One day after announcing plans to cut 9,000 jobs in a major restructuring, Novo Nordisk has told its employees that office work will be mandatory at the start of next year.
There is some flexibility in the policy, according to a Novo spokesperson, who said individual agreements can still be made between managers and employees to ensure “both personal and business needs are met.”
The changes come five weeks into the tenure of new CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar. Doustdar was tapped to replace Novo's previous CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, after the Danish company’s sales growth sputtered amid competition with Eli Lilly and compounding pharmacies in the lucrative U.S. obesity market.
Just 15 months ago, Novo’s market cap was nearly double that of any other company in Europe at $640 billion. Today, the Danish drugmaker ranks No. 7 at $242 billion.
Wednesday, Novo revealed a significant round of job cuts—equating to a more than 11% reduction across its global workforce—as part of a plan to save around 8 billion Danish kroner ($1.3 billion) annually by the end of 2026. Doustdar followed up Thursday with the back-to-work decree.
“We are intending to implement a new global standard for office-based employees to work from the office five days per week,” the Novo spokesperson said via email. “This is designed to foster a stronger sense of belonging, strengthen relationships, enhance collaboration and accelerate decision-making processes.”
Since his promotion to CEO on Aug. 7, Doustdar has had to deliver several pieces of bad news. Two weeks ago, Novo canceled the contracts of newly hired employees who had yet to begin their tenures.
“Sometimes the hardest decisions are the right ones for the future we're building,” Doustdar said in a Wednesday LinkedIn post addressing this week's layoff announcement. “I'm confident that this is the right thing to do for the long-term success of Novo Nordisk.”