Tech giant has assured that it will not impose a five-day office rule.

The tech company has decided, at least for now, not to implement a mandatory five-day office return policy, according to tech.co, contrasting with the decisions made by other sector players like Amazon, which recently required all its employees to return to the office.

While Microsoft has not ruled out more drastic measures in the future, it assures that hybrid work will remain in place as long as productivity levels are maintained.

Anonymous sources within the organization told Business Insider that Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President of the Microsoft Cloud + AI Group, informed employees that the company would only revoke the right to hybrid work if productivity levels were to decline—a position later confirmed by a company spokesperson.

"More engaged, more productive, more connected"

Microsoft’s continued commitment reinforces the company’s previous stance on hybrid and remote work arrangements.

For example, last month, Microsoft had a total of 530 fully remote job vacancies, significantly more than companies like Google and Apple. These positions range from Product Marketing Manager to Software Engineer and Health & AI Data Specialist.

In August, Keith Boyd, Senior Director at Microsoft Digital, published a blog post titled "Reinventing the Microsoft Employee Experience for a Hybrid World." In it, he discusses how the shift to hybrid work during and after the pandemic "served as an accelerator for our efforts to revolutionize the employee and customer experience," while also acknowledging the challenges posed by the lack of in-person collaboration.

Ultimately, however, he reinforced the view of hybrid work as a necessary step for companies like Microsoft to avoid losing talent to competitors with more advanced and flexible models.

The Big Return to the Office

In the years following the pandemic, many tech companies have phased out remote work, and others are now starting to end hybrid work agreements.

Amazon is one of the most recent examples, requiring all employees to work entirely in person starting in January. Dell did the same last week, but with a shorter timeline, requiring employees to return to the office five days a week starting September 30.