During the peak of the pandemic, lots of folks working from home got used to waking up at 9:00 am, even if they had a meeting at 9:15 am. But as things started to calm down, offices began reopening and bosses like Sundar Pichai from Google, Marck Zuckerberg from Meta, and Andy Jassy from Amazon told their teams to come back to the office. Sounds simple, right? Well, turns out employees weren’t exactly thrilled about going back to the daily grind. Can’t blame ’em, can you?
Many firms, including Amazon and Microsoft, are abandoning the WFH experiment in favour of in-person cooperation, with 14% of Fortune 100 corporations implementing return-to-office mandates as early as 2021. However, as others consider the consequences of abandoning remote working and face rising backlash from their employees, mandatory returns have been postponed.
To shed light on organisations that have recently reversed their positions on remote work, we’ve compiled a list of companies who have decided to end the practise in 2023, as well as several that made similar judgements last year.
Which Businesses Will Not Support Complete Remote Work in 2023?
Companies that have decided to discontinue remote employment by 2023 include:
General Motors
General Motors, located in Detroit, stated in October that it would begin a return-to-work programme for paid employees on January 30. This was a significant departure from the company’s previous policy, which permitted them to operate remotely until 2023.
The corporation expects its 53,000 salaried employees to return to work an average of three days each week. However, GM’s stance is less solid than those of its competitors, with the manufacturer informing its employees that it will listen to their criticism and incorporate it into the implementation of its future plans.
United Parcel Service
UPS, another Fortune 500 firm, opted to implement a mixed work schedule at the beginning of this year. The delivery company required all of its white-collar employees to report to its Atlanta office at least three days per week. The decision affected approximately 3,600 UPS employees, the majority of whom had been working remotely since the start of Covid-19.
UPS has attempted to make this experience as pleasant as possible for its employees by renovating its cafeteria and making senior management available for comments. Moreover, unlike Disney and Amazon, UPS asserts that this choice was made in response to employee demand, with vice president Chris Bartlett noting, “we listened, looked at the needs of the business, looked at people’s feedback, and selected what we thought was the best course of action.”
Meta
Meta announced a policy change in June 2023 that would force all office-based personnel to return to their individual offices at least three days per week, beginning September 5.
This comes two months after Facebook ceased advertising “remote” or “out of the office” choices on job advertisements and pushed employees to embrace a hybrid strategy.
Meta has been a strong supporter of flexible policies since it initially allowed remote work during Covid-19. However, with the average Meta employee working 2.2 days per week at the time of the announcement, this change is unlikely to disrupt weekly patterns significantly.
Dell
Employees at Dell have had a difficult few months. Following the announcement of thousands of layoffs in February, those employees who remain have been instructed that they must return to the office.
According to The Register, COO Jeff Clarke wrote a note to colleagues urging that individuals who live within an hour’s commute of the office should make the trip at least three days a week. This move follows a prior vow to a more robust work-from-home policy, which saw CEO Michael Dell state in 2020, ‘I think if you were sceptical about work from home, you definitely aren’t anymore. And I believe we’ve all learned a lot in these last several months.’ The corporation also highlighted the environmental impact of the move to remote at the time, highlighting the reduction in greenhouse gases generally caused by transportation.
Disney
After re-joining the company in November of last year, Disney’s new CEO Bob Iger invited staff to return to the office from Monday through Thursday this January in an effort to improve the company’s “creativity,” “culture,” and employees’ careers. Technically, this was not the company’s first attempt to shift away from remote working, as the mandate superseded a three-day-a-week policy in effect since 2021.
Unfortunately for the CEO, this policy change was not well received, with 2,300 Disney employees signing a petition asking Iger to reconsider the policy owing to its “unintended consequences” that could bring “long-term harm to the company.” This opposition hasn’t proven to make much of an impact, as Disney’s four-day-a-week policy remains in effect.
Amazon
Amazon chose to abandon its WFH policy in February, requiring all employees to return to the office at least three days each week beginning May 1. Simply put, workers were dissatisfied. Employees launched an internal petition to protest Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s mandate, encouraging him to consider a new, more flexible working arrangement.
