Woolworths boss Amanda Bardwell orders staff back to the office three days a week
Woolworths has tightened the reins on working-from-home privileges for its 10,000 office staff, asking them to commit to spending at least three days a week in the office.
The supermarket giant joins a list of major companies requiring staff to return to the office, including e-commerce giant Amazon, Flight Centre, tech firm Dell, Bendigo Bank and financial services group AMP.
Rival Coles has also ordered 5000 of its staff to work three days a week in the office. The new policy requires employees to ensure at least one of the days falls on Monday or Friday, effectively ruling out staff taking extra-long weekends away and working remotely.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.In a letter to staff on Monday, Woolworths chief executive Amanda Bardwell said there was now an expectation its support staff to “connect with their team in the office a minimum of three days per week, with the flexibility to work remotely for the remaining two days”.
“Over the last few years, we have seen many of our Support team members successfully embrace hybrid ways of working, whilst delivering our Group purpose of creating better experiences together for a better tomorrow,” she said.
“A key priority for us in 2025 is to create more opportunities for in person connection to increase our responsiveness and better serve our customers.
“To support this, we are evolving our hybrid ways of working to ensure we better balance the needs of our customers and business, with the needs of our team.”
Its 10,000 support office team members work from 10 different offices across Australia.
By June 2, Woolworths expects all team members to spend at least one day a week in the office. The number of days required in the office rises to two by August 4, and to three by October 6.
Last November, Coles boss Leah Weckert told staff they needed to work in the office three days a week.
“In recognising the diversity of our workforce, each team will transition to our new ways of working at a pace that suits them, allowing time to plan and adjust,” she said.
“I encourage you to consider any arrangement you may need to make to facilitate our new ways of working.”
