SF’s largest private employer, Salesforce, is bringing the hammer down on its pajama-clad workers who’ve gotten used to remote work, as the company will start requiring employees to work three to five days a week in the office, and they’ll be monitoring security badge scans.
The software company Salesforce remains San Francisco's biggest private employer, even after their round of layoffs in early 2023. (Technically the City and County of San Francisco and UCSF Health employ more people, but those are not private companies.) And Salesforce confirmed this week that there would be another small round of layoffs coming, so the company’s employees may be a little worried about their jobs.
So what better time to force people back into the office than when they’re concerned they might be fired? That may or may not be part of the company’s calculus here, but nonetheless, KTVU reports that Salesforce is ending its generous remote-work policy and requiring employees to be in the office from three to five days a week.
Th policy reportedly goes into effect October 1.
Salesforce did a public blog post last week that rather soft-shoes around the requirement. That post designates three employee classifications for hybrid work: Office-Based (four to five days in the office per week), Office-Flex (three days per week, or ten days per quarter), and Remote (primarily from home, or at a Salesforce customer site).
But the SF Standard obtained an internal company memo that said it would “better clarify our in-person expectations.” And that memo noted there would be a company dashboard on which office entry and exit security badge scans would be monitored to see exactly who was showing up for work, and when.
This is probably welcome news to SF Mayor Breed, who’s long been haranguing companies to get their employees back to downtown offices. Remote work, and the dearth of downtown foot traffic it has caused, have contributed greatly to downtown SF’s woes, and it’s lowered the city's tex revenue when City Hall is back in deficit times.
Salesforce itself has a smaller downtown footprint these days, as they’ve exited the 350 Mission Street building known as Salesforce East. KTVU notes that even at Salesforce Tower, the company only occupies about half of the building that bears its name — but that has pretty much been the case since the building opened. And they can still afford to book Elton John for this year’s Dreamforce concert, so at least they've got that going for them.
Image: San Francisco's financial district skyline at dusk. The Salesforce Tower (right) has been San Francisco’s tallest building since its construction in 2017. (Getty Images)
