Despite a CEO based in Cali, Starbucks employees need to be in the office 3 days a week come January

Starbucks has informed its corporate employees that they could get fired if they do not come back to the office three days a week.

According to reporting by Bloomberg, the company will introduce a “standardized process” starting in January to ensure compliance with this return-to-office policy.

This move represents stricter enforcement of Starbucks’ hybrid work policy, which has been in place for less than two months since Brian Niccol became CEO. Niccol previously mentioned that while employees should work wherever they are most productive, he believes that place is typically the office.

The trouble is, the optics aren’t the best regarding Niccol. His own work arrangement allows him to live in California and travel to Seattle on the company’s corporate jet. Many employees signed a letter of protest at the time.

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Starbucks has stated that Niccol will spend most of his time in Seattle or visiting stores. Some employees have expressed that they do not mind where the CEO is based, as long as he does not enforce strict in-office requirements.

Starbucks clarified that its expectations for hybrid workers remain unchanged, except for vacation, sick time, and business travel.

A company spokesperson sent MyNorthwest a statement in an email:

The expectations for our hybrid partners has not changed. We are continuing to support our leaders as they hold their teams accountable to our existing hybrid work policy. We’ve made updates to our workspaces to make sure they work for the teams who use them.”

Employees can request exemptions from the mandate due to physical, mental or sensory impairments, or other disabilities. This policy affects approximately 3,500 corporate employees, while most of the company’s workforce is based in its stores. The company emphasized its support for leaders in holding their teams accountable to the hybrid work policy.

Starbucks news: New directions from CEO Brian Niccol

Starbucks is among several companies shifting from incentives to stricter measures to enforce return-to-office policies. Recently, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy announced that employees would need to work from the office five days a week starting in January, moving away from the current policy allowing two days of remote work.

Some companies have used return-to-office mandates as a strategy for reducing staff. A survey by BambooHR revealed that one in four executives hoped for voluntary turnover following such mandates. However, research indicates that the employees who leave due to these policies are often the more experienced ones, which can be detrimental to companies.

Additionally, Starbucks is moving away from requiring all headquarters employees to be present on Tuesdays, instead setting attendance expectations at the team level, according to the memo.

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.