By Mia Gindis and Jo Constantz | Bloomberg
Companies are getting serious about returning to the office despite opposition from workers set on keeping their flexible hours. In one of the latest moves, Citigroup Inc. said this week it is requiring stricter office attendance compliance. Amid mounting layoffs and signs of a softening economy, a growing number of firms such as Blackrock Inc., Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Snap Inc. and Walt Disney Co. have felt emboldened to require workers to show up four days a week, testing the limits of the half in-office, half at-home post-pandemic equilibrium.
Under the stepped up return-to-office push, workers will need to decide whether to leave or stick it out. Though overall quit rates are easing in the US, a recent Markets Live Pulse survey found roughly one in two finance professionals said they’d switch jobs — or already have — if their managers cut back work-from-home.
This year’s return-to-office policies follow 2022 mandates from the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Apple Inc. and Peloton Interactive Inc. (Last year Bloomberg LP required its workers to return to the office a minimum of three days a week.)
Some executives have tried to rebrand the renewed RTO effort, emphasizing a continued commitment to flexibility while sounding familiar notes on the value of “creativity,” “collaboration” and “culture.” Meanwhile, speculation has arisen among disaffected workers about other reasons executives want workers back in person, such as keeping corporate tax breaks or as a way to quietly trim headcount without announcing layoffs.
Here’s an updated list of major companies ordering workers back to their desks in 2023:
Amazon.com Inc. The company’s three-day-a-week office policy started in May. That’s after CEO Andy Jassy said in October that managers would be able to decide how often, if at all, their staff should come in. The order came on the…
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