London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

On Wednesday last week, Google's Fiona Cicconi wrote to company employees.

She announced that Google was bringing forward its timetable of moving people back into the office.

As of 1 September, she said, employees wishing to work from home for more than 14 days would have to apply to do so.

Employees were also expected to "live within commuting distance" of offices. No cocktails by the beach with a laptop, then.

The intention was very clear. Sure, you can do more flexible working than you did before - but most people will still have to come into the office.

That thinking seemed to fly in the face of much of what we heard from Silicon Valley executives last year, when they championed the virtues of remote working.

For example, Twitter's Jack Dorsey made headlines across the world last May, when he said "Twitter employees can now work from home forever".

It was speculated that after Covid, the "new normal" for Silicon Valley might be a workforce heavily geared around remote working, with tech companies needing only minimal staff on-site.

It's increasingly looking like that's not going to happen.

And if you really look at the statements made by tech bosses, some of the nuances were skirted over by the press.

For example, when Mr Dorsey said employees could work at home "forever", he added, " if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home."

That was a pretty important "if".

And in fact, Twitter has clarified that it expects a majority of its staff to spend some time working from home and some time in the office.

Pretty much every Silicon Valley tech firm has said that it is now committed to "flexible" or "hybrid" working.

The problem is those terms can mean almost anything.

Is that Fridays off? Or a completely different working relationship with a brick-and-mortar office?


Microsoft envisages "'working from home part of the time (less than 50%) as standard for most roles" in the future.

There is a lot of room for manoeuvre in the words "less than 50%".

Amazon also issued a statement to employees last week saying: "Our plan is to return to an office-centric culture as our baseline. We believe it enables us to invent, collaborate, and learn together most effectively."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the new work-from-home age, then.

Part of the hesitancy is that although many employees want more flexibility, it's still not at all clear what kind of model works for the companies.

"None of us have this all figured out," said Carolyn Everson, vice-president of Facebook's global business group, when talking about current work-from-home arrangements.

"We are making this up on the fly."

Remotely attractive


Harvard Business School professor and remote working advocate Prithwiraj Choudhury says that tech companies have long been at the vanguard of remote working.

"The early adopters and the companies that are embracing this model and building the organisation around that remote work model will have a huge advantage in attracting talent," he says.

That is certainly the hope.

No tech business wants to lose able employees to rivals who will allow them to work more flexibly.

Companies like Spotify now appear to have some of the most "flexible" working practices for its staff.

In a recent statement it said: "Our employees will be able to work full time from home, from the office, or a combination of the two.

"The exact mix of home and office work mode is a decision each employee and their manager make together."

But it did add: "There are likely to be some adjustments to make along the way."

So Spotify's definition of flexible working is very different to Google's, which in turn is very different to Amazon's.


Working from home while there is no office open is one thing. But remote working's biggest test is going to be when the office starts opening up - let's say at 50% capacity.

When meetings are being held partially in person and partially on Zoom, is the dynamic going to work quite so well?

And when some team members develop face-to-face, in-person relationships with managers, will remote workers feel disadvantaged?

Last week, IBM announced its proposed system of remote working, with 80% of the workforce working at least three days a week in the office.

"When people are remote, I worry about what their career trajectory is going to be," said IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna.

"If they want to become a people manager, if they want to get increasing responsibilities, or if they want to build a culture within their teams, how are we going to do that remotely?" he asked.

Tantalisingly, we are about to find out what works and what doesn't, because there are so many differing approaches being taken by tech companies.

And like so much of modern day life, other businesses are looking over at the west coast of America to see what's working here - and what isn't.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
×