Starbucks to require employees in office four days a week, offer payouts

Starbucks corporate employees will have to return to the office four days a week starting in October, the company announced Monday.

For workers who would prefer to leave the company instead of heading back to the office for an additional day, Starbucks is offering a “one-time voluntary exit program with a cash payment,” CEO Brian Niccol said in a letter to employees.

“We understand not everyone will agree with this approach,” Niccol wrote in the announcement. “We’ve listened and thought carefully. But as a company built on human connection, and given the scale of the turnaround ahead, we believe this is the right path for Starbucks.” 

Under Niccol’s leadership, the coffee chain has been attempting to reverse its slumping U.S. sales. His strategy has focused on simplifying the chain’s menu, improving the coffee shop experience and cutting service times to four minutes per drink.

Shares of Starbucks were down about 2% in afternoon trading on Monday after Melius Research told its investors to sell the stock, citing the unproven turnaround. The company’s shares have risen 2% this year, lifting its market cap to $108.7 billion.

The turnaround has also affected the company’s corporate workforce. Back in October, a little more than two months into Niccol’s tenure, Starbucks told workers that they were at risk of being fired if they didn’t return to the office three days a week. In February, the company cut 1,100 jobs and said that it wouldn’t fill hundreds of open positions as part of Niccol’s efforts to streamline its operations.

Starbucks had about 16,000 employees who work outside of store locations as of last year.

Niccol, a longtime Southern California resident, wasn’t required to relocate to Starbucks’ headquarters in Seattle when the company hired him. In his offer letter outlining his employment terms, the company pledged to establish a small remote office in Newport Beach, California. These days, he defaults to in-person work in Seattle when he isn’t traveling.

Starbucks is the latest company to push its corporate workers to relocate and spend more time at the office. Last year, Walmart told hundreds of employees working in offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto and remotely that they have to move to the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. In April, several Google teams told their remote workers that they have to come back to the office three days a week — or lose their jobs.