Washington Post employees enjoying flexible work schedules introduced as the pandemic unfolded will return to the office full time starting in February.
The new work rules angered the labor union representing many of the newspaper’s employees, and union action against the change is expected.
The newspaper’s publisher, Will Lewis, sent a memo to employees letting them know that the current rules, which ask workers to be in the office three days a week, would be bumped up to full time or five days a week. Being out on the beat reporting or making a sales call or appointment count as being in the office under the rule.
Managers will be required to come in five days a week starting Feb. 3, with all other employees required to come in full time starting June 2. The new rules apply to those within commuting distance of the paper’s offices in the District and New York, with all other remote arrangements to require the approval of an employee’s department.
Washington Post employees were allowed to work from home starting in March 2020, and were first required to come in three days a week in the spring of 2022, according to Washingtonian.
“I want that great office energy for us. … You know how much we all must do to improve our company, and I do not believe we can do that successfully via zoom. We are really good when we are working together in person. It is in this spirit that we will be returning to the office five days a week in the coming months,” Mr. Lewis wrote in the Thursday memo.
The Washington Post Guild, a union representing many of the newspaper’s employees, plans to organize against the change in remote work policy.
“The Post plans to institute an inflexible and outdated work-from-the-office policy that does not reflect the reality of our jobs or lives. Guild leadership sees this for what it is: a change that stands to further disrupt our work than to improve our productivity or collaboration,” the union told members in an email, according to the Washington City Paper.
The Post’s higher-ups previously angered many employees when a planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris was reportedly axed before the election in favor of overt neutrality. A number of columnists and members of the Post editorial board resigned as a result.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
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