From budding startups to tech giants, every company has developed its own approach to workplace strategy. But in recent years, many have evolved dramatically.
While some companies have ditched the office and gone fully remote, others stand firm in the belief that mandating a full office return is the best option. Some businesses have opted for a hybrid model that blends the two, while others have made a full U-turn.
In this article, Hubble explores how over 40 of the world’s most well-known companies, from Amazon to Apple, have shaped, adapted, and navigated their workplace strategies.
| Company | # days | Description | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe | 2-3 days | Adobe requires employees to work in the office 2-3 days a week. | 2023 | Source |
| Airbnb | No mandate | Airbnb employees have the option to work remotely indefinitely, with the ability to work in 170 countries. | 2023 | Source |
| Allianz | 3 days | Allianz allows employees to work remotely up to 40% of the time, with flexibility depending on local needs. | 2024 | Source |
| Amazon | 5 days | Amazon currently mandates 3 days in the office, with plans to increase to 5 days by 2025. | 2023 | Source |
| Apple | 3 days | Apple mandates employees to work in the office on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a team-chosen day. | 2022 | Source |
| AstraZeneca | 3 days | AstraZeneca follows a phased return approach with hybrid working depending on role and local guidelines. | 2024 | Source |
| Aviva | 2-3 days | Aviva requires at least 2 days in the office for ‘Smart Workers’ if they’re full-time. | – | Source |
| Bank of England | 2 days | The Bank of England has a minimum expectation of 40% across the month. | 2024 | Source |
| Barclays | 4-5 days | Barclays expects staff to return to the office full-time or close to it, with 4-5 days. | 2024 | Source |
| Booking.com | Flexible / role dependent | Booking.com lets team members and managers decide how often they come into the office or work from home. | – | Source |
| Boots | 5 days | Boots has asked all staff to return to the office 5 days per week. | 2024 | Source |
| BP | Flexible / role dependent | bp lets employees make informal and formal arrangements on how, where and when they work. | – | Source |
| Canva | Flexible / role dependent | Canva’s policies are role-dependent, but are split between hybrid; permanent remote and onsite. | 2023 | Source |
| Capital One | 3 days | Capital One has Mondays and Fridays as remote working days, with the office open the remainder of the week and employees strongly encouraged to come in. | – | Source |
| Citigroup | 5 days | Citigroup requires employees to work in the office at least three days a week, with performance evaluations tied to attendance. | 2024 | Source |
| Coinbase | No mandate | Coinbase operates as a remote-first company, allowing employees to work from anywhere without mandatory office days. | – | Source |
| Deliveroo | 3 days | Deliveroo’s default hybrid working policy across geographies, teams and roles is to allow hybrid remote working, where employees will have the option (but not the requirement) to work from home up to 2 days a week, depending on the requirements of their role. | – | Source |
| Deloitte | Flexible / role dependent | Deloitte employees follow a hybrid model, dependent on role | 2023 | Source |
| Deutsche Bank | 3 days | Deutsche Bank mandates employees to be in the office three days a week, one of which must be Monday or Friday. | 2024 | Source |
| Disney | 4 days | Disney requires employees to return to the office four days a week, as stated by CEO Bob Iger in 2023. | 2023 | Source |
| DoorDash | Employee choice | DoorDash’s Flexible Workplace Model gives teams the ability to decide how they want to leverage in-person and remote work. | 2022 | Source |
| Dropbox | No mandate | Dropbox has adopted a “virtual-first” model, allowing employees to work remotely full-time. | 2024 | Source |
| eBay | Flexible / role dependent | eBay offers a flexible hybrid work model, where employees can choose to work remotely or in the office. | – | Source |
| Ericsson | Minimum % of time per week | Ericsson crafted a hybrid work policy allowing employees to split their time between remote and in-office work (50% each over a week or month). | – | Source |
| Experian | Flexible / role dependent | Experian operates a hybrid work model, allowing employees to work remotely or from the office depending on their role. | – | Source |
| EY | 2 days | EY mandates employees to work in the office at least two days a week under its hybrid work policy. | 2024 | Source |
| Goldman Sachs | 5 days | Goldman Sachs requires employees to be in the office full-time, emphasizing an office-first work culture. | 2023 | Source |
| 3 days | Google employees must attend the office at least three days a week. | 2022 | Source | |
| Grammarly | Flexible / role dependent | Grammarly operates a remote-first hybrid model, allowing employees to work primarily from home but encouraging quarterly in-person collaboration at its office hubs. | 2024 | Source |
| GSK | 2-3 days | GSK follows a hybrid work model, with employees generally expected in the office 2-3 days per week, depending on role and team needs. | 2023 | Source |
