John Deere CEO Calls Employees Back To The Office

Rumors have started circling on forums this week. John May, the CEO of John Deere, sent out an email calling all employees back to the office four days per week starting in March.

I reached out to some people at John Deere, but have not heard back. Although the rumors haven’t been confirmed by anyone at John Deere yet, here’s what I know so far.

John Deere’s New Return To Office Policy Here’s the policy change that likely occurred: Send date: Internal email likely issued January 31, 2023 New policy: Salaried, corporate employees must be in the office four days per week Start date: March 4, 2023

 

January 31: Searches for “John Deere return to office” spike

I track the Fortune 100’s return to office policies here. As a result, that report on my website shows up for a lot of “return to office” search terms in Google. 

On January 31, I noticed that Google searches for “John Deere return to office” went up significantly. They had been at 0 for over a year. 

Over three days, 269 searches occurred (with 0 over the previous 12 months).

This indicates that something happened like an internal change in policy. It usually coincides with a public note being leaked about the change, but this time it didn’t.

 

Feb 2: Three RTO comments appear on Reddit and Glassdoor

Early on Friday, Feb 2, someone commented that John Deere will be back in the office four days per week in March.

 

Friday afternoon, someone on Reddit mentioned the new RTO policy again.

 

At some on Friday, an engineer anonymously posted to Glassdoor that a new policy calls for four days per week in the office.

 

My Conclusion

1. Jan 30-31: John Deere likely sent out an email to employees.
2. Jan 31: Employees started to search in Google to see if they news had leaked and the sentiment of the coverage.
3. Feb 1-2: Employees start anonymously posting on Reddit and Glassdoor about the policy.

Conclusion: This matches with the pattern for other internal policy changes that don’t get released to the public. 

John Deere’s new return-to-office policy calls for employees in the office four days per week.

 

Do you have information about John Deere’s RTO policy? Contact me with details. I will update the story if you have information about this story.