Business | The WFH showdown

The fight over working from home goes global

Employees want to toil in the kitchen. Bosses want them back in the office

A demonstrator holds a sign that reads "I hate commuting" as Amazon employees gather during a walk-out protest.
Image: Getty Images

REMOTE WORK has a target on its back. Banking CEOs, like Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, are intent on making working from home a relic of the pandemic. For staff at America’s biggest lender and other Wall Street stalwarts like Goldman Sachs, five-day weeks are back for good. Big tech firms are also cracking the whip. Google’s return-to-work mandate threatens to track attendance and factor it in performance reviews. Meta and Lyft want staff back at their desks, demanding at least three days of the week in the office by the end of the summer. With bosses clamping down on the practice, the pandemic-era days of mutual agreement on the desirability of remote work seem to be over.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The WFH showdown”

From the July 15th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Business

Larry Ellison’s face feeding a sand timer with some planet and stars elements above. Two small figures on the right of the it looking scared.

What Elon Musk should learn from Larry Ellison

The founder of Oracle has demonstrated remarkable staying power

Kylian Mbappe of Real Madrid dribbles the ball during the LaLiga EA Sports match between Real Valladolid v Real Madrid.

Football clubs are making more money than ever. Players not so much

For both teams and their top stars, it helps to have a brand


A surreal city of LEGO-like houses with identical figures walking along grey paths

The allure of the company town

Lego, Corning and the survival of an old idea


From cribs to carriers, high-end baby products are in vogue

Demographic and technological changes are making infancy more expensive

No one gains from American tariffs on cars from Mexico and Canada

Donald Trump’s levy will hit his country’s carmakers hardest

DeepSeek poses a challenge to Beijing as much as to Silicon Valley

The story of Liang Wenfeng, the model-maker’s mysterious founder