Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s expectations for how his employees work at the office are uniquely strict within the company.
Suleyman requires employees to work from the office more than is standard at the company and generally prefers to have open floor plans, a polarizing concept at Microsoft and in engineering in general.
“I very much believe in the in-person working culture,” Suleyman told Business Insider. “We’ve been defragmenting our culture and trying to concentrate.”
Microsoft recently announced a new return-to-office mandate requiring most employees to work in an office at least three days a week, starting January 26.
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In contrast, Suleyman requires at least four-days-a-week for his employees who live near an office, according to an internal document viewed by Business Insider. Any exceptions must be approved by an executive who reports to Suleyman directly.
Suleyman told Business Insider that he’s not a fan of traditional offices with doors that employees can keep closed. In one of his office setups, he has “neighborhoods” with 20 to 30 open desks placed relatively close together, he said.
“Much better for collaboration,” Suleyman said. “Everyone can see everyone else who’s in. You can feel the buzz, like there’s a real intensity about the place, and it just creates a lot more, like informal collaboration. It’s so much better.”
The AI executive also has a penchant for hanging in Silicon Valley. Suleyman splits his time between Silicon Valley and Seattle, but said most of his team is in Silicon Valley versus Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters.
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“There’s just huge talent density here,” he added. “It’s the place to be.”
Microsoft leaves RTO and office-layout decisions up to individual organizations or teams. The company’s Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs team, for example, has been working at least four days a week from the office for about a year.
Other teams working on AI have less strict guidelines. Executive Scott Guthrie’s Cloud + AI organization has no org-specific return-to-office guidelines or considerations. Jay Parikh’s Core AI group will apply the three-day-a-week guidance for all offices in February, with the exception of GitHub, according to the documents reviewed by Business Insider.
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