Nothing CEO Carl Pei announces employees must work in office five days a week in London

Nothing CEO Carl Pei shared an email sent to the phone-maker’s employees, informing them they would have to work five days a week in London as the company ends its remote and hybrid-work systems.

“We started Nothing during COVID, and had to make do with working remotely at first. Later on, we transitioned to hybrid in London and in-office at our other sites. Now, we are announcing the transition to in-office in London too,” said Pei in the message shared on X and LinkedIn, adding that the decision was controversial and that employees should choose a workplace that suited their needs.

Pei cited three main reasons for the decision: the need for close collaboration between product teams, better and creative problem-solving with fewer resources, and lofty ambitions that required speedy development.

“We are not looking to create a good business that gets acquired by a big company, we are looking to realize our full potential of becoming a generation-defining company. And we’re really serious about moving fast. Remote work is not compatible with a high ambition level plus high speed,” noted the CEO.

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In his email, Pei claimed that Nothing was the only company to have established a smartphone business in the last 10 years, adding that it was the fastest growing smartphone brand in India at 567% year-over-year.

“We know it’s not the right type of setup for everybody, and that’s OK. We should look for a mutual fit. You should find an environment where you thrive, and we need to find people who want to go the full mile with us in the decades ahead,” said Pei in the note he shared.

However, he mentioned that the company was for grown-ups and that there would be flexibility for employees to be out of office when they needed to deal with situations.

While some criticised the decision made by Nothing’s CEO, claiming that it was no different from layoffs (minus the severance packages), Pei’s LinkedIn profile indicated that the company was still hiring. Others on LinkedIn expressed concerns that the move would exclude talent from outside London.

Remote work is a touchy subject among tech leaders, with many Big Tech firms mandating that employees work either partially or full-time from the office after the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt pointed a finger at remote work, claiming that working from home and work-life balance were the reasons Google had fallen behind ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

He later expressed regret over the statement.

Nothing is known for its trendy and futuristic-looking device designs. Pei founded OnePlus in 2013 and has experience working with other smartphone companies as well.

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