Starbucks staff must work in the office four days a week

Starbucks has told its corporate staff they must work in the office for four days a week or take a payment and quit.

Workers will be expected to be in the office between Monday and Thursday starting in October, up from a previous requirement that staff come in for three days.

The directive is the latest in a series from companies who are pushing to restrict remote working which expanded during the Covid pandemic.

Starbucks workers who choose not to comply with the new policy, which applies to the US and Canada, will be offered a one-time payout if they decide to leave.

Brian Niccol, chief executive at Starbucks who joined the business less than a year ago, said the change would help the firm do its "best work" as it faces falling sales and other challenges.

"We understand not everyone will agree with this approach," he wrote in a company blog.

"We've listened and thought carefully. But as a company built on human connection, and given the scale of the turnaround ahead, we believe this is the right path for Starbucks," he said.

As part of the move, the company will require certain managers to relocate to Seattle, where Starbucks is headquartered, or Toronto.

Mr Niccol's contract did not require him to relocate to Seattle while specifying that the firm would establish a small remote office near his hometown in California.

He has since bought a home in Seattle.

The new policy is part of a series of changes Mr Niccol has made to turn around Starbucks.

These include revamping its menus and coffee shops as well as reversing rules for its cafes in North America that allowed people to use their facilities even if they had not bought anything.

Previously, people were allowed to linger in Starbucks outlets and use their toilets without making a purchase.

Earlier this year, the firm cut 1,100 jobs.

Other companies have also been tightening their remote work policies, including the likes of Amazon and JP Morgan.

Surveys by researchers at Stanford, the Instituto Tecnogolico Autonomo de Mexico and the University of Chicago suggest that overall working practices in recent years have been fairly stable.

Their research has found that in the US, about about a third of staff who can perform their roles remotely have been recalled to the office full-time, while roughly a fifth are fully remote. About 45% enjoy a hybrid policy.