Washington Put up CEO William Lewis knowledgeable staff Thursday that they are going to be required to work out of the newspaper’s places of work 5 days every week beginning in June.
Lewis delivered the information after thanking staff for his or her “laborious work and dedication” masking the 2024 presidential election.
“Thanks all very a lot to your laborious work and dedication on this vital week for America and the world,” Lewis wrote in a memo. “We produced fantastic journalism for our clients and the workplace was a vibrant place to be.”
“I need that nice workplace vitality for us day-after-day,” he added. “I’m reliably knowledgeable that’s the way it was once right here earlier than Covid, and it’s vital we get this again.”
Lewis, who can be the paper’s writer, ordered that managers return to the workplace full-time by Feb. 3, 2025, and that each one different staff begin coming in 5 days every week beginning on June 2, 2025.
“We all know for some folks this shift from three to 5 days within the workplace shall be welcomed and a simple transition,” he wrote. “For others, we all know it is going to be an adjustment – you might must adapt routines and rediscover outdated methods of managing work-life stability.”
“For this reason we’re giving greater than six months for a lot of of our colleagues to work it by way of,” Lewis added.
The Washington Put up at the moment permits staff to work at home two days every week.
The union representing lots of the publication’s staff mentioned it was “distressed” to see the work-from-the-office memo, calling the coverage “outdated.”
“Like lots of you, we’re distressed to be taught that after 4 years of profitable versatile work preparations, The Put up plans to institute an rigid and outdated work-from-the-office coverage that doesn’t mirror the fact of our jobs or lives,” the Washington Put up Guild mentioned in an electronic mail to members, obtained by the Washingtonian.
“Guild management sees this for what it’s: a change that stands to additional disrupt our work than to enhance our productiveness or collaboration,” the union mentioned.
The edict from administration comes weeks after Lewis scrapped the paper’s deliberate endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, a transfer that ruffled the feathers of some staff and subscribers.
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire proprietor of the Washington Put up, defended the choice to not endorse Harris – or any political candidates going ahead – by arguing that it wouldn’t have any impact on the election and would solely “create a notion of bias.”
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