Howard Schultz
David Ryder | Reuters
Starbucks Company employees will be returning to the office at least three days a week through the end of the month.
Beginning Jan. 30, employees within commuting distance are required to report to the coffee giant’s Seattle headquarters on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and a third day determined by their teams. The memo did not specify what qualified as a commute.
Workers closer to regional offices are also required to come three days a week, although the specific days are not mandated.
The coffee giant’s corporate workforce has been working remotely since the pandemic began. In September, Starbucks required these employees to work from the office one to two days a week. But CEO Howard Schultz wrote in a memo to employees on Wednesday that identification data showed the employees were not complying with that policy.
The new policy is designed to “rebuild our connection to one another and synchronize teams and efforts,” according to the memo from Schultz, who is leaving the company this spring. He also compared the continued remote work of company employees to baristas who never had that option.
Schultz stepped in as interim CEO in April after former CEO Kevin Johnson retired. In his third stint at the company, he announced a $450 million plan to reinvent Starbucks and fix what he called “self-inflicted errors.”
Starbucks isn’t the only company to recently mandate a stricter return-to-office policy. CEO Bob Iger, who has returned for his second leadership role DisneyHe told staff Monday they needed to return to the office.
Elon Musk had even higher expectations for being in the office at Twitter after acquiring the social media company. and Apple Mandated employees return to work three days a week in September.
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