| HSBC | 5 days | HSBC requires employees to work from the office three days a week. | 2023 | Source |
| Infosys | 2-3 days | Infosys requires lower-level employees to return to the office at least 10 days a month as part of its hybrid work model. | 2023 | Source |
| Intuit | 2-3 days | Intuit operates a hybrid work model, asking employees to come into the office 2-3 days per week, with flexibility based on roles. | – | Source |
| J.P. Morgan | 5 days | KPMG follows a hybrid working model, with employees expected in the office 2-3 days per week while offering flexibility for remote work. | 2024 | Source |
| KPMG | 2-3 days | Morgan Stanley mandates employees to work in the office full-time, requiring five days a week of attendance. | – | Source |
| Lloyds Banking Group | 2 days | Lloyds requires employees to be in the office at least two days a week. | 2023 | Source |
| Meta | 1-2 days | Meta mandates employees work from the office three days per week. | 2023 | Source |
| Microsoft | 2-3 days | Microsoft operates a hybrid policy, typically requiring 2-3 days in the office per week. | 2022 | Source |
| Morgan Stanley | 5 days | Netflix’s latest announcement is light on the details about whether employees are expected to attend the office. | 2024 | Source |
| Nationwide | 2 days | Nationwide operates a flexible working model, allowing employees to work up to 3 days a week at home. | – | Source |
| NatWest | 2-3 days | NatWest requires employees to work in the office 2-3 days a week under its hybrid working policy. | – | Source |
| Netflix | Flexible / role dependent | Sainsbury’s | 2024 | Source |
| Nvidia | Flexible / role dependent | Nvidia allows employees to choose between working remotely, in the office, or in a hybrid arrangement. The company emphasizes flexibility and has no plans to mandate a return to the office. | 2023 | Source |
| Revolut | Flexible / role dependent | Revolut offers a flexible hybrid model, where employees can choose to work remotely or come into the office for collaboration. | 2021 | Source |
| Sage | Flexible / role dependent | Sage provides a hybrid working policy, allowing employees to balance in-office and remote work based on role requirements. | – | Source |
| Vodafone operates a hybrid working model, requiring employees to be in the office 2-3 days a week, depending on their roles and responsibilities. | Flexible / role dependent | Sainsbury’s offers a flexible hybrid working policy, allowing employees to work from home or come into the office, depending on their role and team needs. | 2023 | Source |
| Salesforce | 4-5 days | Salesforce requires specific teams to return to the office 4-5 days per week | 2023 | Source |
| Shopify | No mandate | Shopify has embraced a fully remote work model, allowing employees to work from anywhere without a mandatory return to the office. | 2021 | Source |
| Slack | Flexible / role dependent | Slack follows a hybrid work model, allowing employees flexibility in choosing between remote work and in-office collaboration days. | 2022 | Source |
| Spotify | No mandate | Spotify allows employees to work from anywhere, with no mandated office days. | 2023 | Source |
| Starbucks | 3 days | Starbucks corporate employees are required to work in the office 3 days per week if they are within commutable distance. | 2023 | Source |
| Tesco | 2 days | Tesco requires employees to work from the office for two days per week | 2024 | Source |
| Twitter (X) | 5 days | Following its acquisition by Elon Musk, Twitter mandates full-time office attendance, requiring employees to work five days in the office. | 2022 | Source |
| Uber | 2 days | Uber has embraced a hybrid model, with employees expected to spend at least half their time in the office, particularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. | 2022 | Source |
| UBS | Flexible / role dependent | UBS employees are eligible to work partially from home, depending on role, regulatory restrictions and location, as well as divisional or functional requirements. | 2023 | Source |
| Unilever | 2 days | Unilever has adopted a flexible hybrid working policy, allowing employees to work both remotely and in the office, with an expectation of 40% office working. | 2023 | Source |
| Vodafone | 2-3 days | Zoom adopted a hybrid work model, requiring employees to work in the office 2-3 days a week while continuing to support remote work where possible. | 2023 | Source |
| Wise | Flexible / role dependent | Wise allows employees to choose between working from the office or remotely, with a hybrid approach that focuses on flexibility based on team collaboration needs. | 2024 | Source |
| Xero | Flexible / role dependent | Xero operates a hybrid work model, offering flexibility for employees to work remotely or in the office as needed. | 2021 | Source |
| Zoom | 2-3 days | Zoom adopted a hybrid work model, requiring employees to work in the office 2-3 days a week, while continuing to support remote work where possible. | 2023 | Source |
Defining workspace strategy: the 3 factors at play
Workspace strategies are typically hard to define, as there are several key forces that play into how any company’s workspace strategy is articulated:
- Where does the work happen?
