General Motors Clarifies Its Return-To-Office Messaging

General Motors (GM) is walking back on its return-to-office plans after facing employee backlash. 

In April of 2021, GM announced that it would adopt a “work appropriately” strategy, allowing the company to remain agile in their workplace arrangements depending on each employee and the environment at the time. 

However, on Friday, employees received a message from company leaders stating that they would be required to return to the office three days a week this year in another evolution of its workplace policies. 

Tuesday, another message was sent informing staff that days in the office would be decided by individual teams and that a return-to-office won’t be required sooner than the first quarter of 2023. 

“While we have maintained a highly collaborative culture over the past two years during a very challenging time, the intangible benefits of in person collaboration are going to be a critical success factor as we move into a period of rapid launches,” the memo signed by CEO Mary Barra and other executives stated.

“This evolution is about being ready for the next phase of our transformation.”   

While GM’s RTO policy appears to abide by the “work appropriately” rules, employees are not convinced that this fulfills the promise of true flexibility. 

The memo stated that leaders will continue “to listen to your feedback so that we incorporate it into our implementation plans.”