TikTok Tells U.S. Employees to Return to Office 5 Days a Week

TikTok’s work-from-home era is scrolling to an end.

The ByteDance-owned social media platform has instructed its U.S. employees to return to the office five days a week, sources told Business Insider. 

The change impacts the company’s hybrid employees that are currently allowed to work from home at least one day per week. TikTok alerted employees across several large divisions in December to expect a full office return in 2026, according to Insider, although certain teams, like TikTok’s e-commerce division, resumed five-day office attendance more than a year ago.

TikTok employs thousands of U.S. employees across dozens of metro office locations, including its Culver City headquarters in Greater Los Angeles, and a seven-floor spread at the Durst Organization’s One Five One tower in Manhattan’s Times Square. 

TikTok earlier this month announced the closure of its 250-person Nashville office, however, just two years since opening.

Return-to-office policies have been gaining ground across the country and across industries this year, Commercial Observer previously reported. U.S. office visits rose 6 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2026, and achieved the narrowest first-half gap from pre-pandemic levels thus far. The return-to-office wave has continued to buoy post-pandemic office leasing in cities like New York, where returning demand has driven rents to record highs this year.

TikTok’s move to reign in work-from-home follows similar moves by its competitors Instagram and Amazon. Amazon’s office workers returned for five-day work weeks nearly two years ago, while other large technology companies, like YouTube and Patreon, have maintained their hybrid schedules. 

Emily Davis can be reached at edavis@commercialobserver.com.