- Uber’s mandate for three in‑office days and tighter sabbatical rules have ignited fierce employee pushback. In an interview with CNBC, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged the tensions, saying workers who want to keep working remotely will have “to make a choice.”
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is standing by the company’s recent changes to employee benefits despite backlash from workers.
The ride-hailing company recently told workers they needed to return to the office to work in person three days a week and changed the eligibility for its month-long paid sabbatical benefit.
Starting in June, employees must work from the office three days a week—up from two—and eligibility for a month-long paid sabbatical was raised from five to eight years. Some previously approved remote workers were also asked to return to the office.
In an interview with CNBC following Uber’s Q1 earnings, Khosrowshahi said the company wanted people back in the office.
“We think it’s a great policy and it’s the right mix of giving your employees flexibility but also getting them to the office for those all-important teamwork tasks,” he said. “We want people in the office, we want them working hard.”
When pressed about workers who took the job with the remote work option, Khosrowshahi said they would have “to make a choice.”
“They’ve got to make their own choice, do they want to come to the office, or is working remotely really important for them? The good news is the economy is still really strong, the job market is strong,” he said. “People who work at Uber, they have lots of opportunities everywhere.”
“We want them, obviously, to take the opportunity with us, to take the opportunity to learn,” Khosrowshahi added. “But this is a company where you have to work hard, we’re not going to make excuses for that, and you have to work hard together.”
Uber employees reprimanded for being ‘unprofessional and disrespectful’
Employees have taken the new mandate badly, criticizing the move on internal forums, citing burnout, and logistical issues like a lack of workspace.
Last week, in a heated all-hands meeting, employees also peppered Khosrowshahi with questions and criticism about the changes, per an audio recording reviewed by CNBC.
Khosrowshahi dismissed the concerns during the call, telling employees “it is what it is.”
“We recognize some of these changes are going to be unpopular with folks,” Khosrowshahi said of the changes. “This is a risk we decided to take.”
Following the tense all-hands meeting, Uber’s Chief People Officer, Nikki Krishnamurthy, issued a memo stating that certain employee comments made during the broadcast were “unprofessional and disrespectful” and had crossed an acceptable line.
Representatives for Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune, made outside normal working hours.
Return-to-office push
Tech companies have been enforcing RTO mandates across the board, reigniting tensions between executives and their workforces.
Google recently told some remote employees living within 50 miles of an office to return three days weekly or risk losing their roles, a move that blindsided staff who had been granted prior remote approvals.
Over at Amazon, employees are being asked to return to the office five days per week.
Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy has argued that consistent office presence strengthens company culture, boosts collaboration, and fuels innovation.
Return-to-office rules are generally unpopular with workers.
For example, a recent survey of 2,500 Amazon employees by Blind, an online forum of verified tech workers, found that 91% of Amazon employees were unhappy with the new policy.
Employees in the Amazon Web Services division took their concerns straight to the top, writing an open letter to chief executive Matt Garman detailing their frustration with the new policy.
“Our time working remotely during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic proved that we are effective, creative, and successful without being primarily in-person, and to take no lessons from that experience would be extremely disappointing because Amazon is and always will be a global company,” the open letter reads.
Are you an Uber employee with information to share? Contact this reporter from a non-work device at bea.nolan@fortune.com or securely via Signal at beatricenolan.08
