Let’s talk about Zoom for a bit.
Zoom Video Communications, a company that sells a product for remote work, is requiring some employees to return to the office at least two days a week if they live within a 50-mile radius of one of the company’s offices. The move to a structured hybrid approach comes as the company’s stock has declined due to employees returning to the office, driving down the need for remote working tools. It is unclear why Zoom settled on a 50-mile radius as its requirement for returning to the office, whether employees can seek exemptions, or if performance reviews depend on in-office attendance.
The move back to the office comes amid Zoom’s pivot to AI, which may be forcing the return to the office as building up Zoom’s AI capability is a priority. Zoom’s chief product officer, Smita Hashim, clarified in a blog post that the company does not train its AI models on user content without customer consent and that customers continue to own and control their content. This comes after a report highlighted changes to Zoom’s terms of service that gave the company broad control over user data for AI work.
The company has been marketing new AI-powered features, but account owners and administrators can choose whether to turn them on and will be presented with a transparent consent process for training AI models using customer content.
Zoom has launched a new asynchronous video tool called Zoom Clips, which allows users to record, edit, and share video clips without joining a meeting. Clips can be accessed from the desktop Zoom app, the Zoom web portal, or the Mac menu bar and Windows system tray, and users can add a title, description, and tags, trim unwanted sections, and share the recording via email. The launch of Clips is a response to platforms like Weet, Loom, and Bubbles and comes as post-pandemic videoconferencing fatigue sets in.
And a sign of change in the market – Verizon is shutting down BlueJeans, which it purchased during the height of the pandemic.
Forbes reports that 12.7% of full-time employees in the US work from home, while 28.2% work a hybrid model, and the majority of the workforce, about 59.1%, work in the office.
New data from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) shows that developers demolished more office space than they built in the first half of 2023, indicating that commercial real estate is still struggling with the effects of remote work during the pandemic.
Why do we care?
Way to step on the rake here, Zoom. Or did they? It makes a great headline, right? But if we look at their record, they have never advocated for the end of the office. Instead, their position was the redesign of the office. Their new product is a version of that, building asynchronous work into the product set.
The rationale for the new policy is that the office is now a social space, but only 1% of Zoom staff made regular voluntary trips into the office as of last September. I find that the insight. I could easily argue that they mishandled the messaging and the pushback and likely still need to invest in management changes, but the rationale is getting some social space. And they have been pretty consistent here. The data pushes us to hybrid work… which is the hardest to pull off well. I like this conversation because complex problems are ripe for interesting, bespoke solutions.
There may be more change to come, considering that real estate change.