AT&T, Sweetgreen Join Frontlines In RTO Battle With Stricter Mandates
Major corporations are setting their New Year's resolutions: Get people out of the house and back into the office.
AT&T and Sweetgreen have rolled out new policies that require most corporate workers to come into an office five and four days per week, respectively, Bloomberg reports.
After mandating last year that 60,000 managers must attend the office at least three days a week, AT&T will require more of its 124,000 U.S. employees to report to corporate locations Monday through Friday starting in January, per Bloomberg.
Its return-to-office push had mixed results. The telecommunications giant's CEO, John Stankey, wanted managers to report to one of nine of its core locations, and out of the 60,000, only 18,000 chose to comply with the orders, Bloomberg reported.
Sweetgreen, the Los Angeles-based fast-casual salad chain, plans to require four days in offices for non-restaurant employees starting Jan. 2. Requirements vary depending on circumstance and location. CEO Jonathan Neman told Bloomberg the company is shifting from a soft three or four-days-a-week policy to a “hard four”
Like Amazon, which announced its five-day on-site policy for 2025 in September, the mandates begin in January for non-frontline employees. But just this week, Amazon reportedly pushed back the start of its new mandate for employees in at least seven cities because it doesn't have enough space to accommodate all the workers at once.
While corporate giants like Amazon and AT&T draw more attention when they announce office attendance policy changes, they are happening in businesses across the country. Out of a survey of 764 companies, 87% of respondents will expect a full return to office by 2025, according to an August report by ResumeBuilder.com.
According to the report, about one in three companies will increase the number of required days in office by 2025, and the majority of companies are operating with a hybrid approach.
Companies often cite their desire for on-site employees to improve team cohesion, boost productivity and foster a collaborative environment. Although major corporations are putting their foot down on remote work, signaling the end of an era, employees are portraying significant pushback.
If employees lost their hybrid privileges, 41% would look for a new job that offered flexibility and 22% would expect a pay increase, according to a 2024 Owl Labs report.
An analysis from Revelio Labs this week showed that companies with less flexible workplace policies struggle to grow their workforce at the same rate as those with hybrid or remote policies.
