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The remote work honeymoon may be coming to an end, at least for parts of Big Tech. As the world continues to move beyond the COVID pandemic, a growing number of tech giants are reversing their stance, issuing return-to-office (RTO) mandates that require employees to spend substantial time—or even entire weeks—back in corporate offices.
In 2025, companies such as Amazon, JP Morgan, Dell, and Salesforce have doubled down on these policies, sparking debates about productivity, culture, and the future of work.
Google and Intel are the latest to tighten their stance, asking employees to return to office on a hybrid schedule. And this time, it’s not just a suggestion.
Internal documents reviewed by CNBC show that several teams within Google have warned remote workers that their roles could be at risk unless they start coming to office at least thrice a week. What makes this more contentious is that some of these employees had previously been approved for permanent remote work. However, how, that flexibility is being revoked.
Why WFO?
Some employees see these return-to-office mandates as a quiet way to reduce headcount. As one Reddit user pointed out, it’s not just FAANG companies—“literally every large corporation does it to cut costs”.
They described it as an “indirect firing mechanism”, that companies are allegedly relying on to take advantage of how people restructured their lives post-COVID. Notably, many who relocated to quieter towns or smaller cities for a remote lifestyle, are now facing the pressure to return.
“Obviously, a lot of them are going to quit rather than return,” the user added, noting that the companies enforcing these mandates have posted record profits in recent years. “It is just a downsizing mechanism they are willing to use.”
For many, this signals a cultural shift at Google, once considered a flagbearer of flexible work.
“I never thought I’d see Google fire people for not being in person three days a week,” said Maximus Greenwald, founder of Warmly.ai. “When I worked at Google pre-pandemic (2017–2020), there was no such requirement. I just chose four days a week in the office personally.”
Greenwald, whose own startup has been remote-first from its inception, sees the move as out of step with how modern teams operate. “We’ve been global since year two. Our team lives across countries, cultures, and time zones—and we wouldn’t have it any other way. I spent the past year working from six different countries and four states.”
AIM tried to contact Google for a response, but had not received a reply at the time of publishing this report.
Intel Joins the Party
Google’s not alone. Intel, amid internal shifts of its own, is now mandating employees to return to the office four days a week, moving away from its earlier hybrid setup.
The update was shared by CEO Lip-Bu Tan during Intel’s Q1 2025 earnings call last week. Previously, Intel allowed employees to work remotely two days a week. However, Tan noted that adherence to the hybrid model has been “uneven at best”.
“I strongly believe that our sites need to be vibrant hubs of collaboration that reflect our culture in action,” Tan said. “When we spend time together in person, it fosters more engaging and productive discussion and debate. It drives better and faster decision-making. And it strengthens our connection with colleagues.”
An Intel employee confirmed to AIM that the company’s four-day office policy is also being implemented in India.
She added that both remote and in-office work have their own advantages. While remote setups offer flexibility and are ideal for focused tasks, she believes office presence plays a crucial role in fostering collaboration, mentorship, and a strong sense of culture.
“Ideally, a hybrid approach works best,” she said. “It combines the efficiency of remote work with the spontaneous collaboration that happens in person.” Ultimately, she added, adaptability is key—what matters most is supporting the team and aligning with the company’s goals.
Cisco, which transitioned to a hybrid model in 2021, is also asking employees to return to the office, depending on project requirements, according to an employee who spoke with AIM.
“Going to the office allows for undivided attention without distractions. It also makes brainstorming easier, which often gets delayed in a work-from-home setup,” a Cisco engineer shared.
She added that she prefers a hybrid culture, as it strikes a balance between work and personal life while still offering visibility in the workplace when needed.
Similarly, e-commerce giant Flipkart has discontinued its work-from-home policy and is now requiring employees to work from the office five days a week.
In September 2024, Amazon announced one of the most stringent RTO policies to date, mandating corporate employees’ return to the office five days a week starting January this year. CEO Andy Jassy cited the need to “strengthen” company culture and enhance collaboration as key drivers.
Last year, at a session organised by fintech company Stripe, OpenAI chief Sam Altman also said that remote work was a mistake. “I think definitely one of the tech industry’s worst mistakes in a long time was that everybody could go full remote forever, and startups didn’t need to be together in person, and there was going to be no loss of creativity,” he said.
He added that the remote work experiment is over, and technology isn’t yet advanced enough for people to work fully remote indefinitely, especially in startups.
Can AI Save Us?
Not all Big Tech firms are pursuing full-time RTO. Meta maintains a three-day in-office hybrid model, while Adobe requires employees to work in the office 50% of the time. Spotify’s ‘Work From Anywhere’ policy remains intact, which allows employees to choose their work location.
These shifts in workplace flexibility also feed into broader conversations about the future of work, particularly as AI continues to reshape what is possible.
Notably, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes artificial intelligence is set to transform the global workforce. He predicts that AI will replace humans for most jobs within a decade, potentially reducing the standard workweek to just two days.
Moreover, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, in his recent blog post, suggested that with AI, the idea of a three-day work week could soon become a reality. “With the right policies, we could smooth the transition and even usher in a three-day workweek,” wrote Khosla, underlining how AI will fundamentally transform the way we work, albeit in a way that positively impacts all of humankind and the economy at large.
Previously, Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman at LinkedIn, predicted that the traditional 9-to-5 job would disappear by 2034. He is bullish on the gig economy revolution, where 50% of the population will become freelancers and earn more while working for “three or four gigs” than those in traditional employment.
