This week, the coffee shop giant Starbucks told employees that, come fall, they will be required to work four days in the office, rather than three, while any managers will be required to work in either the chain’s Seattle or Toronto offices.
The company is going so far as to buy out employees who opt out of the requirement. “We understand not everyone will agree with this approach,” CEO Brian Niccol said in a message to the company. “But as a company built on human connection, and given the scale of the turnaround ahead, we believe this is the right path for Starbucks.”
It is hardly the only company taking this step. Return-to-office mandates have intensified in recent months as companies and executives work to build collaboration and justify costly office space. But such mandates are running afoul of workers who are not eager to return to their pre-pandemic office life.
Earlier this year, Taco Bell-owner Yum Brands mandated that remote workers move to the city where their work is based. That move was tucked in the same release as an announcement that KFC would move its U.S. headquarters to Plano, Texas.
The retailer Target just last week told headquarters employees they’d have to return to the office three days a week starting in September. Walmart, Amazon, Dell, Nvidia and other companies have recently changed their remote work policies.
So, too, did the White House. President Trump demanded that federal employees return to the office in January.
Bigger companies in particular have been more likely to increase in-office mandates in recent months, believing that a more active office environment is crucial to collaboration and culture.
More than three-quarters of companies believe that more face-to-face interactions boost employee engagement, according to a survey published earlier this year by the human resources consulting firm WTW. In addition, 71% said that it strengthens corporate culture and 63% believe it increases productivity.
Starbucks has unique reasons for its decision. The company is in the process of a turnaround plan, and one that is largely based on the concept of increasing human connection. The company is redesigning its coffee shops to cater to customers who want to stick around a while.
“At Starbucks, coffee and human connection are at our core,” Niccol wrote. “We believe in the power of connection not just in our coffeehouses, but in how we work together as support partners.
“We are reestablishing our in-office culture because we do our best work when we’re together.”
Two-thirds of companies offer employees some sort of flexible office arrangement, according to Flex Index. But the percentage of firms that require employees be in the office full-time is increasing, as is the number of days workers are required to be in the office.
Among Fortune 500 companies, the percentage of full-time office requirements jumped to 24% today from 13% at the end of last year. And workers must be in the office an average of 2.9 days, up from 2.3 at the end of last year.
Yet workers value the ability to work from home. A study last year by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom found employees who work from home two days a week are just as productive, likely to get promoted and less likely to quit.
Companies that institute return-to-office mandates also lose skilled workers and struggle to fill vacancies. One 2024 study found a 14% increase in turnover at S&P 500 companies with such mandates. Those companies also take 23% longer to fill vacancies.
That same study noted that companies are more likely to change their policies when their stock prices fall, which certainly fits a Starbucks that is working to turn its business around. The company started pushing a return-to-office policy shortly after Niccol’s arrival last year.
There are other considerations for companies that make such mandates, notably the need to justify costly leases on office buildings that have sat empty.
For restaurant companies, meanwhile, getting people back into offices in downtowns and other business districts could be a crucial sales builder.
The steep decline in office occupancy after the pandemic hit hard restaurant companies that depended on those workers for lunches or midday beverages. That group has been slow to recover, and getting workers back could be key in accomplishing that goal.
Yet it will be a while—if ever—before offices are completely full again all the time. According to Flex Index, while required days in the office has increased 10% since early last year, actual attendance is just 1% to 2% higher.
Offices in 10 large metro areas averaged between 50.5% and 53.7% occupancy over the past month, according to data from Kastle Systems. That is up only slightly over the past year. Companies may be making the mandates, but workers aren’t necessarily listening.
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