- How strictly is in-person work enforced?
- How does this strategy differ from role to role?
Let’s explore each of these factors in a little more detail:
1) Where does the work happen?
Fully office-based
A fully office-based strategy is where most of the work will continue to take place in the office, all of the time: usually a centralised office space or spaces where employees are expected to be physically present five days a week during regular business hours.
Fully remote or remote-first
A fully remote workplace strategy means employees work from various locations rather than being physically present in a centralised office.
With this flexible setup, employees can work from about any convenient location, solo or as a team—including working from home or on-demand workspaces.
Hybrid
Hybrid working refers to a blend of office and remote work, where employees split their time between the office, home, and other remote locations.
Hybrid working arrangements don’t follow a single formula. There are multiple strategies within the ‘hybrid work’ model, and each company chooses the one that aligns best with its needs. These include:
- Preference-Based Hybrid Strategies: Employees can choose when they go into the office)
- Time-Based Hybrid Strategies: Employees are encouraged to attend the office a certain number of days per week (e.g. any 2 days per week)
- Set-Day Hybrid Strategies: Employees are encouraged to attend the office on specific days (e.g. Tuesdays and Thursdays)
2) How strictly is in-person working enforced?
For in-office and hybrid work strategies, it’s important to consider how strictly office attendance is enforced. This typically falls into three categories:
- Strictly enforced: Where attendance on office days is mandated, and non-attendance is sanctioned with disciplinary measures.
- Moderately enforced: Where attendance on office days is encouraged but not backed up with any mandates or disciplinary actions.
- Not enforced: Where employees can decide whether or not they come to the office.
3) Is it one policy for all or role-dependent?
The final factor to consider is whether your workspace strategy is the same for everyone or whether it will vary. The key factors that may influence this are:
- Team-based strategies: Where office attendance is set based on the needs and requirements of specific teams and functions.
- Geography-based strategies: Where office attendance varies, depending on different countries or regions. For example, the London-based team of a multi-national organisation is required to come into the office more than the New York-based team.
- Employee location-based strategies: Where office attendance is set based on how far away from an office an employee is based. For example, employees who are outside of a commutable distance of the office are mandated into the office less than those who are inside of it.
- Flexible/individual role-based strategies: Where office attendance is set at an individual employee level, usually negotiated with their manager.
How can each workspace strategy look in practice?
Fully office-based examples
First up, we’ve got the companies who’ve identified that most work will continue to occur in the office.
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has long pushed for his 44,000 employees to return to the office, believing in-person interaction is essential to the firm’s culture.
In a 2021 interview, he expressed confidence that most employees would be back by year’s end.
After a few setbacks, the office-first policy took effect in March 2022, with Solomon mandating a five-day return to the office. However, only half of the 10,000 New York HQ staff obliged despite two weeks’ notice.
As of 2024, Goldman Sachs’ official corporate policy is “full-time in office”.
Hybrid examples
The hybrid camp is seemingly the most popular amongst the big names. But as you’ll see in the examples below, what “hybrid” actually means can vary drastically from company to company.
Adobe
Adobe’s hybrid workplace policy, where employees work from the office 50% of the time, has remained consistent for three years.
