Tech giant Microsoft is planning to tighten its office attendance policy and may implement it as early as January for some employees. The dates for the implementation of this policy may differ across various Microsoft offices.

Employees at Redmond, Washington, headquarters are expected to work from the office more consistently from January onwards, according to a report by Business Insider, citing people aware of the development.

The company is still finalising the details and had planned to make an announcement as soon as September.

What is the proposed policy?

According to the new policy, Microsoft may mandate its employees to work in the office at least three days a week, people familiar with the matter told the news agency.

Since late 2020, the tech major has had a flexible work policy, where employees worked remotely for nearly 50% of the time without permission. This policy has been more flexible in practice, permitting employees to work remotely mostly.

Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw confirmed that the company is contemplating to update its flexible work policies, but no final decisions have been made.

In line with other tech companies

Microsoft’s latest move is expected to be in accordance with other major tech companies, which have recently proposed stricter work-from-office policies.

Earlier this year, Microsoft’s competitor, Amazon, tightened its work-from-office policy, mandating employees work in person five days a week. AT&T launched a similar policy last year, and CEO John Stankey recently asked the employees to get on board or get out.

Microsoft’s proposed move to a three-day work-from-office policy is similar to that of Meta and Google. Notably, certain Microsoft teams, such as the Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) group, are working from the office more than three days a week.

Meanwhile, Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s head of cloud and AI, told employees during an internal meeting last September that the company would only reconsider its flexible work policy if there was a clear decline in productivity.