Uber is effectively ending fully remote work for 99% of its workforce as the ride-hailing company tightens its office policy and requires most employees who currently work remotely to return to the office.
Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi announced the change in a memo to employees, saying only about one per cent of Uber’s workforce would be allowed to remain fully remote.
“We are also asking the vast majority of remote employees to move to an office, and going forward, only 1% of employees will be remote,” Khosrowshahi said.
Uber will retain its hybrid-work arrangement, meaning employees will generally be required to work from an office three days a week. The company has not disclosed how many employees currently work fully remotely, so the exact number affected by the change is unclear.
Khosrowshahi said the decision reflected the benefits Uber had seen from employees working together in person, particularly in collaboration, problem-solving and the development of employees early in their careers.
“The benefits of sitting together, collaborating in person, and solving problems as a team are clearer than ever in our post-COVID world,” he said.
Uber is also introducing clearer principles for where employees and teams should be based, with the company seeking to concentrate its workforce in a smaller number of major hubs.
Global teams will be concentrated in hubs including New York and San Francisco, while regional teams will operate from designated regional hubs, local teams from country hubs and technology teams from technology hubs.
The company will also prioritise having managers and their teams working from the same location wherever possible, particularly for employees at the early stages of their careers.
Uber Job Cuts
The policy change comes alongside a wider restructuring at Uber that will eliminate about 3,300 jobs and reduce the company’s management ranks by approximately 20%.
Khosrowshahi said Uber had expanded substantially over the past five years, but that growth had resulted in additional organisational layers, greater coordination requirements and more fragmented ownership.
The new policy represents a significant retreat from fully remote work, as Uber seeks to make physical offices and concentrated employment hubs a larger part of how it organises its global workforce.
