- Many major companies are requiring employees to return to the office full or part-time.
- Insider compiled a running list of the companies calling employees back.
- The list includes companies like Amazon, BlackRock, Disney, and JPMorgan.
Since COVID-19 restrictions eased, many companies have been calling their employees back to the office.
Some executives and leaders believe productivity increases when workers are in the office together, while others hope to increase in-person collaboration. Some employers are taking extremes to get people back, tracking attendance or threatening to terminate workers who don’t comply.
Among major employers, JPMorgan Chase is abandoning a hybrid attendance policy it adopted during the pandemic and requiring executives to return to the office. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Andy Jassy issued a mandate for corporate staffers. And Salesforce’s leadership has also drafted a return-to-office policy, according to a draft of the company’s strategic plan shared in an internal Slack message viewed by Insider.
Here’s a list, in alphabetical order, of major companies requiring employees to return to offices. Insider will update this list regularly.
Amazon
Jassy said in a February memo that he will require corporate employees to spend at least three days per week in the office beginning May 1. The CEO said he and Amazon’s leadership team decided it would be easier for employees to collaborate and that in-person work would strengthen the company’s culture.
In response, thousands of Amazon employees joined a Slack channel to share their thoughts about the company’s surprise return-to-office mandate, with some even organizing to file a petition against the change, Insider’s Eugene Kim reported.
Apple
In August, senior leaders told workers they had to return to the office at least three days a week. CEO Tim Cook said the decision was meant to restore “in-person collaboration.” Employees fought back and issued a petition shortly after the announcement, arguing that staffers can do “exceptional work” from home.
Read more: Apple workers hit back against the company’s return-to-office plans, saying they have carried out ‘exceptional work’ from home
BlackRock
Starting in September, BlackRock is mandating employees return to the office four days a week. The investment firm, which is headquartered in New York City, is making an effort to bring employees into the newly leased office space — which spans 1 million square feet across 15 floors, according to Hudson Yards.
In a May memo sent by the company’s COO, Rob Goldstein, and the head of human resources, Caroline Heller, the execs wrote: “Career development happens in teaching moments between team members, and it is accelerated during market-moving moments, when we step up and get into the mix. All of this requires us to be together in the office.”
Additionally, the memo notified staffers that the firm is giving them the opportunity to work remotely for two weeks during a time period that is relevant in their country, in an effort to offer “seasonal flexibility.”
Read more: BlackRock is mandating 4 days in the office, starting in September. Read the memo on the firm’s plans.
Chipotle
The fast-food chain plans to require that corporate workers work in the office four days a week, according to Bloomberg. Chipotle, which had been requiring workers to show up three days a week, announced the shift in late May, according to the report.
Read more: Chipotle Calls Corporate Staff Into Office Four Days a Week
Citigroup
Vaccinated Citigroup employees across the US were asked to return to the office for at least two days a week in March 2022, an internal memo obtained by Reuters said.
Read more: Return-to-work wars: Execs at Citi, Manpower, and McKinsey on why they’re embracing remote and hybrid work
Disney
In a memo obtained by Insider, CEO Bob Iger told workers that starting in March, any Disney staff member working “in a hybrid fashion” will need to return to Disney’s offices four days a week.
But some employees are fighting that mandate.
Read more: Disney CEO Bob Iger tells staff to return to the office 4 days a week, saying ‘nothing can replace’ in-person work
Goldman Sachs
In March, CEO David Solomon told Fortune that the company was asking employees to return to the office five days a week. In October, he told CNBC that about 65% of staffers were working in the office.
Read more: Goldman Sachs’ return-to-office policy has brought back 65% of its workers to the workplace 5 days a week, the bank’s famously anti-remote-work CEO said
Google employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and “several other US locations” were told to return to the office for at least three days a week starting in April 2022.
Read more: Google is calling employees back to some US offices for 3 days a week starting April 4, with flexibility like ‘work from anywhere’ weeks
IBM
IBM’s CEO, Arvind Krishna, has encouraged workers to return to the office for three days a week.
Meanwhile, IBM’s HR chief told Insider in 2021 that most employees would return to the office part-time after the pandemic.
Recently, Krishna told Bloomberg that employees’ careers could suffer if they work from home. He said that although he wasn’t forcing his own staffers back to the office, he thought remote workers may struggle to get promotions. Krishna has been IBM’s CEO since 2020.
