Lyft employees return to office life in SF with priority on social connection and flexibility

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Most employees of the ride-share company Lyft are doing something they haven't done since the beginning of the pandemic: returning to the office. CEO David Risher says personal connections matter and bringing people together is important.

All day Wednesday, there was music and celebrations at Lyft headquarters in San Francisco as employees were welcomed back.

Risher gave employees four months to make the necessary arrangements to come back into the office three days a week -- Mondays, Thursdays and the third day is flexible, up to the employee.

"It's been lovely to see the hugs and hear the comments like, 'Oh, you're married now," expressed Alicia Zuiker, Lyft's chief people officer.

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In 2022, while other companies asked their their workers to come back in person, Lyft was a holdout, making it optional to be back in the office. Most worked from home, though there were outliers.

"I started coming back just because I get stir crazy in my apartment," said Sean Satterthwaite, a Lyft employee.

Now, anyone living within 30 miles of headquarters must be back in the office. That's about 70% of Lyft's workforce working side-by-side three days a week.

"And we've been really thoughtful about what teams we're siting next to so that we can foster collaboration," Zuiker said.

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Some say the communication between employees is now much faster.

"Even just today, it's been like light speed compared to trying to catch someone on Slack or maybe one person is out for a walk or one person is throwing a load of laundry or whatever," Satterthwaite said.

The CEO has told employees that it doesn't matter what time they arrive or how long they stay, the important thing is that they come back, socialize and collaborate.

"We do want people in the office three days a week. We believe this is really important, but we also want to provide them with flexibility, whether it's to get their kids to school or to avoid traffic. So we're not paying attention to the hours people are working. Our message has been do what works for you," Zuiker said.

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