Snap is doing what it can to get employees working in the office again.
At the start of September, the Snapchat parent enacted its return-to-office mandate, requiring workers to be in an office at least four days a week. Now, some workers have been told by their managers that the company can check the WiFi connections of its roughly 5,000 employees to see who is complying, according to two people familiar with the company who asked not to be identified as they are not permitted to speak publicly about the company. Their identities are known to Business Insider.
By "tracking WiFi," as the people familiar described it, Snap can see if an employee is working from an office or not based on who has used the company's network. Snap is also "badge tracking," the people familiar said. Badge tracking monitors employees' key cards to log when they enter and leave an office. It's become a common practice in companies enforcing RTO mandates, including Meta and Amazon, both of which told employees they can be fired if they don't comply.
Snap workers' adherence to RTO rules will become part of their performance reviews going forward, the people familiar added.
Snap's attempts to enforce the RTO mandate come alongside piecemeal layoffs, executive departures, ongoing business struggles, and advertising woes. Last year, the company laid off 20% of its workforce and enacted other cost-cutting efforts.
One of the people who spoke to BI noted the disconnect between Snap executives' frequent comments about how well RTO is going and how "people have more fun in the office," followed by managers discussing efforts to improve "low attendance."
A Snap spokesman declined to comment.
Snap's RTO push this year has been bumpy and generally met with groans by employees. The company first told workers at the end of last year they would soon be expected to return to the office, as BI reported, marking a 180-degree turn from the "remote-first" policy it embraced during the pandemic.
The return to office was delayed twice this year, once because the drinking water at the company's Santa Monica headquarters was found to contain levels of lead six times higher than the EPA's recommended limit and copper 15 times higher than the recommended limit.
Low morale at Snap
Meanwhile, CEO Evan Spiegel has tried to motivate employees to work harder in his weekly "Ask Evan" talks. It's working for some employees, such as engineers who've been able to ship products faster. The tone strikes others as an example of the company's "prove the haters wrong" rhetoric. The phrase has become something of an inside joke at the company, one person said, since Spiegel tried to use it as a rallying cry last year after mass layoffs.
Overall, the people who spoke to BI said that morale inside Snap is "low" as the company's business struggles. Snap leaders have imposed tougher performance reviews (which are now quarterly) and often micromanage staff, all of which drives employees away, one person said.
Because of the company's low stock prices, employees have also seen their total compensation decrease compared to when many were hired or received new company stock awards.
Although Spiegel handed out two "top-ups" of restricted stock units to make up for a compensation decrease, he's said more recently there will be no more, explaining that Snap's board of directors opposes it.
"We're effectively being asked to work more for less," one of the people said. "Everything seems designed to incentivize people to leave, and it seems to be working pretty well."
Are you a Snap employee or someone with a tip or insight to share? Contact Kali Hays at khays@insider.com, on secure messaging app Signal at +1-949-280-0267, or through Twitter DM at @hayskali. Reach out using a non-work device.
