Change set to take effect from beginning of February next year, it's claimed
Xbox have reportedly informed staff that, from the start of February 2027, those within commuting distance of Microsoft's Washington base will have to come into the office four days a week. This follows the mandating of three days in office last year, and comes as the company are looking at cutting more staff as part of ongoing efforts to eventually get rid of 3200 people in multi-round mass layoffs.
"Starting February 1st, 2027, Xbox employees in Puget Sound who live within 50 commuting miles of Studio D are required to work from the office a minimum of four days a week," Xbox's chief people officer Jacinda Chislum Pearson wrote in an internal memo seen by The Verge.
Pearson continued that the company have "thousands of Xbox employees within commuting distance of Redmond" and couched the move as being about the idea that "working together in person makes it easier to review work, resolve issues, and make decisions without the burden of scheduling another meeting".
The Verge report that the switch to four days in office will only apply to staff deemed to live close enough to Microsoft's Redmond campus and cite the memo as suggesting "established in-office practices" at Xbox-owned studios won't change. Though, the site do note that Xbox staff who've already been given or agreed exemptions to Microsoft's previous return to office mandates will need to resubmit for them. Last September, Microsoft internally announced plans to bring in rules mandating staff within 50 miles of the Washington campus come into the office three days a week, with those rules coming into force in February of this year.
It doesn't take a genius to look at the situation and predict that Xbox staff seem likely to have a strong chance of getting a memo around this time next year demanding they prepare to begin commuting in all five days of the working week.
While this move might turn out to have been planned well in advance of Microsoft's current spate of layoffs and studio rejigging, it's not surprising to see a company reportedly planning to cut more people loose in the coming months pushing out new rules affecting how remaining staff have to go about their jobs. Make people's working lives less convenient and you make even those who were previously content more likely to seek opportunities elsewhere, if there are any decent ones to be had, or to just leave.
As of writing, Xbox parent company Microsoft are also still subject to a BDS movement boycott over their reported ties to the Israeli military.