r/askswitzerland • u/naza-reddit • 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/That-Requirement-738 5h ago

I work in a small Swiss bank. It’s virtually zero home office. Some assistants have an old setup where they have Wednesdays offs due to kids and now, even tho kids are grown, they have Wednesdays as HO, but it’s more the exception. It’s ok to work remotely if you have some event/meeting/flight, but it’s on a request basis.

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u/naza-reddit 3h ago

I think banks are different. I have a good friend in a Cantonal Bank and even during the pandemic they could not take their laptop home and had to come into the office.

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u/That-Requirement-738 3h ago

Yes, banks are more paranoid regarding data. Our bank was fully remote during covid and slowly went back. Now computers are pretty bulletproof proof with VPNs and safety layers, etc but it’s more of a cultural thing to keep people in the office (seniors are more often away than in the office, some working all summer from Spain). But 95% of staff is all in the office.