Some Triangle tech companies say the time for remote work is over
As fall arrives, more North Carolina companies are asking workers — or telling them — to get back to the office.
“This is a time where a lot of employers want to start putting in some policies, because hopefully we’re going back to a little bit of a normalization,” said Kendall Strickland, a branch manager at the Robert Half staffing agency in Raleigh.
This includes two large Triangle tech employers, though not all their employees are pleased with mandatory returns.
Come early October, Citrix, a cloud computing provider, expects workers in non-remote roles to be in the office, according to an internal employee message obtained by The New & Observer. Citrix, which is headquartered in Florida, employs around 700 people at its downtown Raleigh building. The company did not respond to multiple emails or phone calls from the N&O to elaborate on its return-to-office decision.
And starting next week, the Raleigh communications software company Bandwidth is requiring its U.S. employees to come to the office each workday.
Their approaches are a departure from many Triangle tech companies that will continue allowing employees to choose where they work, including Cisco, IBM, Pendo, and SAS Institute.
“Our focus remains on outcomes, not activities, because that is a more objective barometer of how employees are supporting the business,” said Michael Cable, a spokesperson for IBM, which owns the Raleigh-based open-source software company Red Hat, in an email.
Though society has reopened from the pandemic, many North Carolina employees have grown accustomed to remote options that cut down on commutes and permit more schedule flexibility.
“Employers kind of have to understand that remote work is here to stay,” Strickland said. “People are going to want that option; they’ve already had a taste of it.”
Bandwidth: A true office believer
Since the pandemic, perhaps no local tech company has promoted in-person work as strongly as Bandwidth.
In the summer of 2021, Bandwidth CEO David Morken announced employees, which the company calls “bandmates,” would have to return full-time — or find new jobs. That July, Morken explain the company’s policy to The N&O, saying, “there is a real decaying half-life to a vibrant company culture when you are remote.”
Yet the return rule didn’t sit well with some employees.
“Everyone has wondered exactly what could motivate this fervent of an effort to return to office, however none of the responses seemed genuine or significant to justify it,” said Andy Feller, a software engineer who left Bandwidth in August 2021 after more than three years with the company.
Bandwidth backtracked on its in-person requirement as COVID cases rose in the fall and winter. But now, the phone and messaging software provider is trying again. Though Bandwidth has not required its employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19, it is telling its approximately 800 Triangle-area employees to go into work without remote options.
“We believe that the power of presence is fundamental to developing people rich in talent and possibility,” Bandwidth spokesperson David Doolittle said in an email to The N&O. “If anything, the pandemic has reinforced how much we value the creativity and innovation that happens when we’re together.”
Bandwidth, has invested heavily in its office culture. It is constructing a 450,000-square-foot headquarters on Edwards Mill Road in west Raleigh, which it hopes to open next summer. The facility, which has a proposed 350,000-square-foot second phase, is set to include a school, amphitheater and athletic field.
The company’s current office is on North Carolina State University’s Centennial Campus.
Citrix, in its message on upcoming office expectations, struck a similar tone as Bandwidth, citing “the need for collaboration, culture building, interaction, and rapid execution and decision-making.”
Nationwide, companies have tried soft tactics to entice people back to the office, including special events and free food. And some of it appears to be working. According to a study cited in The Wall Street Journal, office use in 10 major American cities was 47.5% of its early 2020 levels, the highest rate since the pandemic began.
‘It doesn’t work for everyone’
In addition to Feller, The N&O spoke with one current Bandwidth employee and another former employee who each felt the return-to-office requirement could hurt the company’s ability to attract or retain workers going forward.
“The problem with this requirement is that it doesn’t work for everyone across the board,” said the current employee, who has been with Bandwidth for more than four years. The employee requested his name not be used over concerns it would affect future employment opportunities. Though he praised Bandwidth for building “a damn good culture,” he noted colleagues may work better “at home, some from the office, some from Starbucks, and some work best with a hybrid approach.”
Bandwidth acknowledges its policy may prompt some workers to look for remote or hybrid opportunities elsewhere.
“Now that we have asked the rest of our team to join us in the office in October, there will be some who make personal decisions about where they wish to live and work,” Doolittle said. “We understand that those individuals have a difficult decision to make, and we will be disappointed if they choose to leave Bandwidth instead of returning.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
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This story was originally published September 26, 2022 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Some Triangle tech companies say the time for remote work is over."
