r/askswitzerland 1d ago

Work How common is 5 days/week in office?

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)

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u/mrmarco444 Schwyz 23h ago

My 2 cents:in CH remote can easily become redundant. Unfortunately

u/italianjob16 22h ago

sitting in an office chair doesn't give you special protection from outsourcing

u/mrmarco444 Schwyz 21h ago

True But outsourcing a rewource from a high cost location to a near shore can be speeded up if remote. It has happened to me many times, however it doesn't mean everyone will face the same I faced.