RTO Ramp-Up Brings Big Changes At Places Like Google, Ford, Microsoft

Ford Motor Co. has wielded the stick over the carrot in its efforts to get employees to return to the office, and it isn't alone. 

The Detroit-based automaker told employees to show up in the office four days a week starting last month or face possible “discipline up to and including termination,” according to emails reviewed by Business Insider.

This is Ford’s latest updated return-to-office mandate. Many of the automaker’s Michigan-based teams have been reporting to the office three days a week since late 2024, Business Insider reported. 

Ford is the latest example of companies attempting to clamp down on employees working from home. Firms like Starbucks, Meta, Google and Salesforce have all pushed for more in-office mandates for employees this year, according to Inc.

Some companies are being creative in how they change their remote work policies while still retaining those policies, at least in name. Over the summer, Google announced a change to its pandemic-era “work from anywhere” policy, CNBC reported, citing internal Google documents. The policy still allows employees to work from locations outside of the main office for four weeks per calendar year. The change, though, tightened the definition of what WFA meant for a week.  

“Whether you log 1 WFA day or 5 WFA days in a given standard work week, 1 WFA week will be deducted from your WFA weekly balance,” the document says, according to CNBC.

WFA is different than WFH for Google. The technology giant still allows employees to work from home two days a week. 

Some companies are using threats of punishment to compel employees back to the office. Executives with Tanium, a $9B cybersecurity firm, told employees they were at risk of losing out on receiving shares of the company as part of their compensation, Business Insider reported Wednesday.

The back-to-office push has some firms also reclaiming formerly empty office space to make way for returning employees. Microsoft, which announced a three-day-a-week RTO policy in September, pulled a 480K SF office sublease from the market at its Millennium Corporate Park in Redmond, Washington. It is also in talks to extend its tenancy at another office park in Redmond in preparation for workers returning in 2026, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

RTO mandates have helped to push more employee visits to the office over the summer, with foot traffic in office buildings at around 80% of prepandemic levels, Placer.ai reported.