Uber is limiting fully remote work to about 1% of its workforce, with most fully remote employees expected back in the office, as the company undergoes a broader restructuring and exits Nigeria.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, announced the change in a memo on the Uber website. He said the vast majority of remote employees would be asked to move to an office, while the company’s broader restructuring includes about 3,300 job cuts globally. Uber has also ended its ride-hailing operations in Nigeria after about 12 years.
“We are also asking the vast majority of remote employees to move to an office, and going forward, only 1% of employees will be remote,” Khosrowshahi said.
Uber did not disclose how many employees currently work fully remotely, meaning it is unclear how many workers will be affected by the new requirement.
The company, however, will retain its hybrid working arrangement, under which employees are required to work from an office three days a week.
Khosrowshahi said the decision followed Uber’s experience with employees working together physically, particularly in areas such as collaboration, problem-solving and the development of early-career employees.
“The benefits of sitting together, collaborating in person, and solving problems as a team are clearer than ever in our post-COVID world,” he said.
The CEO said the company would also establish clearer principles for determining where roles and teams should be based.
The move is intended to concentrate employees in a smaller number of key locations, depending on the nature of their work.
Global teams will be concentrated in Uber’s largest global hubs, including New York and San Francisco, while regional teams will operate from designated regional hubs.
Local teams will be based in country hubs, while technology teams will be concentrated in technology hubs.
Uber will also prioritise having managers and their teams work from the same locations wherever possible, particularly for employees who are earlier in their careers.
Khosrowshahi said physical proximity was particularly important for supporting collaboration and helping younger employees develop professionally.
The change to Uber’s remote-work policy comes as the company undertakes a broader organisational restructuring.
Uber had previously announced plans to eliminate about 3,300 jobs, representing its biggest workforce reduction since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Khosrowshahi said the restructuring was aimed at simplifying the company’s organisation, reducing management layers and eliminating small teams with limited numbers of direct reports.
According to the CEO, Uber has grown substantially over the past five years, but the expansion has also resulted in additional organisational layers, greater coordination requirements and more fragmented ownership.
The restructuring is expected to reduce the company’s management ranks by about 20 per cent and cut the number of so-called micro-teams — teams led by managers with only one or two direct reports — by about half.
The remote-work policy change therefore forms part of a broader effort by the company to reshape how its workforce is organised and how employees collaborate.
The policy change comes after Uber ended its ride-hailing operations in Nigeria in September, about 12 years after launching in the country.
Uber began operations in Lagos in 2014 before expanding to other Nigerian cities.
The company’s departure followed changes in Nigeria’s operating environment and increased competition from other mobility platforms. It also ended its ride-hailing operations in Uganda.
