While remote work has been an option for several of the bigger companies all over the world since the worldwide lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, EA is seemingly pushing for all employees to return to the office. According to IGN, EA CEO Andrew Wilson has sent out an email asking employees to return to the office, and saying that ‘hybrid work’ would now be defined as employees needing to be at a local office for at least three days a week.
According to Wilson’s email, the decision to bring employees back to the office will result in “a kinetic energy that fuels creativity, innovation, and connection, often resulting in unexpected breakthroughs that lead to incredible experiences for our players.” Further in the email, Wilson also said that the company plans to eventually completely phase out “offsite local roles”.
EA Entertainment president Laura Miele revealed more details about EA’s plans regarding remote work in a follow-up email, which said that this return-to-office initiative isn’t going to take effect immediately. Rather, Miele writes that, regardless of where an employee might live, they should continue working “as directed by your Business Unit until further notice.” Miele’s email also states that employees will be given a 12-week notice period before changes start getting implemented.
Regarding hybrid work, Miele wrote that EA is introducing a system of classifying a 48 km/ 30 mile radius around its offices. Employees that live within the radius will be classified as hybrid workers, while those living outside the radius will be classified as remote workers “unless their role is designated as On Site or Hybrid.” Generally speaking, EA is planning to sunset its Offsite Local work model over the next 3 to 24 months. “Any work model exception and future Remote hires will require a CEO Direct’s /my approval,” explained Miele in her email.
EA employees speaking with IGN under the condition of anonymity expressed concerns for their future with the company, especially for those that would fall under EA’s new classification of remote workers and eventual sunset of the program. The employees also raised concerns over some of their long commutes. There were also employees that can’t regularly commute to the office because of personal medical conditions or childcare-related reasons raising concerns over EA’s new return-to-office push.
Back in April, EA had also announced that it would be laying off around 300 employees across its various teams. The lay-offs were said to have largely impacted EA’s Experiences division across customer support, marketing, and Fan Care teams. The lay-offs also affected developer Respawn Entertainment. As a result of this, the studio had announced the cancellation of two of its “early-stage” incubation projects.
Racing game developer Codemasters also announced a round of lay-offs, along with pausing work on future games in the rally racing sim genre, as well as cancelling EA Sports WRC. In its statement, the studio said that the lay-offs were made in order to reduce some roles and redeploy others in an effort to drive greater focus across its porfolio.
