Wall Street Journal Owner Opts for ‘Flexible’ Office Return

Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal and part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, told its staff on Tuesday that it would not be mandating a return to the office in March, instead taking a “hybrid and flexible” approach.

In a companywide email, Almar Latour, the chief executive, and Dianne DeSevo, the chief people officer, said leaders would discuss what type of return worked best for their teams and would start to apply it next month.

“We know that different teams have different needs — that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to how and where we work,” they wrote in the email, which was obtained by The New York Times.

Dow Jones encompasses The Wall Street Journal as well as the Dow Jones newswires, Barron’s, Financial News and MarketWatch.

As the Omicron surge of the coronavirus begins to abate, many companies are struggling with how and when to bring back workers in person after two years of remote work that has upended how people view commutes and cubicles.

The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, told its workers on Feb. 11 that they would be required to return to the office next month. Managers will go back on March 1, with other employees returning on March 15.

“In this first phase of return, we will be experimenting in a hybrid environment with all employees working in the office at least three days per week,” Wayne Connell, the vice president of human resources at The Post, wrote in an email to staff that was viewed by The Times.

Workers with children under 5 who are not yet able to be vaccinated, or who have family members with compromised immunities, can apply for a three-month extension to work from home, the email said.

The Times has not yet set a return date for its work force.