Starbucks follows Amazon, asks employees to return to office 3 days a week or get fired

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is also required to work from the office three days a week.

Starbucks has taken a leaf out of Amazon's book and told its corporate staff that starting January 2025, if they don’t come to work at the office three days a week, they could be fired.

According to a memo sent to one of the company’s divisions that was seen by Bloomberg News, the coffee chain will implement a “standardised process” to hold workers accountable if they don’t abide by their return-to-office policy. Consequences are “up to, and including, separation,” the email stated.

This comes a month after new CEO Brian Niccol told employees that they should work wherever they need to in order to get their jobs done, but that he thought that place was usually the office. The recent memo marks an escalation in enforcement of the company’s hybrid work policy.

Starbucks, however, added that workers can request an exemption from the mandate due to physical, mental, sensory impairment or another disability. “We are continuing to support our leaders as they hold their teams accountable to our existing hybrid work policy,” the company said in a statement on Monday, Fortune reported.

Interestingly, to abide by the company's hybrid policy, CEO Niccol himself undertakes an extensive daily commute of 1,600 kilometres between his home in California and the coffee giant's headquarters in Seattle. This arrangement, outlined in his offer letter, includes the use of a corporate jet, ensuring Niccol can meet the company's hybrid work policy, which has been in effect since 2023. Under this policy, he is required to work from the Seattle office at least three days a week, even when not travelling for other work-related duties.