In June 2021, Chief People Officer Gloria Chen announced the shift, highlighting that in-person gatherings would be purpose-driven and collaborative. She also noted that pet separation anxiety, family life, and home comforts were key reasons for embracing hybrid work.
As of 2024, there have been no major changes to this approach.
Google has long supported a hybrid work model. As of 2024, employees are expected to be in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. However, the journey to this point hasn’t always been clear-cut.
In 2020, Google announced its plans to move to a hybrid work model. CEO Sundar Pichai aimed to introduce flexibility, but once remote work ended, employees were still required to work in the office at least three days a week.
As time went on, Google tightened its remote work policies. Employees were expected to live within commuting distance of the office, and workers choosing permanent remote work could face pay cuts.
Google’s return-to-office plans were officially set for April 2022. Since then, most employees work from offices three days a week, with flexibility depending on team needs.
Netflix
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been one of the most vocal critics of remote work, stating in a 2020 Wall Street Journal interview that he doesn’t “see any positives” to working from home.
He emphasised that not being able to meet in person, especially for international teams, is a major drawback.
As of 2024, Netflix has not announced an official date for a full return to the office for its staff. Instead, corporate employees are expected to work from offices on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Remote-first company examples
Finally, there are the companies who have enjoyed the working-from-home experiment so much that they feel that remote working is not just a viable long-term policy but the preferred one — and will be remote by default.
To clarify, being “remote-first” doesn’t necessarily mean that employees can’t work from an office, but rather that default systems and processes will be geared around a distributed workforce.
Coinbase
Coinbase has long made remote work a permanent option for its employees. In May 2020, CEO Brian Armstrong announced that the “future of Coinbase is remote-first,” and work processes would shift accordingly for distributed teams.
As of 2024, Coinbase continues to operate as a remote-first company, allowing employees to work from anywhere without mandatory office days.
Shopify
In 2020, Shopify announced it would allow its 5,000 employees to work from home indefinitely, reducing office capacity to 20-25%.
CEO Tobi Lutke stated they would adopt a “digital by default” approach, expecting most employees to work remotely moving forward.
He emphasised that the company wanted to lead the shift to remote work rather than passively follow it.
No major updates have been reported as of 2024!
How have famous companies’ RTO mandates changed over time?
Ever since remote work became the norm in 2020, many companies have chopped and changed their stance on returning to the office.
Here are the organisations that have experienced the most significant transformations:
1) Amazon
In recent years, Amazon’s return-to-office policy has evolved significantly:
- 2021: Amazon empowered its direct-level leaders to determine whether their teams would work remotely or in the office.
- 2023: A new mandate was introduced, requiring employees to return to the office for a minimum of three days each week.
- 2025: Earlier this year, Amazon announced that starting in January 2025, all employees will be required to work five days a week in the office.
2) Airbnb
Before the pandemic, Airbnb employees worked primarily from the office. However, in 2022, the company made a major shift and adopted a “Live and Work from Anywhere” policy.
Fast-forward to 2024, and the company are continuing to embrace remote work.
Airbnb puts flexibility first, allowing employees to work from home or anywhere within their country with no impact on their pay.
Rather than holding regular office days, Airbnb encourages team gatherings, with in-person meetings about once per quarter.
Employees can also work in over 170 countries for up to 90 days per year!
3) Apple
Arguably one of the most controversial RTO mandates, Apple has made several U-turns in recent years about its stance on returning to the office:
- 2020: In response to the pandemic, Apple initially implemented a remote work model.
- 2022: The tech giant began transitioning back to in-office work, requiring employees to come in for two days a week.
- 2023: This hybrid model was increased to three days a week, leading to disapproval from Apple employees.
Since then, there has been ongoing employee resistance to the return-to-office mandate, with many expressing dissatisfaction with the hybrid model in surveys.
Under Apple’s hybrid work model, employees are required to be in the office three days a week—on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays—with the remaining two days available for remote work. The third in-office day (in addition to Monday and Tuesday) is flexible and may vary by team.
4) Citigroup
Citigroup’s transformation of its RTO mandate has been quite dramatic. In two years, it has gone from focusing on flexibility to strict tracking and monitoring of employee attendance:
- 2021: Citigroup introduced a hybrid work model in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for greater remote work flexibility.
