Starbucks tells workers to return to the office or risk getting fired

Starbucks is stepping up efforts to enforce its return-to-office mandate with a warning: Comply with the policy or risk termination.

- Jennifer Calfas

The company will be instituting an "accountability process" in January to ensure corporate employees comply with requirements to work in the office three days a week, according to an internal message obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

The message notes employees may face termination if they do not meet in-office requirements.

Bloomberg previously reported the news Monday. Starbucks said that the company's expectations for hybrid corporate employees haven't changed, but it's reminding workers they must follow them.

Starbucks isn't increasing the number of days employees are back in the office.

Starbucks's new chief executive, Brian Niccol, has a hybrid work arrangement. The former CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill who took the helm of Starbucks in September, Niccol maintains a home in Southern California and commutes to the Seattle office by corporate jet.