Zoom to Employees: Get Back to the Office

 Even the company behind virtual meetings doesn't seem immune:

Zoom, the company that powered the remote work revolution during the pandemic, is telling its employees to come back to the office.

In a statement, Zoom said it’s now enforcing a “structured hybrid approach,” meaning that employees who live near an office must return to to it for a “set number of days” because it’s “most effective” for the video-conferencing service.

“As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers. We’ll continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently,” the company said.

Putting aside the irony, Zoom isn’t excluded from the return to office trend that’s sweeping tech companies. In recent months, Google, Amazon and Salesforce have enacted similar policies, ending a Covid-era approach that gave employees more freedom to work from home. However, businesses have faced some pushback from employees after workers grew accustomed to greater flexibility.

Zoom (ZM) has had its own difficulties as demand wanes following a pandemic-fueled surge. In February, Zoom (ZM) cut approximately 15% of its staff, amounting to about 1,300 employees, after growing too quickly. Members of the executive leadership team also reduced their base salaries by 20% for the coming fiscal year and forfeited their fiscal year 2023 bonuses.

Of course, what's going unspoken is that with more people working from home, buildings are going underutilized. And the gains for local businesses near the home is a loss for businesses near the workplace.