GM takes hard stance on salaried workers returning to office in January

General Motors is increasing the pressure on its 43,500 salaried workers across the United States to return to the office.

In a company-wide email to employees Tuesday morning that was obtained by the Detroit Free Press, CEO Mary Barra made it clear she wants white-collar workers at their desks inside GM facilities on three specific days of each week "at a minimum."

"At the start of the year, we asked hybrid employees to be in the office three days a week in order to drive the greatest impact. However, adherence has been mixed," Barra wrote in the email. "We are now explicitly requesting hybrid employees to be onsite beginning Jan. 8, every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at minimum. Senior leaders will continue to have the flexibility to determine if a team needs to be in the office more frequently."

GM spokesman Kevin Kelly confirmed the new policy saying it is to help the automaker accelerate its move to selling more electric vehicles in the future. GM struggled this year to get its new EVs launched as it battled battery production problems. Barra told investors she was "disappointed" in this year's slow EV launches and that GM has fixed the battery production problems and GM will have stronger EV sales next year.

“We’re going through a historical transformation around the business,” Kelly told the Free Press. “This (new policy) is a way to get more collaboration around that transformation.”

Return to office enforcement
Many salaried workers at GM have resisted the return to the office policy. In September 2022, in internal messages to employees, GM first said it would end its Work Appropriately philosophy, which allowed for flexibility on where employees did their job, and require them to come to the office three days a week.

Days later, after much employee pushback, Barra sent out a note to the salaried workforce offering an apology of sorts for the short timing in announcing the new policy. She said GM's plan still would include a more regular, in-person presence, but it would not implement any return-to-the-office policy in 2022 as the company listens to employee feedback.

But by October 2022, as the Free Press first reported, GM confirmed the start date to return to the office for those three days would be Jan. 30, 2023. GM said it would not keep track of worker attendance. It was a mandate that many area leaders and businesses welcome. In GM's World Headquarters inside the Renaissance Center on Detroit's waterfront, for example, there are many businesses that rely on foot traffic from the "low thousands" of GM employees assigned to work there.

Tuesday's news is GM's move to better define its return-to-the-office policy by naming the specific days leadership wants people to come into the office, Kelly said. By choosing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as those days, it allows for managers to give employees flexibility around the weekends by determining if their team can work hybrid on Mondays and Fridays, he said.

In Tuesday's memo, Barra said, "We realize 'return to the office' is a topic that has been highly debated in many workplaces around the country. It is also something the SLT (senior leadership team) feels strongly about, and we want to make our expectations clear. We believe the benefits of in-person collaboration and mentorship lead to a stronger, more innovative culture and higher performance."

No badge count
In the memo, it said as GM pivots to a more "structured onsite approach," the Work Appropriately plan no longer applies.

But that doesn’t mean GM will enforce this policy by keeping track of badge swipes into its facilities, Kelly said.

“It’ll be up to the individual leaders to enforce the policy,” Kelly said.

But Barra noted that many teams already work full-time onsite and there are many employees designated as fully remote. The memo said the policy applies to hybrid employees living within a 50-mile radius of a major GM hub in Southeast Michigan, Austin, Texas; Atlanta; and Northern California.

"All leaders will be focused on enforcing this and supporting their teams in a smooth transition over the coming weeks," Barra wrote.