Bad news Microsoft workers – tech giant is “considering” remote working crackdown, and employees could be ordered back to the office soon

• Microsoft is reportedly looking to formalize three-day in-office working policy
• Rivals like Amazon now ask for full-time office attendance
• Workers must prepare for more changes, reports claim

Microsoft could be the latest tech giant to explore a stricter in-office working policy, with reports claiming the company is reportedly considering enacting a three-day office-working policy for most employees.

Until now, workers have been able to spend around half of their time at home (or away from the office) despite rivals like Amazon enforcing stricter full-time office-working policies.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Business Insider the company had been exploring changes to the policy, but no official alterations have been made yet.

Microsoft considering upping its office-working days

The report claims an official Microsoft announcement could come as soon as September 2025, with rollout of any changes arriving as soon as January 2026, although dates and indeed policies may vary depending on location.

Reports of upcoming changes come after the company has made other changes to its workforce, including ongoing worker readjustments and an updated PIP framework to more quickly exit underperforming workers.

In July 2025, Microsoft laid off around 9,000 of its workers, and two months earlier in May a further 6,000 workers lost their jobs.

Company CFO Amy Hood told workers in an internal memo (see by Business Insider) that they should prepare for another year of “intensity.”

“We’re entering FY26 with clear priorities in security, quality, and AI transformation, building on our momentum and grounded in our mission and growth-mindset culture,” she added.

Although the company has undergone major layoffs in recent months, hiring efforts in other areas and a broader restructuring has seen minimal changes to actual overall headcount.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said the layoffs had been “weighing heavily” on him, likening the ongoing transformation to that of the 1990s, when PCs and software became democratized, blaming the shifts on evolving customer needs.

Microsoft told us that it is looking at refreshing its flexible working guidelines, as it has done many times before. The company has a page dedicated to its flexible work approach, which reads “No ‘one size fits all’.”

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