Skydance, the megastudio formed via the recent merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), is ordering workers back to the office full time and offering voluntary buyouts to certain employees.
Paramount-Skydance already had a five-day in-office workweek, but WBD still required only three days.
“We believe in-person collaboration is vital to our culture and to the success of our business,” wrote chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz in a memo to staff on Monday. “Especially in a creative company like ours, the best ideas come from people in the same room, sharing perspectives, challenging one another, and solving problems.”
Employees selected for the buyout program will receive “an individual communication with their personalized details and terms, and a window to decide whether to accept this onetime offer,” they added. “We recognize that not everyone will see their future here.”
When contacted by Fast Company, Skydance declined to make additional comments.
Skydance formed through the $111 billion merger of Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros., which closed earlier this month. Along with two major movie studios, the new company includes CBS, CNN, Comedy Central, MTV, and TBS, and the streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max, among other assets and businesses.
The new company, loaded with almost $90 billion in debt, previously acknowledged that layoffs will be necessary.
“Integrating two companies will bring change, including difficult decisions that affect our workforce,” Skydance said in a memo on October 6. “We are committed to handling this process thoughtfully and respectfully.”
Major corporations across the U.S. have adopted mandatory return-to-office (RTO) policies in recent years. Though the policies are often framed as necessary for productivity and collaboration, experts say other factors may be at play—including the broader power struggle between management and labor and the need for companies to justify real estate spending. And in certain cases, RTO mandates are just layoffs in disguise—in one survey, a quarter of C-suite executives expressed hope that implementing an RTO policy would lead to voluntary turnover.
RTO policies also remain generally unpopular among workers, forcing many employers to reboot RTO mandates when attendance falls short.
Deadline reported that Skydance will phase in the RTO mandate over time at its various office locations, concentrated in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and London.
