🏠 Topic
Opposed = forced return-to-office against staff wishes. Supported = kept remote or hybrid flexibility.
20
Opposed
3
Mixed
0
Silent
39
Supported
Klarna adopted an "Uber-style" flexible workforce model after its AI customer service experiment failed, actively hiring remote agents — students, parents, and rural workers — with flexible schedules for on-demand support. The company's global footprint and hiring from previously underserved labor pools reflects continued remote-first recruitment.
Clément Delangue has built Hugging Face as a fully remote-first company with employees distributed across 30+ countries. The company offers 20 weeks of fully paid, gender-neutral parental leave to all parents regardless of their path to parenthood. Delangue himself took a full three months of paternity leave as CEO. Hugging Face operates with an async-first culture prioritizing deep work over mandatory meetings, in stark contrast to tech industry return-to-office mandates.
Spotify's "Work From Anywhere" policy, launched February 2021, lets employees work from any location where Spotify operates, with no mandatory office days. The company has explicitly resisted the 2024-2025 RTO trend. CHRO Katarina Berg stated: "You can't spend a lot of time hiring grownups and then treat them like children." Attrition is reported 15% lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Daniel Ek championed Spotify's "Work From Anywhere" policy from 2021, publicly stating: "Effectiveness can't be measured by the number of hours people spend in an office — it should be about the output and impact of the work performed." Spotify has consistently refused RTO mandates even as peers tightened requirements in 2024-2025, with CHRO backing Ek's stance publicly.
Zillow operates a permanent remote-first policy called "CloudHQ" where 73% of its 6,800 employees work fully remote. CEO Jeremy Wacksman stated in March 2025: "There is talent everywhere in this country." Job applications quadrupled after the policy, applications from women rose 60%, and BIPOC candidates jumped 46%. The company now has employees in all 50 states versus a handful pre-pandemic. Office space shrank 73% with $26M in projected sublease income through 2030.
Revolut operates a permanent flexible working policy: employees can work from home or visit offices entirely at their discretion with no mandatory attendance. An additional allowance lets employees work from up to 60 pre-approved countries for up to 60 days per year (with HR pre-approval). CEO Nikolay Storonsky reaffirmed the hybrid-first stance in February 2025, explicitly rejecting a return-to-office mandate despite industry-wide pressure.
LaunchDarkly offers 100% remote work options according to FlexJobs. The company's Work From Home benefit receives a 4.5/5 rating from US employees. Company states: "We believe that work is not life. We encourage you to take the time you need when you need it with an Unlimited PTO plan and to create a flexible work schedule that works for you." Founded in 2014, now valued at $3B with approximately 500 employees.
Wise operates a flexible hybrid workplace policy where employees can split their working week between office and home, typically coming in at least 12 times a month after their first 6 months. The "WorkFlex" program allows employees to work remotely from up to 60 pre-approved countries for up to 90 days each year. All employees globally receive 33 days paid time off per year plus 3 "Me Days" for personal admin and a paid 6-week sabbatical with £1,000 financial support. In February 2025, amid industry-wide return-to-office pressure, the company reaffirmed its hybrid-first stance without announcing stricter mandates.
Stream supports a global remote team with flexibility across regions. The company offers Remote (EU) or Amsterdam options for European positions. Netherlands-based employees within 60km of the Amsterdam office work hybrid (3 days in-office). Benefits include 28 days paid time off plus Dutch holidays, company equity, pension scheme, and Learning & Development budget. Named to Built In Colorado's "100 Best Midsize Places to Work" in January 2025.
Maintained "Live and Work Anywhere" policy through 2025 allowing employees to work remotely from 170 countries for up to 90 days/year with no pay cut, with a structured "gathering week" once per month in San Francisco. Policy credited with near-record low employee turnover and improved DEI outcomes.
Maintained Airbnb's "Live and Work Anywhere" policy since 2022 with a structured monthly "gathering week" in San Francisco. Publicly criticized peers' RTO mandates: "I guarantee you that many of these CEOs calling people back to the office are going away to the Hamptons for the summer." Said forcing people into offices is not how you make teams work harder — deadlines and milestones are.
Built Supabase as fully distributed company from founding. Stated: "We have people in 40 countries, one meeting per team per week, and no offices." Estimates 28% of Supabase employees are former founders who thrive in autonomous distributed culture. Looks for "low ego" when hiring, which complements remote structure. Company scaled to $5B valuation by October 2025 while maintaining zero offices and deliberate minimal-meetings culture globally.
