Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) employees who don’t want to work at the gaming company’s physical office at least three days a week will need find a job elsewhere.
CEO David Baszucki told employees in a memo on Tuesday that remote workers have until mid-January to decide whether they want to starting coming into the office from Tuesday through Thursday, adding that relocation expenses will be provided if needed.
“We did not make this decision lightly, as we understand that the decision to move is significant, both for our employees and for their families and loved ones,” Baszucki wrote in the memo, which he posted as a blog titled, “The Future of How We Work Together at Roblox.”
Baszucki said the company will be contacting a number of remote employees — though he didn’t specify how many — and asking them to report to work in the company’s headquarters in San Mateo, California, by next summer.
Roblox, which went public in 2021 after seeing its business boom from kids stuck at home during the Covid pandemic, joins a growing list of companies, including Google, JPMorgan Chase and law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell that have instituted strict return-to-office mandates.
Tuesday’s announcement marks an about-face for Roblox, which told employees in May of last year that it was giving “employees the option to either come to the office regularly a few days a week, or to primarily work remotely,” coming in for “quarterly get-togethers.”
RBLX shares shed 69 cents, or 2.2%, to open Wednesday at $30.31.
