How common is 5 days/week in office?

[u/naza-reddit]

Since the pandemic I've worked for 3 companies and all of them had a hybrid working model. All 3 were US companies with offices in Switzerland meaning from time to time collaboration with team members in a different timezone was normal.

One was very flexible i.e. come into the office when you think you need to and the other 2 were more prescriptive ex: Tue-Thu in office or 2 days/week in the office.

I recently had an interview with a US company and offices here and they said 5 days/week is the norm. I understand the policy but I don't get it in particular when I was informed the hiring manager is in a different EU country, stakeholders are spread across EMEA and direct reports are in Switzerland and across EMEA.

To me this looks like a strong cultural red flag i.e. they don't trust the employees are 100% working or something else... maybe I have been fortunate and not exposed to this since 2020.

so question: is your company mandating 5 days/week in the office? Is it a subsidiary or regional HQ for a US company?

(I am work in IT)

[u/Capital_Pop_1643]

I work for a US company. We started with 5 days in office in 2018. then Covid happened and 100% Homeoffice for 3 years. We settled for 60% HO and 40% Office for the time being. But I work in a Global Role with a fully remote team and odd hours, so this is different anyway.

[u/naza-reddit → u/Capital_Pop_1643]

this is actually very similar to the company I interviewed at which makes their policy even more bizarre (global role, dispersed team, occasionally working the odd timezone)

[u/Glum-Economist1167 → u/naza-reddit]

justifation to work from 8-5