Starbucks informed its employees that they could be fired if they did not work in the office three days a week, Bloomberg reported.

Starting in January, the coffee chain will implement a “standardized process” to ensure workers adhere to its return-to-office policy, according to a company memo seen by Bloomberg News.

The email states that the consequences are “up to and including separation.”

This announcement marks another step in Starbucks’ efforts to enforce its work-from-office mandate.

He said last year that company employees were expected to work in the office three days a week. Employees located near the company’s headquarters must be present on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and another day to be agreed with managers, according to a CNN report.

“We continue to support our leaders as they hold their teams accountable to our existing hybrid work policy,” Starbucks said in a statement Monday (October 28).

The three-day policy concerns around 3,500 company employees. The majority of the company’s employees work in its stores.

The company’s memo comes two months after Brian Niccol took over as Starbucks’ new CEO.

He raised eyebrows with his own working arrangements, with the company offering him a corporate jet to commute between his home in California and the coffee chain’s offices in Seattle, more than 1,000 miles away.

According to CNN, the setup was revealed in his offer letter, which said he would get a “small remote office” at his home in California and would not be required to relocate permanently.

Bloomberg reported that several employees said they didn’t care where the CEO was based, as long as he didn’t crack down on demands in office.

RETURN TO THE OFFICE POST-PANDEMIC

Starbucks is the latest company to call employees back to the office following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, the tech giant Amazon commissioned a policy of five office days per week starting next year.

Last week, Grab, a Singapore-based ride-hailing company, told its staff that it would require employees to work five days a week in the office starting in December.

Starbucks last week reported weaker-than-expected sales in its fiscal fourth quarter.

The company said it would suspend its financial guidance for its 2025 fiscal year to give its new CEO time to evaluate the business.

Starbucks’ revenue fell 3% to $9.1 billion between July and September, below the $9.4 billion Wall Street expected, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Starbucks said its adjusted profit fell 24.5 percent from the same period last year, to 80 cents per share. This figure also fell short of analysts’ forecasts of earnings per share of US$1.03.