Supabase operates as a fully distributed company with 360 employees across 60 countries and zero offices. Co-founder Paul Copplestone stated: "We have people in 40 countries, one meeting per team per week, and no offices." The company estimates 28% of employees are former founders who thrive in autonomous distributed culture. Supabase scaled to $10.5B valuation by 2026 while maintaining deliberate minimal-meetings culture globally and no required in-person attendance.
Named one of Built In's "50 Best Remote Startups to Work For" in both 2024 and 2025. Render operates as remote-first with distributed team members across the country and an optional San Francisco office. Benefits include monthly lifestyle stipends for wellness, cell phone and internet subsidies, and home office stipends. The company offers 4 weeks paid vacation, 12 sick days, plus a week off between Christmas and New Year's.
Linear has operated as a fully remote company since its founding in 2019. The 99-person team spans 15+ countries across 10 time zones. CEO Karri Saarinen stated building remote-first was "a design choice" because "builders deserve freedom: freedom of place, freedom of rhythm, freedom of deep focus." In 2025, Linear added optional co-working hubs in Berlin, New York, and San Francisco with "no expectation to show up." Annual company offsites replace mandatory office time.
Buildkite has operated as a fully distributed, remote-first company since its 2013 founding—distributed across 60+ cities. CEO Keith Pitt rejects hybrid work, asserting "In a hybrid environment, remote is always second class." The company defaults to async communication, documents decisions, and uses meetings intentionally. Benefits include 30 days paid vacation (exceeding Australia's mandated 20), 20 days personal/sick leave, 6 months parental leave for primary carers, quarterly profit sharing, and equity for all ~150 employees.
Customer.io operates as a fully remote, async-first company with ~420 employees distributed globally. The company scaled to $100M+ ARR without a physical office, using defined "collaboration hours" to minimize meetings and requiring written-first updates across time zones. Benefits include $250/month remote work stipend and coworking reimbursement. Named one of Newsweek's Global Most Loved Workplaces 2025 (ranked #5 of 100) and Built In's Best Remote Places to Work 2024.
Following Broadcom's $69B acquisition completed November 22, 2023, VMware employees lost remote work flexibility. CEO Hock Tan stated "remote work does not exist at Broadcom" and imposed mandatory in-office policies for all employees within 60 miles of company locations. The policy change came alongside massive layoffs and Broadcom's headquarters relocation from San Jose to Palo Alto.
Required RTO 4 days/week in 2024. CEO Niraj Shah criticized employees for "work-life balance."
Parker Conrad Rippling remote-friendly. HR software supports distributed teams. Previous Zenefits scandal.
John Collison Stripe remote-first advocate. Global workforce. Generous relocation.
Wayfair 4-day RTO mandate. Niraj Shah criticized work-life balance. Harsh approach.
Netflix operates a hybrid model with most corporate employees expected in-office the majority of the week, embedded in its culture of in-person collaboration. Netflix has not issued a prominent public RTO mandate like Amazon, but also has not endorsed remote-first work like Spotify. The company's culture deck emphasizes high performance over location flexibility.
Checkout.com enforces a strict 3-day in-office policy requiring employees to work on-site Tuesday through Thursday each week. Enforcement is described as strict in some locations. The hybrid policy was implemented as part of the company's push toward profitability, reducing work-from-home flexibility in favor of predictable collaboration. The company employs 2,000 people across 19 global offices.
Coalition operates as a remote-friendly company, offering benefits designed for distributed work including flexible/unlimited PTO, home office stipend, stipend for coworking space, and gym/health memberships. The cyber insurance company has grown to 110,000 active policyholders in 2025 with a $5 billion valuation while maintaining its remote-first culture across its San Francisco headquarters and global operations.
PandaDoc operates as a global remote-first company, meaning remote work is their default policy. The company provides employees with a $250/year home-office stipend for equipment improvements and sends new employees a computer, monitor, mouse, keyboard, and headphones. The policy explicitly supports "digital nomad" lifestyles with time-zone-aware asynchronous practices. PandaDoc maintains a global presence with positions across Europe, the USA, Poland, Portugal, and Ukraine, with optional office hubs available for those who prefer in-person work.
Airbyte is a remote-first company with a fully distributed workforce across 25 US states and 11 countries. The company operates under a "Freedom & Responsibility" philosophy, trusting employees to manage their own schedules without monitoring login/logout times. While maintaining San Francisco headquarters for administrative purposes, Airbyte committed to remaining "remote friendly" permanently. Employees receive company laptops and unlimited PTO with a minimum expectation of 25 days per year.
