Zoom, the most-relied-upon platform facilitating remote work during the pandemic, has now asked its employees to return to the office two days a week.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Zoom said the company believes that a “structured hybrid approach” would be the “most effective” to run the company.
Employees living within 50 miles of an office are now required to be physically present two days a week “to interact with their teams,” the spokesperson said.
Zoom’s decision follows that of many companies, including Google, Meta, Lyft, Disney, Starbucks, JPMorgan, as businesses in various sectors are seeking a new balance after what now appears to be an overly enthusiastic bet on remote work.
“As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continuing to innovate, and support our global customers,” the spokesperson said. “We’ll continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently.”
“The remote-work revolution is officially dead,” Insider declared after breaking the news.
It is a remarkable turn of events, considering Zoom’s role in making remote work possible during the often mandatory lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than any other platform, Zoom’s videoconferencing service became the go-to app for businesses to hold meetings and conferences, which in turn led people to use the platform to video chat with friends and family.
To keep up with the rising demand during the pandemic, the company grew three times its size in 24 months. Shares rocketed from $89 before the pandemic’s start to a record $559 in October 2020, during the peak of the lockdowns.
After the lockdowns, several businesses touted that remote work was here to stay, a stand many came back from after its downsides became apparent—a change, of course, not always appreciated by all employees.
Zoom Staff Cutbacks
In February, Zoom announced it was cutting the workforce by 15 percent—roughly 1,300 jobs—following a falling demand for its video-conferencing services during a wind-down from the pandemic and as companies began reverting their stance on remote work.
During the announcement of the layoffs, CEO Eric Yuan stated he would take a 98 percent pay cut and forgo his bonus. Members of the executive leadership team also reduced their base salaries by 20 percent for the coming fiscal year and forfeited their fiscal year 2023 bonuses.
At the time, Mr. Yuan said: “We worked tirelessly and made Zoom better for our customers and users. But we also made mistakes. We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities.”
Zoom currently employs 8,000 employees at 12 offices worldwide.
