Zoom calls employees back to office after riding work from home wave

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Zoom, the video conferencing company that became synonymous with working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, has joined the parade of companies requiring workers to show up in person.

The San Francisco-based software company has told employees who live within 50 miles of one of its locations that they will have to come to the office at least two days a week.

Zoom called its new work requirements “a structured hybrid approach” that was designed to put it “in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers”. It added that it would “continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently”.

Zoom’s shares leapt 15-fold from its initial public offering price the year before the pandemic after companies turned to its easy-to-use video meetings to keep their operations ticking over when offices were forced to close. Its stock market value peaked at more than $140bn, making it the tech sector’s most visible winner from the Covid-19 crisis, before falling back more than 85 per cent as many of its customers began calling staff back to work.

Zoom has sought to turn the new hybrid work arrangements adopted by many of its customers into a new business opportunity. However, its Zoom Rooms offering — which is designed to improve the experience of online meetings involving people who are in the office with others working remotely — has not caught on with anything like the force of its original service.

The company reported revenue growth in its latest quarter of 3 per cent, a far cry from the growth of more than 400 per cent it recorded in 2020.

“I think hybrid work is going to stay,” creating a new business opportunity for the company, chief executive Eric Yuan told investors on an earnings call in May. “To let employees work anywhere has sort of become a fashion. It’s hard to force employees back.”