Ford to begin bringing back most salaried workers in March with new office model

Ford Motor Co. told its salaried employees Monday that work life will begin returning to post-pandemic normal — sort of.

The automaker is planning to start a hybrid work model in March that allows workers to combine an off-site work schedule with an on-site work schedule, as demands require. No one will go to the office every single day, as used to happen, unless it’s essential to be on-site, Ford spokesperson Monique Brentley confirmed to the Free Press on Monday. 

Salaried employees with non-site-specific jobs will continue to have flexibility in the coming months and directly coordinate plans with their team leaders.

Things will remain fluid as the company monitors the omicron coronavirus variant. 

A company email went out to employees first thing Monday updating workers of the plan to implement a vision the company outlined previously. Ford had been firm that no one would return to the campus for nonessential work prior to January 2022.

Ford became the first of the Detroit automakers to comply with a federal order on COVID-19 vaccines, announcing in November it will require that salaried workers get the shots by early December.

Redesigning office space

In the months after the initial COVID-19 shutdown in 2020, employees packed up their workplace belongings last summer and took things home. There will be no need to bring anything back.

Instead, the pandemic sped up a long-term plan of the 118-year-old automaker to consolidate offices and redesign the workplace, Dave Dubensky, chairman and CEO of Ford Land, told the Free Press in May.

Many individual desks will be replaced with common spaces, he said. And how work is done will change dramatically because thousands of workers are expected to remain remote, with supervisor approval.