Business | The WFH showdown

The fight over working from home goes global

Employees want to toil in the kitchen. Bosses want them back in the office

A demonstrator holds a sign that reads "I hate commuting" as Amazon employees gather during a walk-out protest.
Image: Getty Images

REMOTE WORK has a target on its back. Banking CEOs, like Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, are intent on making working from home a relic of the pandemic. For staff at America’s biggest lender and other Wall Street stalwarts like Goldman Sachs, five-day weeks are back for good. Big tech firms are also cracking the whip. Google’s return-to-work mandate threatens to track attendance and factor it in performance reviews. Meta and Lyft want staff back at their desks, demanding at least three days of the week in the office by the end of the summer. With bosses clamping down on the practice, the pandemic-era days of mutual agreement on the desirability of remote work seem to be over.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The WFH showdown”

From the July 15th 2023 edition

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