked to return to the office four days a week. 

Citigroup

Back in March 2022, vaccinated employees were asked to return to the office for at least 2 days a week. 

Now that you have a glimpse into what other companies are doing, you may be wondering if your space is ready for employees to come back. Do you need more/less space? Or are you sticking to a fully remote workstyle and need to terminate your lease? When it comes to office needs, we can help! 

Please reach out to me at brosenblatt@cresa.com or call my cell (917) 862-8820 if you’d like to talk about your space options.