When Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins spoke at the company’s earnings call with investors and analysts on Tuesday, he revealed something interesting.
He said while employees initially enjoyed the freedom and flexibility of working from home during the beginning stages of the coronavirus pandemic, many of his employees are flat out sick of it now. They want to return to the office. “I think we sort of moved into that phase where people actually struggle mentally, people are — they’re not enjoying it,” Robbins said on the call.
Cisco has had some issues lately that maybe affecting the overall mood of workers, namely the fact they have undergone some serious financial issues recently. At one point they were the most valuable company in the world, but that is far from the case now. The company just offered early retirement to a number of employees in an effort to reduce costs.
The CEO said while some workers in Australia and New Zealand are back working in their offices, that won’t be happening in the U.S. until mid-summer at best.
And even then Robbins said, it won’t be like it used to be. “I really believe it’s going to be hybrid where people are going to work from home and everybody is sort of landing here where they’re going to work from home three days a week and work from the office two days a week and vice-versa,” he said.
“The question is what accommodations does that lead to for customers based on employees’ concern over space issues, concern over future pandemics or other concerns. That’s what we just don’t know yet.”
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