The Verge: 'Microsoft Is Getting Ready to Return to the Office'

16 Aug 2025

Tom Warren writing for The Verge:

Microsoft originally encouraged its employees to work from home amid the coronavirus outbreak in 2020. This new flexible working arrangement then became an official “hybrid workplace” policy several months after the pandemic began, allowing managers to approve permanent remote work. Now that the pandemic has settled into endemicity, Microsoft wants employees to return to the office. And if some quit in response, well, that’s probably exactly what Microsoft is expecting. … Microsoft is preparing to announce a mandatory return to office of three days a week. The policy will apply to those who live within 50 miles of Microsoft’s Redmond campus, and some teams at Microsoft may even return for four or five days.

Interesting that this goes agaisnt a recent opinion peice in The Times headlined The war on WFH isn’t over. London’s return to the office has flatlined (Apple News link) .

My thoughts on working from home are that it’s a bit like your diet. The most appealing food isn’t necessarily the most nutritious. It might be tempting to avoid the office, and yes, the commute isn’t always the best use of time, but then doughnuts also taste better than kale.

We’ve come a long way from 2022, when a group of Apple employees attempted a Steve Jobs pastiche^[1] by writing an open letter entitled “Thoughts on Office-Bound Work”, a reference to Jobs’s famous “Thoughts on Flash” open letter published in 2010. However, this article was not only poorly written and poorly argued, it also tried to frame some of the most privileged people in America (Silicon Valley tech workers) as somehow marginalised because Apple wanted them to turn up at the office a few days a week. The fact that you need to be wealthy enough to live in a house with a dedicated working space, that working from home isn’t even an option for many of the lowest-paid jobs, and that it therefore requires a certain amount of privilege, seemed to be completely lost on them.

I am fortunate enough to work from home 3 days of the week, but I also know that meeting colleagues in person is very important when it comes to building trust and camaraderie. It’s also vital for mentoring junior colleagues. I know several people early in their careers who have switched jobs to find companies where being in the office is the norm rather than the exception.

Hybrid is the way forward. A great employer understands that allowing workers to fit work around their life, whether that’s picking up children, attending appointments, or other commitments, leads to the best performance.

At the same time, it’s up to employees to take a mature view and acknowledge that it’s not just about them. Maybe other people they work with will need human contact. Maybe they do too, but don’t realise it. It’s no surprise that Microsoft reports higher employee wellbeing among those who come into the office.

So I’m hoping we can see a nuanced, balanced approach that respects workers’ rights, allows for flexibility, but also acknowledges that meeting people in person is valuable and not something to be avoided completely.