Sonos plans return-to-office push for its product groups

Sonos will quickly encourage workers on its varied product groups who dwell close to its US workplace places to come back in for at the very least two days per week, The Verge has realized. That’s a notable break from the corporate’s historical past, all through which Sonos has enthusiastically supported totally distant and hybrid work. Job listings at Sonos routinely state that “it’s about influence, not location.” Glassdoor evaluations have lengthy backed this up, with workers reporting no stress to come back into the workplace.

However that lax stance is about to alter barely as Sonos continues its effort to proper the ship following this 12 months’s app mishap and keep on observe with upcoming merchandise. It’s adopting a stricter coverage that can name for product workers inside proximity of Santa Barbara, Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco to recurrently be current at these workplaces. The Santa Barbara location is the place Sonos is headquartered. The corporate additionally presently operates worldwide workplaces in Paris and the Netherlands

“Flexibility has been a core tenet of how Sonos has operated since our founding. Flexibility shouldn’t be going away, however like many corporations, we’re evaluating the influence that in-person collaboration has on the effectiveness of our groups and our tradition,” Sonos stated in an announcement supplied by spokesperson Olivia Singer.

“Sonos product groups rely closely on collaboration, collective problem-solving, and hands-on testing. These are actions which we consider may be performed extra successfully in-person. We shall be prioritizing workplace area for our product groups to collaborate in-person 2+ days per week relying on location (proximity to workplace), function, and present wants. Many Sonos workers and groups, nevertheless, will see no change to their present work scenario.”

Staff at Sonos inform me that morale stays low internally — it’s been that manner for the reason that app controversy spiraled right into a disaster — with some fearing one other wave of layoffs within the coming weeks after 100 workers had been reduce in April.

New job postings from the corporate have been extraordinarily skinny in current weeks as Sonos tightens its belt amid sluggish demand. Throughout final month’s quarterly earnings name, CEO Patrick Spence and CFO Saori Casey stated Sonos will take no matter steps are essential to maintain the stability sheet the place it must be because the audio firm navigates a difficult interval for its enterprise. These measures already embody leaning extra closely on AI to area buyer help requests.

The brand new Sonos Arc Extremely has obtained optimistic evaluations throughout the board, together with from yours actually. However a single product hasn’t gone far in convincing rank-and-file workers (or the corporate’s most ardent clients) that Sonos is again on the appropriate trajectory for the lengthy haul.

Return-to-office mandates have grow to be frequent throughout the tech business; many massive corporations require workers to badge in at the very least three days every week. Amazon made waves earlier this 12 months when it introduced a return to the standard five-day workplace work week.