Zapier has operated as a fully remote company since its 2011 founding. The company has approximately 730 employees globally with San Francisco headquarters serving as administrative base only. Zapier emphasizes hiring from lower cost-of-living areas and maintaining remote-first culture. Despite 2023 layoffs, the company preserved its remote work model, offering employees flexibility to work from anywhere. The bootstrapped approach (only $1.4M raised) enabled independence in maintaining remote culture.
Fly.io operates as a fully distributed company with approximately 60 employees across multiple countries. The edge computing platform has maintained remote-first operations since its founding in 2017. CEO Kurt Mackey has emphasized building infrastructure that supports distributed teams, consistent with the company's own organizational structure.
Beehiiv has operated as a fully remote company since its founding, now employing 129+ people across 12 countries speaking 6 languages. CEO Tyler Denk stated: "a well-run remote team will beat an in-person team, 10 out of 10 times." Benefits include unlimited book budget, monthly wellness days, annual offsites/retreats, and 401(k) match. Denk describes the approach: "I couldn't care less about where [work is] getting done...want to spend a month living and working from Europe? The world is your oyster."
Zoom — the company that enabled remote work — mandated employees within 50 miles of an office return two days per week starting August 2023. CEO Eric Yuan said remote work prevented trust-building, stating "we cannot have a great conversation or debate with each other because everyone tends to be very friendly when you join a Zoom call." Employees called the decision hypocritical.
Built Mercury to 500+ employees as explicitly remote-first while Silicon Valley returned to in-person work. Stated in 2023: "We are remote-first rather than hybrid. Most of the meetings people have are on Zoom." Defended approach: "from an employee perspective, it's just clearly, I think in most cases, better—most people want the flexibility." Acknowledged remote requires intentionality: "We have everyone get together at least four times a year. Being remote, it's not cheap."
When announcing 2023 layoffs, simultaneously committed GitHub to fully remote work permanently. Stated the company was "seeing very low utilization rates" in physical offices globally and would "close all of our offices as their leases end or as we are operationally able to do so." Positioned remote work as part of cost-cutting but also acknowledged workforce preference. GitHub remained remote-first through Dohmke's tenure until August 2025 departure.
DoorDash implemented a hybrid in-office policy requiring corporate employees to be present at least 3 days per week, announced in 2023. CEO Tony Xu has not made prominent public statements about RTO, and the policy is less restrictive than Amazon's or Goldman Sachs' full-return mandates, while stopping well short of Spotify's fully remote approach.
RingCentral's "Stronger Together" initiative mandates hybrid work for U.S.-based employees who had worked remotely for over 2 years. President and COO Mo Katibeh explained: "there are days each week where you'll be working from home...And there will be other days where you work in the office." The company positions certain work as "most effectively done in-person." Workers within 75 miles of offices are subject to in-person requirements, with 75% of staff now hybrid while only 20% remain fully remote.
Datadog requires 3 days/week in-office attendance. From November 2022, new hires no longer offered remote positions and must work in office. Management stated goal to bring remote employee share back to pre-COVID levels. While senior engineering positions may still get remote exceptions, standard policy enforces hybrid 3-day minimum. Company expanded to ~8,100 employees across offices in New York, Paris, and other locations by 2025, emphasizing in-person collaboration.
Aggressive RTO mandates. Called remote workers "sitting at home in their pajamas." Resigned amid performance concerns 2024.
Brex permanently eliminated its physical headquarters in 2020, adopting a virtual-first model. Employees can work from home globally or use city hubs in San Francisco, New York, Salt Lake City, and Vancouver at their discretion with no required office days. CEO Henrique Dubugras has consistently framed remote-first as a talent and productivity advantage, maintaining the policy through 2024-2025 despite broader fintech industry RTO pressure.
Pitch operates as a fully remote, remote-first company despite being headquartered in Berlin. The company emphasizes asynchronous communication, flexible hours, and supports employees working across 38+ different locations globally. Co-founder Vanessa Stock stated the company was "focusing on creating an inclusive culture from the start" with "emphasis on remote work and flexibility." Employees report high ratings for work-life balance and remote work policies.
Declared "digital by default" permanently in 2020. Closed most offices. Strong advocate for remote-first work.
Moved to remote/hybrid batches during COVID. Continued offering remote options.