Starbucks Threatens To Fire Staff If Not Returning To Office

(RTTNews) - Coffee giant Starbucks Corp. has warned to fire corporate staff if they don't adhere to the policy of return to office three days a week, Bloomberg reported, citing an email.

The company plans to launch a standardized process in January to hold employees accountable, if they don't obey the return-to-office policy, and the consequences could include, up to, and including, separation.

However, workers can request an exemption due to medical or psychological reasons.

Reports quoted Starbucks as saying, "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."

Starbucks is also said to be moving away from requiring Tuesday as a common attendance day for all workers at headquarters. According to the memo, the company has set the expectations at a team level.

The newly appointed Chief Executive Brian Niccol last month had indicated that the best place for employees to get their jobs done would be the office.

Niccol, who took charge as the chairman and chief executive officer of the coffee chain on September 9, lives in California where he has a remote office. But, his own work arrangement allows him to travel 1,000 miles to Seattle on the company's corporate jet.

Though the decision related to CEO's commute was criticised by some workers and outsiders, Starbucks noted that Niccol will spend most of his time in Seattle or visiting stores.

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the company's corporate workforce has been working remotely. Later, they were required to return to office one day a week.

In January last year, then CEO Howard Schultz wrote in a memo that the coffee giant's badging data showed employees were not meeting their minimum promise of one day a week, and asked its corporate employees to return to the office a minimum of three days a week, with a view to rebuilding and reviving the energy of its headquarters and regional offices.

Meanwhile, many Starbucks employees had opposed that plan through an open letter.

The latest development comes as the new CEO, Niccol, last month announced his priorities for his initial days, with a view to focusing on improving the coffee giant's U.S. business before moving to the international markets.

In an open letter to employees, customers, and stakeholders, he pointed out the firm's drift from its core, and presented a plan for the first 100 days to re-establish Starbucks as the community coffeehouse.

Among others, Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy recently ordered its employees to start reporting to their desks five days a week, beginning in January. At present, many Amazon employees are working from home two days a week.

Dell Technologies also informed its staff earlier this year that those who chose to remain remote wouldn't be eligible for promotion.