Changes in the economic outlook mean that the technology sector is going through a very turbulent time. Companies that seemed untouchable like Meta or Amazon are now preparing for a recession by laying off people, leading some experts to think we’re witnessing a tech bubble burst. All of this, among other things, affects remote work, whose future looks rather dubious after Elon Musk laid off almost 50% of his workforce, as well as abolishing remote work on Twitter.

In this context, Snap, the creator of Snapchat, announced a change to its remote work policy this week: employees will return to the office for four days starting next February.

back to the office. As Bloomberg revealed, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel sent out a circular informing his employees that they will work at the office for at least four days in February. “I think spending more face-to-face time together will help us reach our full potential,” said Spiegel, adding that the loss of individual convenience of working from home will be offset by collective success. Called ‘together by default’ (together by default in Spanish), this policy will include some flexibility to handle certain tasks and will affect all offices around the world.

Topics. This change in telecommuting policy comes after the company laid off 1,200 people at the end of this summer, roughly 20% of its workforce. Basically, it’s a set of measures Spiegel wants to implement to improve the performance of the firm, which recorded the lowest quarterly growth rate in its history at the end of last month. This is due to changes in the macroeconomic level and increased competition.

In this sense, it should be noted that the rise of Tik Tok, which is among the target audience of the company, and the change in Apple’s privacy policy, which reduced Snapchat’s advertising revenues, caused serious setbacks for Spiegel’s company. which puts them on the list of big companies that think the face-to-face model will make them more competitive.

One more. That’s the view of BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who also stated in an interview with Fox News that going back to the office will increase productivity. Here it is possible to spot what Microsoft calls the ‘productivity paranoia’ that some business people suffer from, because the truth is there is research showing how remote work can increase a company’s productivity.

Twitter and Apple cases. Of course, a blatant enemy of remote work, Elon Musk informed his Twitter staff weeks ago that anyone who could and didn’t would be fired would be fired. Other big businessmen like Apple CEO Tim Cook, who recently defended the company’s decision to go to the office for three days, are trying to be more diplomatic; this is something that doesn’t convince the company’s employees: According to a survey by By Blind, 76% of Apple employees surveyed in May were dissatisfied with the return to the face-to-face regime.

a lot of doubts. A technological winter is approaching, with some firms in the industry preparing for mass layoffs and the reduction or elimination of remote work. The future of remote work, as such, is at its most difficult time since the start of the pandemic.

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