Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman wants his team to follow ‘strict’ work-from-office rules. He wants an in-person working culture, with stricter requirements for working from the office than is standard across the rest of the company. In an interview with Business Insider, Suleyman revealed his preference for this structure and noted that his team is focused on concentrating their effort: “I very much believe in the in-person working culture. We’ve been defragmenting our culture and trying to concentrate.” Suleyman also highlighted that he generally favours open floor plans for his team, a workplace concept that can sometimes be polarising within Microsoft and the engineering community as a whole.How Mustafa Suleyman’s work-from-office requirements are different from Microsoft’sMicrosoft recently introduced a new return-to-office policy that requires most employees to work in the office at least 3 days a week starting January 26. However, Suleyman involves a minimum of four days a week for team members who live near an office, according to an internal document reviewed by Business Insider. Any exceptions must be approved by an executive who reports directly to him. Suleyman also said that he does not prefer traditional offices with closed doors. In one of his setups, he uses “neighbourhoods” with 20 to 30 open desks arranged close to one another.
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“Much better for collaboration. Everyone can see everyone else who’s in. You can feel the buzz —there’s a real intensity about the place —and it just creates a lot more, like informal collaboration. It’s so much better,” Suleyman notedThe AI executive also spends considerable time in Silicon Valley. Suleyman divides his schedule between Silicon Valley and Seattle. He said that most of his team is based in Silicon Valley rather than at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters.”There’s just huge talent density here. It’s the place to be,” he added.Microsoft allows individual organisations or teams to decide their return-to-office plans and office layouts. For example, the Corporate, External and Legal Affairs team has been working from the office at least four days a week for roughly a year, the report claims.Other AI-focused teams follow more flexible practices. Scott Guthrie’s Cloud + AI organisation does not have specific return-to-office guidelines. Jay Parikh’s Core AI group will adopt a three-day-a-week schedule for all offices starting in February, except for GitHub, the report cited internal documents to claim.