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Salesforce has informed staff across the US that they must now comply with a strict return-to-office (RTO) mandate.
The policy varies between teams, with some expected to work nearly entirely from the office.
“Select employees in sales, workplace services, data center engineering and onsite support technicians under the chief information officer will be required to come to the office four to five days a week, effective Oct. 1," the memo read.
For other employees, the mandate is less strict, with those working in all other departments including marketing, legal, and product only required in the office at least three days per week under Salesforce’s “office-flex” schedule.
Meanwhile, some engineers have only been asked back to the office for a minimum of 10 days each quarter.
The mandate is a departure from the company’s previous stance on in-office work. At a company event in 2022, CEO Mark Benioff stated, “Office mandates are never going to work.” Salesforce leaned heavily into remote working during the pandemic.
How Salesforce hopes to make RTO work
Other (tech) employers implementing RTO mandates have faced resistance from employees over their policies.
At Dell, whose CEO has performed a similar U-turn on his views about in-office work, nearly half of employees have simply refused to come into the office even after being told it would cost them the chance to be promoted.
Meanwhile, Amazon workers have reportedly been circumventing the company’s controversial RTO policy by visiting the office and scanning their badge but only staying long enough for a hot beverage, also known as ‘coffee badging.’
Amazon is clamping down on the trend by mandating that teams stay for multiple hours when they visit its offices. It has told staff it will monitor the number of hours they spend in the office, with minimum expectations varying from two to six hours per visit.
To ensure its expectations for in-office work are met, Salesforce has told employees it will track employee badge scans. Moreover, the software platform will roll out an “internal dashboard” in August which will give all employees “full visibility” over attendance.
The dashboard will measure attendance against quarterly goals for each team and also show the average amount of voluntary time off taken by employees for community service work.
In a statement, a spokesperson said Salesforce has “always been a hybrid work company.”
“Our guidelines focus on in-person connection, while also recognizing the value of working away from the office,” they added.
“A step back”: Salesforce’s RTO mandate draws mixed employee responses
Just like Amazon, Dell, and other employers where RTO mandates have been enforced, the decision has drawn mixed responses from employees.
Posting on Reddit, one Salesforce employee described the move as “a bit sad.”
“Salesforce used to be the pinnacle of innovation and technology and now it's just backwards with a RTO mandate,” they wrote. “We all know we are more productive at home. I think they are just trying to come to terms with the numbers and freaking out.”
“Four days in-office? Seems like a step back, honestly,” said another.
But other workers were more positive. "As much as I don’t want to admit it, there are days where going into the office is super helpful,” one user said.
