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

Sonos will quickly encourage staff on its numerous product groups who dwell close to its US workplace areas to come back in for at the very least two days per week, The Verge has discovered. 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 critiques have lengthy backed this up, with staff reporting no strain to come back into the workplace.

However that lax stance is ready to vary barely as Sonos continues its effort to proper the ship following this yr’s app mishap and keep on observe with upcoming merchandise. It’s adopting a stricter coverage that may name for product staff 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 at the moment operates worldwide workplaces in Paris and the Netherlands

“Flexibility has been a core tenet of how Sonos has operated since our founding. Flexibility isn’t 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 mentioned 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 imagine will be accomplished extra successfully in-person. We will probably 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 staff and groups, nonetheless, will see no change to their present work state of affairs.”

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

New job postings from the corporate have been extraordinarily skinny in latest weeks as Sonos tightens its belt amid sluggish demand. Throughout final month’s quarterly earnings name, CEO Patrick Spence and CFO Saori Casey mentioned Sonos will take no matter steps are essential to maintain the steadiness 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 discipline buyer help requests.

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

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