Same as it ever was? It’s beginning to seem that way, as even remote-work enabler Zoom is making its staff return to the office.

As reported by CNN (Even Zoom is making its staff return to the office, written by Jordan Valinsky and available here), Zoom, the company that powered the remote work revolution during the pandemic, is telling its employees to come back to the office.

In a statement, Zoom said it’s now enforcing a “structured hybrid approach,” meaning that employees who live near an office “need to be onsite two days a week” because it’s “most effective” for the video-conferencing service.

“As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers. We’ll continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently,” the company said.

And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful house”. And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful wife”. At least two days a week when, as a Zoom employee, you’re in the office instead of at home. 😉

Zoom isn’t excluded from the return to office trend that’s sweeping tech companies. In recent months, Google, Amazon and Salesforce have enacted similar policies, ending a Covid-era approach that gave employees more freedom to work from home. However, businesses have faced some pushback from employees after workers grew accustomed to greater flexibility.

Zoom has had its own difficulties as demand wanes following a pandemic-fueled surge. In February, Zoom cut approximately 15% of its staff, amounting to about 1,300 employees, after growing too quickly. Members of the executive leadership team also reduced their base salaries by 20% for the coming fiscal year and forfeited their fiscal year 2023 bonuses.

And its stock? Back to pre-pandemic levels. After skyrocketing from 107.47 on March 13, 2020 (which is essentially when offices closed because of the pandemic) all the way to a high of 559.00 on October 16, 2020 (more than quintupling in value in just over seven months), Zoom stock closed yesterday at 68.66, which is up 6.66 since the inception of trading on April 18, 2019. Ominous.

So, what do you think? Does the fact that Zoom is making its staff return to the office mean that we will eventually return fully to the way things were before the pandemic? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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