Many leading CEOs have taken aim at remote work this year, citing a need to return to the office to boost productivity. These decisions are putting management at odds with employees who have come to consider working from home a favorite perk.
According to polls, most remote employees want to continue doing so. Moreover, those still working in offices increasingly want to enjoy the flexibility afforded by alternative work arrangements, including working from home.
While there may not be a one-size-fits-all answer, one Fortune 500 company has a unique solution that may appease everybody.
Companies look to do away with remote work
During the height of the COVID crisis, employers were in a bind. Many workers retired early, and others embraced gig work for improved work-life balance. At the same time, demand across many industries surged because of easy money policies, including zero interest rates and stimulus payments.
Companies turned to creative work arrangements, including hybrid and work-from-home, to attract enough workers to make the most of the opportunity.
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Employees quickly became fans of these arrangements. The flexibility to work from anywhere allowed many to move to less costly areas, reduce expensive daycare, and more easily schedule vacations and doctor appointments.
While workers were happy, employers have become increasingly concerned that this flexibility reduces creativity and slows innovation — concerns that are increasing as companies fire employees because of economic uncertainty caused by higher interest rates and profit-busting inflation.
When Elon Musk took over Twitter (now rebranded as "X") last fall, he fired 6,000 employees and ended remote work unless he personally approved it.
After giving pink slips to about one-fifth of its workforce in mid-August, Facebook and Instagram's parent company Meta Platforms (META) -) told workers assigned to offices to begin appearing in the office at least three times per week beginning September 5 or risk being fired.
A similar message has been spreading around Wall Street, too. JP Morgan's (JPM) -) Jamie Dimon suggested workers who didn't want to return to offices might want to brush up their resumes. Goldman Sachs' (GS) -) CEO David Solomon is urging workers to return to the office five days per week, while Citigroup (C) -) has said that failure to return to the office as instructed could impact performance reviews and compensation.
More work-from-home stories:
- Amazon issues a hard-nosed warning to workers
- JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon delivers a stern warning to remote workers
- Wall Street bankers want to take away your favorite work perk
Similarly, Amazon (AMZN) -) CEO Andy Jassy told workers in August, ‘It’s probably not going to work out" if they refused to work from the office three times weekly.
This tough talk on remote work goes against what employees want, given just 6% want to be in offices full-time in the future, according to Gallup.
This company has a different take on remote work
JM Smucker (SJM) -) is a Fortune 500 company and an S&P 500 component. As one of the biggest consumer goods companies, its approach to remote work is being watched closely.
Unlike Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, and other CEOs who are taking a hard-nosed approach to return-to-office policies, the maker of peanut butter and jams has told employees that they can live anywhere they want, as long as they come to the Ohio headquarters during 22 pre-specified "core weeks."
The company says its 1,300 corporate employees have responded favorably to its return-to-office plan.
During core weeks, workers have face-to-face time with most co-workers and managers, allowing them to hash out solutions to problems and set goals in person. At the same time, the policy largely preserves the concept of work-from-anywhere that's made remote work so popular.
Smucker's is also discovering that its approach allows it to recruit more broadly, tapping into workers who might be an excellent fit but unwilling to relocate to its Orville, Ohio corporate office.
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