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Starbucks CEO has tough words for employees on return to office
MSN.com ^ | September 21, 2024 | Patricia Battle

Posted on 09/21/2024 6:01:57 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Brian Niccol has a stern message for his employees, and many may not be too thrilled about it.

As companies across the country are starting to cut back on remote work, with some even forcing employees to return to working in the office five days a week, Niccol revealed in his first staff address as Starbucks CEO that there is “power in having everybody together,” according to a new report from Bloomberg.

“My point of view is we should be together as much as possible,” said Niccol in his address. “You need to figure out where you need to be to get your job done, then do that. We’re all adults here.”

Starbucks has a mandate, which was enforced in January 2023, requiring corporate staff to work from the office three days a week, and that policy still stands.

Niccol also claimed during the address that in order for the company to succeed, employees should be working in person “more often than not.”

“This is not a game of tracking. This is a game of winning,” said Niccol. “I care about seeing everybody here succeed, and if success requires us being together more often than not, let’s be together more often.”

Niccol, who was formerly CEO at Chipotle, officially began his role as CEO of Starbucks on Sept. 9 after being appointed to the position last month. He recently faced backlash on social media for his remote work accommodations.

In a recent filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Starbucks revealed that Niccol “will not be required to relocate” to the company’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and will instead commute from his home in Newport Beach, California, to the office via private jet to perform his “duties and responsibilities.”

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: brianniccol; ceo; collaboration; employees; remotework; returntooffice; starbucks; teams
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I predict I will also be back in an office somewhere within a few years. The dominoes are falling, and, as usual, the bosses hold most of the cards. What are we all supposed to do, quit?
1 posted on 09/21/2024 6:01:57 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Is this possibly because these companies are on the hook for the office space and might as well get some use out of it?


2 posted on 09/21/2024 6:03:37 PM PDT by dynachrome (Auslander Raus!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
What are we all supposed to do, quit?

Imagine what would happen if they did.

3 posted on 09/21/2024 6:06:44 PM PDT by xoxox
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To: dynachrome

In NYC, retail tax revenue is way down. Big companies get big tax breaks for building big buildings there; part of those breaks are paid for by the employees using the subway, eating at restaurants, taking cabs, shopping in town, spending big at the bar after work, etc etc.

In the very back of my mind, I recall how much leverage Big Corp had in coercing people to get vaccinated when they were all on-site: “get jabbed or get fired.” I wonder if the ducks are being lined up for the sequel.


4 posted on 09/21/2024 6:09:57 PM PDT by xoxox
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

So the managers want to work from home, but need the baristas to show up to work. And this guy is going to commute 3000 miles a day via private jet? Or is that 3 days a week? I guess they’ll have to find other ways to make up their responsibility to the planet.

https://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/planet/


5 posted on 09/21/2024 6:11:24 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

White collared workers think they are special and deserve special treatment. Let the low lifes go to work every day


6 posted on 09/21/2024 6:12:40 PM PDT by roving (Deplorable Erectionists Listless Vessel )
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Niccol “will not be required to relocate” to the company’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and will instead commute from his home in Newport Beach, California, to the office via private jet to perform his “duties and responsibilities.”

So, is the CEO commuting via private jet three days a week like everyone else? Or only when he needs to?

7 posted on 09/21/2024 6:13:58 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (My decisions about people are based almost entirely on skin color. I learned this from Democrats.)
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To: xoxox

Hire others to take their place?


8 posted on 09/21/2024 6:15:10 PM PDT by roving (Deplorable Erectionists Listless Vessel )
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

If employees working in an office were so essential to these companies, then these CEOs would have fought like hell against the stupid Branch Covidian lockdowns instead of caving like sheep in 2020 and sending everyone to work from home in the first place.


9 posted on 09/21/2024 6:16:24 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Ain't it funny how the night moves … when you just don't seem to have as much to lose.”)
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To: roving

that can be expensive. also, there’s the question of one’s own dignity. why offer your talents in that kind of perverse bargain?


10 posted on 09/21/2024 6:18:29 PM PDT by xoxox
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I would predict that workers will only begin to accept going back to work when the COVID work-from-home time is matched by time without work.

The evil elitists knew what they were doing. They have sewn the same discontent as they did with Roaring Women in the 60’s - and the best part is that it doesn’t cost them anything.


11 posted on 09/21/2024 6:18:56 PM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: Alberta's Child

they were doing what they were told.


12 posted on 09/21/2024 6:18:57 PM PDT by xoxox
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
“This is not a game of tracking. This is a game of winning,” said Niccol. “I care about seeing everybody here succeed, and if success requires us being together more often than not, let’s be together more often.”

Sounds like a speech written by Kamala.

Let's get together, because, not being together makes us not together, and it's always better being together, so, let's get together.
13 posted on 09/21/2024 6:26:19 PM PDT by adorno (CCH)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

They can’t Zoom in from their local Starbuck$ ?


14 posted on 09/21/2024 6:27:04 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
"What are we all supposed to do, quit?"

That's exactly what I'll do. I've been looking for an excuse to get into house flipping anyhow.

15 posted on 09/21/2024 6:29:42 PM PDT by The Duke (Not without incident)
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To: dynachrome

Not exactly. I think that the big bosses are afraid that commercial real estate will completely crater, causing a severe recession as the ripple effects spread. Therefore, it is a good idea to move back to the office. Also, there is a worry that workers are consciously or unconsciously slacking off as they work from home in bunny slippers.


16 posted on 09/21/2024 6:34:05 PM PDT by maro (MAGA!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I have been working since High school and through College in both retail and IT, and I have found the vast majority of my bosses were incompetent and narcissistic, only differing by degree.

And more often that not, the rare instances of my bosses who knowledgeable, respected their employees, and delivered results would be pushed out by the lesser performing incompetents., and again in my own personal experience,I have found this to be much more common with publicly traded companies.

IMHO, publicly traded companies are short sighted to the long term detriment of the company, but are forced into this strategy because quarterly growth is the priority of the stock holders, which in turn attracts CEOs who enact short term quick fixes to maximize their compensation before they get booted by the stockholders.

The "return to the office" mandate is on of these quick fixes.

17 posted on 09/21/2024 6:37:47 PM PDT by SecondAmendment (The history of the present Federal Government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations ...)
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To: ClearCase_guy

“So, is the CEO commuting via private jet three days a week like everyone else? Or only when he needs to?”

I suspect to some degree of not being hypocritical he will fly in Mondays, be in the Seattle office Tuesday - Thursday and fly back to So Cal Thursday night or Friday.


18 posted on 09/21/2024 6:40:04 PM PDT by DAC21
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To: monkeyshine
So the managers want to work from home, but need the baristas to show up to work.

Brian Niccol is right. Why should his corporate employees work from home? They're more efficient working at the corporate office. If they're not a fan of that arrangement, they're free to find employment elsewhere.

That's what Elon Musk did at Twitter.

19 posted on 09/21/2024 6:43:04 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: xoxox

A CEO who “does what he’s told” has no business running a company.


20 posted on 09/21/2024 6:44:17 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Ain't it funny how the night moves … when you just don't seem to have as much to lose.”)
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