RTO Policies Get A Little Less Flexible

Forbes

18 hours ago

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Starbucks corporate employees will have to be in-office four days a week starting October 1st, ... More according to the company's new culture policy. Those who don't wish to relocate are being offered buyout packages. (Photo by)
To work from home or return to the office?
That has been the defining workplace question in the years since the pandemic sent workers home. And while full five-day in-office mandates are rare—most Fortune 500 companies require workers to be on-site for three days a week, according to Flex Index's latest report—employers are still asking for more in-person attendance.
The latest is Starbucks, which is now asking its corporate employees to return to the office four days a week and relocate to Seattle or Toronto within the next 12 months, while offering voluntary buyouts to those who 'decide to 'opt-out'' of the company's RTO policy, according to a memo announcing the new policy.
Meanwhile, non-production employees at industrial giant 3M will also have to start going into the office four days a week as of September 1, according to NBC affiliate KARE in Minnesota, where the company is based.
Four-day mandates have been on the rise this year, according to Flex Index, which tracks corporate return-to-office policies. About 12% of Fortune 500 hybrid firms now require workers to come into the office four days a week, up from 8% at the end of 2024.
While Starbucks and 3M differ on their start date for their new mandates, September 1 (or after Labor Day) has been a popular start date for new in-office policies. The start of a new school year allows working parents to plan ahead for their time away from home. As we get nearer to the end of summer, what other companies will update their RTO policies?
Happy reading, and hope you have a lovely week!
WORK SMARTER
Practical insights and advice from Forbes staff and contributors to help you succeed in your job, accelerate your career and lead smarter.
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REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: How To AI-Proof Your Job
Most Americans (64%) now believe that AI is going to lead to fewer jobs in 20 years, according to research from the Pew Research Center, so it's understandable that many of us fear AI's impact on our own jobs. Is there anything we can do about it?
Yes, according to Forbes staff and contributors. I joined my colleague Melissa Delaney and contributors John Sviokla and Caroline Castrillon last week to speak about how AI is reshaping work across a number of industries—and what employees in all fields and seniority levels can do to protect their jobs.
You can watch a recording of the members-only event here, and I broke down a few of the main takeaways below:
AI Will Be Like A Chef's Knife:
Walk into one of the kitchens of the top restaurants of the world and you'll notice one thing: All the chefs bring their own knives. Top performers, says Sviokla, who is the cofounder of generative AI analyst firm GAI Insights and a Harvard Business School executive fellow, will bring their own AI tools and agents to work. These are applications, not necessarily models, that make their job easier, quicker and more efficient.
Use AI As A Career Coach:
Whether or not you're using formal AI career coach programs, there are a lot of ways you can use ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude to help you with your career, says Castrillon, a careers contributor and career coach. Beyond résumé or cover letter help, you can ask AI to help you prep for an interview or find the best people to reach out to about a specific job.
When In Doubt, Ask AI:
Formal AI learning courses are helpful, but can be outdated by the time they are formatted, tested and published. Take prompt engineering—the once fastest-growing job title and skill on LinkedIn is now fairly obsolete. You can now ask AI chatbots to coach you through the best way to ask something instead of relying on prompts to do so. So how do you learn when technology is moving quicker than formal programs? Be critical and use your judgment, yes, but asking different AI models and comparing the answers among themselves and with a traditional Google search can better show you how the models differ.
TOUCH BASE
News from the world of work.
The Supreme Court approved President Donald Trump's gutting of the Department of Education, as it approved the layoffs of nearly 1,400 employees. It's the latest greenlight of the administration's cut to the federal workforce, in addition to the 1,300 employees laid off at the State Department on Friday.
Attorney General Pam Bondi fired an additional nine DOJ staffers who worked on criminal cases against President Trump last week. The firings come as Bondi and the agency have come under fire for not releasing any further information on the department's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Glassdoor and Indeed's parent company Recruit Holdings laid off 1,300 employees last week as part of its efforts to adapt to AI's effect on the business, according to Reuters. The company will also integrate Glassdoor into Indeed as Glassdoor CEO Christian Sutherland-Wong will step down on October 1.
A barely-used child care tax break for employers was one of the beneficiaries of Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, reports Forbes' Danielle Chemtob. The provision, which allows businesses to claim tax credits to offset the cost of building or partnering with on-site child care services, expanded how much employers can claim to as much as $600,000. Will more employers take advantage?
Fighting unpaid leave and 'inconvenient' postpartum bodies, professional ballerinas are increasingly advocating for parental leave policies, according to Elle. Like other artists and workers who depend on their physical ability to work, ballerinas are making pregnancy and parenting support a key part of union contract negotiations.
A new study found that using AI tools made open-source developers 19% slower at their jobs. Time saved in the actual coding/debugging process or looking for information was then eaten up by the time coders spent waiting for the AI's final product and reviewing AI-produced code.
NUMBER TO NOTE
$150,000
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pvvj-1BuKA
Meet America's Richest Immigrants
QUIZ
The team boss of which Formula 1 team was suddenly fired in the middle of the sport's season?
A. Ferrari
B. Red Bull
C. Mercedes
D. McLaren
Check if you got it right here.