Feed: Slashdot
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Title: More Return-to-Office Crackdowns, with 61.7% of Employees Now in
Office Full-Time

Link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/09/13/040256...

Paramount and Comcast's NBCUniversal are joining Microsoft in telling
employees "they could face consequences if they don't return to the office
more frequently," reports the Washington Post: NBCUniversal sent a memo to
its employees telling them to return to the office four days a week starting
in January [with the option to work remotely on Fridays]. Last week,
Paramount told employees to return five days a week, with the first group
starting in January. Both Paramount and NBCUniversal said they would offer
severance packages to eligible employees who are unwilling or unable to make
the switch... Companies have been cracking down on flexible work for the past
several years, with Goldman Sachs being one of the first to implement a five-
day office policy. Since then, others have joined in including Amazon,
AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and the federal government... Overall, the number of
people working full time in office hasn't changed much over the past couple
of years. About 61.7 percent of salaried employees worked from an office full
time in August, according to data from university researchers Jose Maria
Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis, who are studying the matter.
That is down one percentage point from August 2024, their research shows.
During the same period, the amount of people working remotely dropped two
percentage points and those working hybrid schedules increased three points.
While most of the big office pushes are coming from some of the largest
employers in the nation, the majority of companies in the United States
aren't requiring full-time office work, said Brian Elliott [publisher of the
Flex Index, which tracks flexible policies, and CEO]. And about half of U.S.
workers are employed by smaller companies, he added. Some companies are
capitalizing on the mandates, using flexible policies as a way to poach
talent from their competitors, he said.... Some employers are using office
mandates to purposely shed workers. An August report from the Federal Reserve
Bank shows that "multiple districts reported reducing headcounts through
attrition - encouraged, at times, by return-to-office policies and
facilitated, at times, by greater automation, including new AI tools." Still,
with fewer job openings in the market, some employees will have to comply
with office mandates. Announcing their return-to-office mandates, employers
gave the following reasons: "In-person collaboration is absolutely vital to
building and strengthening our culture and driving the success of our
business. Being together helps us innovate, solve problems, share ideas,
create, challenge one another, and build the relationships that will make
this company great." -- Paramount CEO David Ellison (in a memo to staff) "It
has become increasingly clear that we are better when we are together. As we
have all experienced, in-person work and collaboration spark innovation,
promote creativity, and build stronger connections." -- Adam Miller,
NBCUniversal chief operating officer (in a memo to staff)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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