How Paramount wants its managers to talk about David Ellison’s new RTO mandate

Paramount Skydance has unveiled “Phase 2” of its return-to-office plan, and it’s telling managers how to sell the changes to staffers.

Employees assigned to US offices outside New York or Los Angeles were told Thursday that they’d be expected to return to in-person work full-time starting on September 14. Staffers at Paramount’s NY and LA offices have already been working five days in the office since January.

Additionally, some full-time remote employees — who don’t live near any Paramount offices — will be expected to return to the office starting in 2027.

Managers who encounter resistance to RTO should help their team bond by inviting them “out for a coffee or lunch, or hold a team-building activity,” Paramount said in an “RTO People Leader Toolkit” obtained by Business Insider.

Bosses who can’t think of a way to unite their team can turn to AI, the document said: “You can also prompt Microsoft Copilot: give me examples of team-building activities.”

“Strong relationships build trust, help people feel part of a community, and enhance well-being,” the document said.

Paramount said it would track RTO compliance and may discipline those who don’t show up when they’re supposed to.

“Managers will be responsible for ensuring team members meet the full-time in-office requirement,” Paramount said in a separate RTO FAQ document. “When expectations aren’t met, it will lead to discipline up to and including dismissal.”

In the toolkit document, Paramount shared specific questions that managers can ask reports to check in or flag noncompliance:

• “How’s it going coming back into the office every day? Is there anything you need or anything I can do to support you?”
• “What’s keeping you from coming into the office on those days?”

Paramount’s toolkit document also said that bosses won’t initially have access to attendance data.

“In the beginning, managers will not have access to data to show them who is and is not coming into the office. Managers will eventually have access to this information,” the document said.

A Paramount manager told Business Insider that the responsibility of tracking where employees work “seems daunting.”

“I don’t want to be a hall monitor on top of all the work we already have to do,” they said.

Paramount has said that in-person work is a key to building a “next gen media and entertainment company,” a theme CEO David Ellison has spoken about.

Paramount isn’t the only media company that’s pushed for in-person work, though most of its rivals let staffers work from home sometimes.

NBCUniversal implemented a four-day-per-week RTO mandate in January, and Disney employees are also expected to work at the office four days a week. Employees at Warner Bros. Discovery — which Paramount is buying — commute to the office three days a week, while Netflix lets staffers work remotely.