- 2023: The company began enforcing stricter return-to-office policies, particularly targeting employees with persistent, unexplained absences.
Citigroup has started using swipe card data to track attendance in the UK, cracking down on employees who frequently miss in-office days. Noncompliance can result in consequences, including impacts on performance evaluations and pay packages.
Currently, employees are required to be in the office three days a week, with the option to work remotely for up to two days. This policy applies to most employees globally, including those in the UK and the US.
5) Disney
Before the pandemic, Disney operated primarily in an office-based environment. However, the company’s widespread shift to remote work lasted only two years before a notable turnaround:
- 2020: Former CEO Bob Chapek quickly adopted a more flexible approach, allowing for remote and hybrid work.
- 2023: CEO Bob Iger mandated a return to the office four days a week, reversing the more relaxed policies established under Chapek.
This shift marks a major change from the flexible hybrid models introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic when many employees worked remotely or followed a relaxed in-office schedule.
As of March 1, 2023, Disney now requires corporate employees to be in the office four days a week, from Monday to Thursday.
6) eBay
Before 2020, eBay—like most companies—followed a traditional office setup: employees working in person while working from home was a special benefit reserved for senior staff.
But after the pandemic hit, eBay took flexibility and remote working to a whole new level:
- 2021: eBay implemented its hybrid model after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 2022: The company leaned even more into remote work, letting employees primarily work from home while keeping the office available for collaboration and team meet-ups.
This shift became permanent, showing eBay’s commitment to a flexible work setup. As of 2024, eBay follows a flexible hybrid model where employees can choose to work remotely or come into the office, depending on their team’s needs.
There’s no strict requirement for days in the office—it varies by team and role, with some positions needing more in-office time than others.
7) J.P. Morgan
Just like the rest of the world, J.P. Morgan allowed for remote work flexibility in response to the pandemic. However, things started to revert back to in-person work in the summer of 2021:
- 2021: J.P. Morgan initiated a gradual return to the office, requiring employees to be on-site at least a few days per week.
- 2023: CEO Jamie Dimon pushed for a stricter policy, raising the number of in-office days to five per week for top leaders and three days for other staff.
Today, J.P. Morgan requires senior leaders and managers to be in the office five days a week, while other employees generally come in three days per week.
8) Meta
Meta (formerly Facebook) is another major company that has gradually enforced stricter remote work rules:
- 2021: Meta announced that most employees could request to work remotely indefinitely.
- 2023: Meta updated its policy, requiring employees in hybrid roles to return to the office three days a week starting in September.
Currently, Meta’s policy requires hybrid employees to be in the office three days a week, applying to most employees who haven’t been approved for fully remote work.
9) Spotify
In February 2021, Spotify introduced its ‘Work From Anywhere’ policy, marking a significant shift toward remote work — even as pandemic restrictions eased.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Spotify still maintains a WFA policy, allowing employees to work from home, the office, or anywhere they choose.
There’s no strict office attendance requirement; the balance between home and office work is decided collaboratively between employees and their managers.
10) X
A lot has changed since X (formerly Twitter) announced a permanent remote work policy in 2020:
2020: X became one of the first major tech companies to announce a permanent remote work policy, allowing employees to work from home indefinitely as long as they remained productive.
2022: After Elon Musk took over, the company began mandating a return to the office, moving away from its flexible remote work arrangements.
2023: The RTO policy was finalised, requiring employees to be in the office at least three days a week.
As of 2024, X’s policy now requires employees to work in the office 40 hours per week, marking a significant shift from its original stance on indefinite remote work.
Find a workspace solution that fits your business needs, whatever they are
Clearly, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the future of where we work. Whilst it can be helpful to draw from these examples, it’s important to remember that what works for one company won’t necessarily work for the next.
If you’re an office-first or a remote-first company, Hubble can still help you configure a workplace strategy that suits your team:
- Office-first companies can find a full-time or part-time office with us but also offer flexibility to their employees.
- Remote-first companies can ensure that even without a fixed HQ, their team can access the best workspaces in the world whenever they need to.
- Hybrid companies can find a full-time or part-time office with us while offering their teams the ability to work from anywhere.
