Zoom is the company more synonymous with working from home than any other. In a few short months, the video conferencing software went from obscurity to ubiquity as millions of office workers grappled with propping up their laptops on kitchen tables during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns.
But in an irony to end all ironies, Zoom itself is calling time on remote working. This week, it announced that any of its 7,400 employees who live within 50 miles (80 km) of one of its offices must work from there for at least part of the week, starting from autumn this year.
“We believe that a structured hybrid approach – meaning employees that live near an office need to be on site two days a week to interact with their teams – is most effective for Zoom,” the company said. “We’ll continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently.”