Starbucks issues ‘come to the office 3 times a week or be fired’ notice

Starbucks has notified its employees that it requires them to report to the company three times a week or face termination, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. While working from home has become commonplace in the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of large companies, including Starbucks, Amazon, and Dell, have recently started requiring employees to ‘work in the office.’

Starbucks recently emailed its employees asking them to work in the office, according to Bloomberg. The company also announced that it would implement measures to hold employees accountable for failing to comply, including termination. Starbucks has been struggling with poor business performance lately. In August, CEO Laxman Narasimhan stepped down, and Brian Nicol, who formerly led fast-food chain Chipotle, was named the new CEO.

“Starbucks is the latest example of companies switching from carrots to sticks in the employee 'back-to-work' war,” Bloomberg wrote, citing Amazon's previous attempts to do the same. Currently, Amazon employees work from home two days a week. But last month, CEO Andy Jassy issued a company-wide memo demanding that employees “come to work five days a week starting next January.”

“If you look back over the last five years, the benefits of working together in an office are significant,” Jassy said. ”We're better able to collaborate, brainstorm, invent, and connect across teams.” To that end, Amazon said it will rearrange employees' office desks to accommodate the five-day work week.

In addition to layoffs, some companies are pressuring people to return to the office by limiting promotions. Earlier this year, Dell Technologies announced that “employees who choose to work remotely will not be eligible for promotions.” Major Wall Street banks have also warned that “working from home will jeopardize your career prospects.” The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that office vacancy rates in major U.S. cities are stabilizing as more companies require employees to come into the office.

Some employees are resisting companies’ demand by signing protest letters and quitting their jobs. Bloomberg notes that some companies are effectively forcing employees to quit voluntarily by asking them to come into the office to work. However, it said some of those who chose to leave were employees the company didn't want to lose.


Woo-Sun Lim imsun@donga.com