Tech company CEO delivers a stern warning to its remote workers

Roblox remote employees are being forced to make a tough choice: either work from home three days a week or find a new job.

David Baszucki, CEO of online gaming platform Roblox, issued a memo to his over 2,000 employees yesterday warning them that remote work for most is coming to an end at the company. Remote employees (excluding required remote workers and workers with deep expertise with Roblox systems) will be asked to come back into the office Tuesday through Thursday. And those who are asked to work in person will have until Jan. 16, 2024, to make a decision.

“Roblox is an innovation company and we needed to get back to working in person,” said Baszucki in the memo.

Employees who refuse to return to working in the office will have until April 15, 2024, to find a new job and will receive a severance package along with six months of health care. Baszucki claims that multiple conversations led up to the decision that in-person work should continue at the company, keeping early career employees in mind.

“We were also concerned about many cohorts, such as our new college graduates and people early in their careers, who typically learn through social contact and would miss out on this mentorship," said Baszucki. "And of course this requires the presence of senior employees to provide that mentorship.” 

Related: There's a major change coming for those working from home - and many people will hate it

Roblox’s crackdown on remote work comes after KPMG released its 2023 CEO Outlook survey where 64% of CEOs globally at large corporations said that they expect employees to make a full return to the office in three years.

The shift from remote work to in-person work may be a challenging adjustment for employees who embraced working from home after the coronavirus pandemic broke out in 2020. 

According to a Pew Research Center survey in March, about 22 million people in the United States work from home full time. The survey also reveals that a third of hybrid workers who are currently working from home "most of the time" say they'd like to work from home "all of the time." And half of hybrid workers who telework "some of the time" say they’d like to do so either for "most of the time" or "all of the time."