After cutting SF HQ, Lyft CEO requires that workers return to office

Now, Risher is requiring that all employees work in the office part of the time — a drastic change in fortune for Lyft workers who, nearly 18 months ago, were told that they could work wherever they wanted. Risher’s new mandate was first reported in an interview with Fortune.

The reasoning behind the push to office mirrors the increasingly popular sentiment among tech executives: Workers, the logic goes, can connect with each other and collaborate more effectively in the office than they ever can on a Zoom or Slack call. (There’s no definitive evidence one way or another, even as studies released over the past few months have made a case for coming into the office more; both Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff have also referenced internal statistics that indicate that remote work has been detrimental to in-house productivity.)

“So much of satisfaction at work comes from this almost physical feeling of side by side,” Risher told Fortune, “you know, solving problems together at the whiteboard, and then having lunch with each other, having fun, getting to know each other’s kids’ names and what you’d like to do after work, and so forth.” 

It’s not a full week in office, as Risher makes sure to point out. He’s also hoping to soften the blow by encouraging flex time for employees, Fortune reports — workers can come in at any time in the morning but must come in three days a week. Still, the decision must be whiplash-inducing for workers already accustomed to the fully remote workflows the company rolled out prior to Risher’s takeover. 

Like Zuckerberg before him, Risher is requiring Lyft workers to transition into the office by Labor Day. But he’s hoping to facilitate the transition by making the office feel like the first day of a new school — with tours and community groups to foster worker bonding. “It’s going to be super fun, I hope,” Risher told Fortune. 

Hear of anything going on at Lyft or another San Francisco tech company? Contact SFGATE tech editor Joshua Bote securely on Signal at 707-742-3756 or email him at [email protected].