Sonos will soon encourage employees across its various product teams who live near its US office locations to visit at least two days per week. The Verge Have you learnt. This marks a notable break in the company's history, during which Sonos has enthusiastically supported fully remote and hybrid work. Job listings at Sonos regularly state that “it's about impact, not location.” glassdoor reviews Employees have supported this for a long time and have told that there is no pressure on them to come to the office.
But that lax stance is about to change a bit as Sonos continues to try to right the ship This year's app disaster And stay on track with upcoming products. It is adopting a strict policy that will ask product employees near Santa Barbara, Boston, Seattle and San Francisco to be present in those offices on a regular basis. The Santa Barbara location is where Sonos is headquartered. The company also currently operates international offices in Paris and the Netherlands
“Flexibility has been a core principle of how Sonos has operated since our founding. Flexibility is not going away, but like many companies, we are evaluating the impact that in-person collaboration has on the effectiveness of our teams and our culture,” Sonos said in a statement provided by spokeswoman Olivia Singer.
“Sonos product teams rely heavily on collaboration, collective problem-solving and hands-on testing. These are activities that we believe can be done more effectively in person. We would prefer office space for our product teams to collaborate in person 2+ days per week depending on location (proximity to office), role, and current needs. However, many Sonos employees and teams will see no changes to their current work status.
Sonos employees tell me that morale remains low internally — it's been that way since the app controversy turned into a crisis — with some fearing another wave of layoffs in the coming weeks. 100 employees were cut in April,
There have been very few new job postings from the company in recent weeks as Sonos tightens its belt amid sluggish demand. during Last month's quarterly earnings callCEO Patrick Spence and CFO Saori Casey said Sonos will take whatever steps are necessary to maintain its balance sheet as the audio company goes through a challenging period for its business. Those measures already include leaning more on AI for customer support requests.
The new Sonos Arc Ultra has received positive reviews across the board, Including from yours trulyBut not a single product has gone very far in convincing rank-and-file employees (or the company's most enthusiastic customers) that Sonos is back on the right track for the long term.
Return to office orders have become common throughout the tech industryMany large companies require employees to wear a badge at least three days each week. Amazon made waves earlier this year when it was announced The return of the traditional five-day office work week.