Return to the office already. That’s what CEOs are increasingly telling remote workers who have grown accustomed to working from home—and who have ignored requests to resume working at the company building.
On Wednesday, Starbucks announced that starting on Jan. 30, employees who live within commuting distance of its offices must return to working in them three days a week.
Interim CEO Howard Schultz expressed annoyance that employees had ignored an earlier request to return to the office. While an agreement had been reached last year to work one to two days per week in the office, badge swipes indicated many employees “are not meeting their minimum promise,” he wrote in a blog post.
Workers at Walt Disney Co. received a similar message this week from Bob Iger, who returned as CEO in November. In a memo sent Monday, according to Bloomberg, Iger wrote: “Employees currently working in a hybrid fashion will be asked to spend four days a week on-site, targeting Monday through Thursday as in-person workdays.”
And at News Corp, parent company of Dow Jones, CEO Robert Thomson sent a memo on Thursday indicating that a return to the office will be mandatory, according to Talking Biz News.
“I am asking the heads of our businesses to consult with their managers, and ultimately all of you, to ensure full compliance with in-office work schedules, so that what exists in theory happens in practice,” he wrote. “Those schedules will evolve in coming weeks, but the net result must be that more people return more frequently to our offices. Attendance is an absolute imperative as collaboration and cooperation are priorities for each of our businesses.”
The remote-work normal that began with the pandemic has stretched on for years for many white-collar workers, many of whom have fought hard to keep working from home. But the latest missives from high-profile CEOs could point to a major new development in the return-to-office wars.
Investment giant Vanguard Group, which requires employees to work from the office Tuesday through Thursday, sent a memo similar to Iger’s last month, noting that many employees had ignored a requirement to work in offices from Tuesday to Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Such memos often argue that the company culture has suffered as a result of workers not collaborating in offices.
At Starbucks, Schultz wrote, “I think many of us crave a bigger meaning to our work, and the camaraderie and joy from doing our best work together…Our culture depends on rituals—from coffee tastings