United Parcel Service is preparing to ditch its pandemic-era work policy and require all corporate employees to return to the office for a full, five-day workweek.
The shipping company is joining a growing roster of business giants eager to ditch their flexible work policies and ramp up mandates in an effort to push employees back to physical office space. Beginning March 4, UPS confirmed it would require thousands of its employees to return to one of its corporate campuses, including its nearly 625,000-square-foot global headquarters in Atlanta.
Once implemented, the policy would make UPS the largest public company in Georgia to eliminate remote work, albeit with a few exceptions. The company's impending mandate would leave room for business travel, sick days, caregiving needs or home repairs, all of which will be allowable with managerial permission.
“We acknowledge this news comes with excitement for some and mixed emotions for others," UPS said in a company memo to employees. "We are sharing this update now so you can plan and adjust. We are a network company not just of logistics capabilities but of personal relationships, too. The UPS culture and our success has long been based on our in-person connections with our customers and the partnership forged from personal relationships cultivated day in and day out at work."
A UPS spokesperson confirmed to CoStar News the revised in-person policy but declined to provide additional details. The decision affects upward of 3,600 workers at UPS, the world's largest transportation company.
UPS' escalated mandate is the latest in a slew of similar policies implemented by companies pushing to enforce stricter in-office schedules. Disney, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Alphabet's Google and others have ramped up efforts to get workers back to physical office space, deploying a mix of strategies that include attendance-tracking apps, asking employees to relocate and threats to link in-person time with annual performance reviews.
By and large, most return-to-office mandates have avoided demands for employees to return to a full, five-day workweek. A tight labor market, ongoing pandemic concerns and an aversion by some people to working in an office led many employers to offer some flexibility for people who don't live near a company outpost, especially if those employees were hired in the early years of the pandemic on a remote-only basis.
At this time last year, UPS phased out its fully remote work policy in favor of a hybrid workweek that allowed its corporate employees to commute to a physical workspace at least three days per week. Workers at the company's global headquarters campus were met with a revamped cafeteria menu, food trucks and other perks aimed at luring employees back rather than forcing them to return.
However, that flexibility is growing more scarce as the job market cools, providing companies with more leverage to implement firmer in-office policies and make better use of their real estate.
UPS, for example, occupies nearly 4 million square feet of office space alone, according to CoStar data, a figure that doesn't include its vast industrial or retail footprint.
The impact of the escalated in-office mandates remains unclear since occupancy rates across the United States remain far below their pre-pandemic levels. Before the holidays, average attendance in major metropolitan areas was less than 52%, according to data tracked by the keycard company Kastle Systems, just a fraction of levels from half a decade ago but an all-time high since March 2020.