Walt Disney Co. is asking its workers to return to the company’s offices four days a week starting on March 1, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg.
“Employees currently working in a hybrid fashion will be asked to spend four days a week on-site, targeting Monday through Thursday as in-person workdays,” Bob Iger, who returned as chief executive officer of Disney in November, said in the memo.
Iger, who ran the Burbank, California-based entertainment giant from 2005 to 2020, said in his first meeting with employees after returning last year that he was planning to spend a lot of time in the office and joked that he hoped he wouldn’t be lonely. He also suggested workers could adjust their hours to avoid traffic when they come back.
In Monday’s memo, Iger praised staffers for their work, citing the company’s film Avatar: The Way of Water becoming the seventh highest-grossing movie of all time, as well as ESPN’s handling of Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest during Monday Night Football.
“In a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe, and create with peers that comes from being physically together, nor the opportunity to grow professionally by learning from leaders and mentors,” Iger said in the memo, which was reported earlier by CNBC.