Dwindling managerial optimism about working from home has major companies consider office attendance in their employee performance reviews.
After the pandemic, tech companies were outspokenly supportive of remote work, and for a while, it seemed that working from home had become a staple arrangement—not just in the tech world.
Employer sentiments have become less optimistic over time, especially after big lay-offs hit multiple tech giants. More companies are now announcing official hybrid schedules to have employees spend more time at the office.
In a company-wide email last week, Google Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi informed staff that the company will consider office attendance records in performance reviews, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Back in April, Google, Alphabet’s search engine giant, had already asked employees to come in three days a week. According to The Washington Post, many employees flat-out ignored the request. Google has now decided it will send reminders to employers with frequent long-term absences.
The company said it would not be micro-managing attendance but was seeking to prevent people from avoiding office time for weeks or months at a time.
Earlier this month, Facebook parent company Meta, who recently cut over 10,000 jobs, ordered workers spend three days a week at the office.
The change intends to foster “the collaboration, relationships, and culture necessary for employees to do their best work,” a spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.
The law firm Davis Polk and banking giant JPMorgan have taken similar measures, considering in-office attendance a performance review criterion.
In April, ridesharing company Lyft backtracked on its promise that work should be “fully flexible” after laying off 26 percent of its employees, now requiring office attendance three days a week.
“Things just move faster when you’re face to face,” CEO David Risher told The New York Times in April.
The cloud-based software company Salesforce promised its employees that it would donate $10 to a local charity for each day they come to work from June 12 to June 23.
In the past year, major companies such as Disney, Twitter, and Starbucks have likewise demanded employees spend more time at the office.
Working from home has been a strong favorite with employees, as it gives them more freedom and saves them the time and trouble of commuting. In an April survey, 26 percent of employees said they “would rather get a root canal than work in the office five days a week.”
Last month, hundreds of Amazon employees walked out of the job over return-to-office mandates.
