Washington Post staff faces a drastic shift as full-time office attendance is mandated, igniting opposition and strife within management.
At a Glance
- The Washington Post demands office attendance five days a week by next year.
- Employee union criticizes mandate as inflexible and outdated.
- The policy mirrors Amazon’s under shared owner Jeff Bezos.
- Recent controversies under Bezos’s direction compound tensions.
Push for Return to Work
William Lewis, the chief executive of The Washington Post, recently announced a return-to-office policy for staffers, emphasizing how important physical presence is for collaboration and maintaining the company’s culture. Mirroring what owner Jeff Bezos did at Amazon, all Post managers have to comply by February 3. Other employees already were forced to return to the office on June 2. Many of these employees have been allowed to work remotely as many as three days per week since the spring of 2022, but this full-time oversight will be mandatory soon.
The Guild, which represents employees at the Post, is staunchly opposed to this new directive. Their argument is that it actually hinders collaboration and productivity rather than improving it. Leadership says this would potentially disrupt people’s work-life balance, and challenge the office-centered culture that Bezos is pushing.
This is just the latest incident that shows discord between Post staffers and higher-ups, following the decision not to endorse a presidential candidate, which led to thousands of people canceling their subscriptions.
Culture Clash
Will Lewis, the Post’s publisher, stressed how important it was to regain the office atmosphere, saying: “I want that great office energy for us every day.”
The Guild is still wary of this insistence. With such a long transition period for this mandate, it’s allowing the group to strategize a full response. There are, of course, exceptions to the mandate, including for activities such as going on sales calls or reporting in the field. However, individual departments must approve remote work based on the business needs.
The return-to-work mandate follows what a lot of companies across the country have been doing over the last few years, though employees and unions have tried to fight back against it.
“Guild leadership sees this for what it is: a change that stands to further disrupt our work rather than to improve our productivity or collaboration,” Guild leadership wrote in a note sent to employees recently.
Navigating the Transition
Management gave a long transition period so employees, managers and departments could ease into it while they focus on maintaining the cultural integrity at the company. But, employees are still unlikely to take kindly to this change, no matter how long the transition period.
Bezos went through this at his Amazon company, too, saying that there is immense efficiency gained through collaboration in an office.