Nike is once again increasing its in-office requirement for its Beaverton, Ore. employees.
Starting in January, Nike employees will be required to come into the office four days a week, a Nike spokesperson confirmed to FN in a statement. Since May of 2022, Nike has been requiring three days a week in the office, a move that was announced in 2021 but delayed for a year due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases across the U.S.
“We’ve seen the power and energy that comes from working together in person, and we aim to create more of that,” a Nike spokesperson said in a statement.
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In May 2021, Nike said it would bring employees back to its headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., in September with a “3-2 flexible work model,” which allowed employees to work remotely up to two days a week. That same year, the Swoosh made the decision to close its offices for a week for the first time in August 2021, giving global employees the option to take time off in advance of the planned return to the office, an annual tradition that has persisted through 2023.
This initiative emerged during a period of general worker unrest and anxiety, as companies asked — or, in some cases, required — their workforce to come back into the office. In recent months, more CEOs have outlined guidelines that require more office time. For example, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in February announced that employees would be required to be in the office three days a week starting in May, a move which invited pushback from employees, many of whom signed a petition to have the policy removed. Apple, Goldman Sachs and other companies have also increased their office time requirements.
About 64 percent of CEOs expect to see a full return to office by 2026, according to a recent KPMG survey of more than 1,300 global CEOs. Eighty-seven percent said they are more likely to reward employees who come into the office with better assignments, raises or promotions.
Other companies have yet to announce major changes their hybrid or remote policies. Since April of 2022, Adidas has required U.S. employees to come into the office for three days or more a week with the option to take an extra two weeks per year to work remotely from anywhere. At Zappos, warehouse employees work in-person everyday, though corporate employees can choose how often, if at all, they want to come into the office.
