Disney CEO orders employees to return to face-to-face work

Disney CEO Bob Iger, who recently returned to the helm at Disney after a brief hiatus, has ordered employees to return to corporate offices four days a week starting March 1.

In an email sent to employees obtained by CNN , he said employees work better together in person. The memo was first obtained by CNBC.

“As I have met with teams across the company over the past few months, I have been reminded of the tremendous value of being together with the people you work with,” Iger wrote in the memo.

“In a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe and create with colleagues who are physically together, nor the opportunity to grow professionally by learning from leaders and mentors.”

He said employees will have to be in the offices Monday through Thursday.

Iger returned to Disney in November 2022, replacing predecessor Bob Chapek after a brief and tumultuous tenure. In a recent meeting, Iger discussed several issues facing the company, including Disney’s current hiring freeze and huge losses attributed to the Disney+ streaming platform. He also highlighted his number 1 priority when taking back the reins: creativity.

Many large companies are enforcing strict back-to-work decrees after remote work became commonplace during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apple, for example, has asked its corporate employees to be in the office at least three days a week, sparking tensions with some of its employees.

Snapchat’s parent company recently asked employees to return to the office 80% of the time, or the equivalent of four days a week, starting in February.

Workers may have less leverage to back down amid a growing number of mass layoffs.

After billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter closed, he quickly laid off more than 50% of the social platform’s staff and changed course on the company’s flexible remote work policy.

However, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy doesn’t intend to force the company’s employees back into the office any time soon, saying in September 2022 that he “doesn’t have a plan to require people to come back.”