Read more: IBM chief says employees’ careers could suffer and promotions may be harder to achieve if they work from home
JPMorgan
In August, CEO Jamie Dimon pushed back on remote work, saying it didn’t work for an apprenticeship program or “spontaneous stuff,” Yahoo Finance reported.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan asked half of its employees to return to the office five days a week and another 40% to go in a few days a week. The company has been collecting data on staff activity, including tracking attendance.
Most recently, the bank said it will mandate that all managing directors come to the office five days a week. It’s a move that could shape the rest of Wall Street’s work-from-home rules.
Read more: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told clients that remote work ‘slows down honesty and decision making,’ report says
Meta
Meta has stopped offering remote work when it lists new jobs, at least for now. It’s also announced that employees will be required to head into the office three days a week starting in September.
Hiring managers have been told they can no longer post new jobs that list the work location as “remote” or outside of an existing office, people familiar with the company told Insider. The move is another sign that the company is drifting away from its previously friendly approach to remote-work.
Read more: Meta stops offering remote work in new job postings as Mark Zuckerberg pushes the benefits of coming to the office
Redfin
On April 23, 2023, real estate company Redfin announced an updated return-to-office policy via a memo from CEO Glenn Kelman.
The memo noted that starting on July 11, Redfin would require headquarters employees who live within 20 miles of the company’s Seattle, San Francisco, and Frisco offices to work from the office for a full day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Those who live beyond the 20-mile radius, will be required to visit the office in-person once a quarter for a day or more of meetings, the company said.
In order to hold employees accountable, the memo included a “no-exceptions” section, reading that “to determine your distance from an office, we’ll use Google Maps, with the distance from your home address measured in miles driven over roads by car.”
Read more: Redfin is shutting down its home-flipping business and laying off 13% of staff
Salesforce
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has made revisions to the company’s annual strategic plan, including return-to-office mandates, according to a draft of the document shared in an internal Slack message viewed by Insider. In February 2021, Salesforce said workers could “work from anywhere.”
The updated draft return-to-office policy would require three days a week in the office for nonremote employees and four days a week for employees in “non-remote” and “customer-facing” roles. Engineers would be required to work from the office 10 days per quarter, down from 20 in the initial draft, which was updated based on employee feedback.
Read more: Salesforce’s Marc Benioff has revised a plan to stack rank a bottom 5% and ordered employees back to the office, according to leaked messages
Snap
Snap employees will be required to work in an office at least four days a week as of February 2023, a person familiar with the plans told Insider. This was announced during CEO Evan Spiegel’s weekly chat and Q&A with employees. The change represents a shift from the company’s former policy, which is “remote first” and allows employees to work from home or elsewhere.
Read more: Snap employees must work in the office at least 4 days a week next year, ending its ‘remote first’ policy
Starbucks
In a memo to corporate staffers, CEO Howard Schultz said employees within commuting distance would be required to return to the office at least three days a week starting January 31. In August, Schultz said he was doing everything he could to get workers in the office.
Starbucks employees, however, have signed an open letter protesting the company’s return-to-office mandate.
Read more: Howard Schultz says baristas don’t have the ‘privilege’ of working from home as he orders Starbucks staff back to the office 3 days a week
Tesla
In June 2022, Tesla employees were notified of a mandatory return-to-office policy.
The email from Elon Musk included wording such as “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,” and noted that everyone at Tesla must work from the office at least 40 hours a week.
Musk nodded to his frequent presence at Tesla factories as the reason for the businesses success, writing, “If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.”
Read more: Elon Musk reportedly issued an ultimatum to Tesla staff: return to the office or quit
After buying Twitter in October, Musk told employees in November that not showing up to an office when they’re able to was the same as a resignation, The Verge reported.
Musk also told staffers in an email that remote work was no longer allowed and that employees were expected to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week unless given explicit approval to work elsewhere.
Read more: Elon Musk tells Twitter employees to return to the office or their resignations will be accepted
Uber
In a memo obtained by Insider, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees that beginning in April 2022, Uber staffers in 35 of the company’s locations were required to return to the office at least half the time. He added that on other days staffers were allowed to work remotely and that some could be entirely remote if they get clearance from their managers.
Read more: Uber CEO’s internal memo mandates employees return to the office in April. That’s in stark contrast to rival Lyft.
An earlier version of this story appeared on February 24, 2023.
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