TikTok mandates full-time office work for most U.S. staff starting September

TikTok announced that, beginning in September, the majority of its U.S. workforce must report to the office five days a week, ending current hybrid arrangements for many employees.

TikTok will require most of its United States employees to work from the office five days a week starting in September, ending the hybrid schedules that let some staff work remotely one day per one outlet. The change, confirmed by three insiders, aligns with internal notices sent in December that warned product, marketing and ad-sales teams to prepare for a full return by 2026. Certain groups, notably the TikTok Shop e-commerce division, have already been on a five-day schedule for more than a year.

The move places TikTok alongside competitors Instagram and Amazon, which also demand full-time office presence, while platforms like YouTube and Patreon continue to allow three-day hybrid arrangements. Some tech leaders, such as Spotify and Dropbox’s co-CEO Ashraf Alkarmi, have resisted a strict return-to-office policy, opting for flexible or virtual-first models. TikTok operates offices in roughly a dozen U.S. cities, including New York, Austin, Los Angeles and Chicago, and is owned by ByteDance in partnership with investors like Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX. The company did not comment on the new requirement.