In March, the corporation reaffirmed its decision, disclosing in an internal Amazon FAQ that the three-day return policy will still be applied with limited flexibility. While Amazon appears to be following current tech industry norms, the new policy represents a significant shift from its pandemic-era policy, which allowed managers to select if and how frequently their workers needed to be in the office.
Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard may be responsible for some of the world’s most popular games, such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, but when it comes to remote working, the company isn’t playing.
Activision staff were told they had to return to work on April 10th, whereas Blizzard employees had until July before they have to start commuting again. Blizzard game producers have been vociferous on Twitter against the policy, which has resulted in a personnel exodus.
Starbucks
After attempting and failing to implement a one-day return in September, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz demanded that all corporate employees return to work at least three days a week in January. According to a communication published by Schultz, statistics suggested that personnel were not previously adhering to this flexible requirement, requiring him to take this shift in policy more seriously.
This new move went into effect on January 30 as part of the CEO’s push to “rebuild” the company’s office culture, with all personnel who reside within commuting distance of the company’s Seattle headquarters being expected to work from the office Tuesdays, Wednesdays and a third day of their choice. Employees reporting to regional offices are expected to follow identical directions, however contact days are not required.
Walmart
Not to be outdone, in addition to compelling all white-collar staff to return to work two days a week, Walmart has opted to move hundreds of employees while it shutters its Austin, Carlsbad, and Portland offices to recoup costs.
According to the Wall Street Journal, as part of a “location strategy” articulated by the company’s CEO, Doug McMillon, certain relocated personnel will be allowed to become full-time remote workers. However, for the vast majority of Walmart employees, failure to relocate to cities with existing hub offices will result in dismissal from the corporation.
“2022: Companies Drop the Remote Act and Demand Employees Back in the Office!”
While many companies delayed asking employees to return until this year, the bulk of enterprises, including 32% of Fortune 100 companies, withdrew their WFH policies in 2022.
Notable examples include Apple, which delayed its three-day return policy from September 2021 to early 2022 in response to considerable employee outrage, and Uber, which similarly delayed its hybrid policy until April 2022 in response to the Omicron virus. Salesforce also began calling some employees back into the office on January 1, 2022, and has since required individuals in customer-facing roles to commute at least four days per week.
Other companies that have reversed their WFH policies include Goldman Sachs, which has required employees to return to the office for the full five days beginning in March 2022, Capital One, which has opened its doors for the first time since the pandemic began last September, and Citigroup, which has requested that all vaccinated employees return to in-person work beginning in February 2022.
The writing was on the wall when Elon Musk took over as CEO of Twitter last year. Musk, a notorious opponent of remote working, had already required that Tesla employees come to the office, and he did the same when he arrived at Twitter (along with sacking more than half of the company).
KPMG notified its staff in 2021 that they will only be expected to work two days per week. However, by December of the same year, the corporation had directed employees to return to the office at least four days a week due to concerns about the audit quality.
As the economy remains unpredictable and huge corporations continue to feel the pinch, it is unavoidable that more business executives will seek hybrid models to maximise profits. However, the business landscape remains fragmented, and many companies still embrace remote working thanks to smooth online conferencing capabilities.
Is this the end for Work-From-Home?
Not so fast! While some companies are pushing for a return to the office, the future of remote work is still up for debate. As we navigate this transitional period, it’s important to consider the diverse needs and preferences of employees.
Will remote work become a relic of the past, or will it remain a valuable option for the workforce?
Are we underestimating the benefits of remote work, such as increased productivity and work-life balance?
How can companies strike a balance between in-person collaboration and the flexibility of remote work?
What lessons have we learned from this grand experiment of working from home, and how can we apply them to create more inclusive and adaptable work environments?
Only time will tell if this marks the end or the evolution of work-from-home practices. The future workplace landscape awaits, shaped by the collective choices of companies and the desires of their employees.