Nothing CEO slammed for forcing staff to work in the office five days a week or be fired

Nothing is now requiring its 450 employees to return to the office full-time, or find new jobs.

In an email sent to employees, Nothing CEO Carl Pei stated, beginning in two months, staff will need to work from the company’s London office five days per week.

Furthermore, those unable to adjust to the change should consider leaving the company, which launched remotely during the height of the pandemic, to “find an environment where [they] thrive.”

Nothing enforcing RTO policy

Pei explained the move is aimed at enhancing collaboration and innovation, which he believes are crucial for success.

“We make physical products where design, engineering, manufacturing and quality have to collaborate closely together to deliver products to our users. This does not work well remotely,” Pei wrote in an email to the company’s workers, which was later shared publicly on LinkedIn .

The CEO also raised the company’s challenges as a young startup, sharing that Nothing needs to “do more with way less resources than competitors.”

Nothing’s return-to-office mandate is more stringent than those of other tech giants, like Amazon, Google and Meta, which have broadly implemented three-day-per-week policies.

Pei has promised to address live questions about the changes in the company’s next Town Hall meeting, incidentally held at a physical location in the London offices.

He also indicated that a certain degree of leniency around taking time out of the office “to deal with some issues” would be granted, adding that other roles, namely in PR, may require a worker to be more flexible with location: “This is a company for grown ups… we trust you to make the right decision.”

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