Paramount Skydance says 600 employees took severance and quit instead of returning to the office

• Paramount Skydance told its employees to return to the office or take a severance package.
• Roughly 600 employees took the severance package, costing Paramount $185 million.
• Paramount also laid off about 1,000 employees last quarter, and about 1,600 more cuts are coming.

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison gave his employees an ultimatum in early September: return to the office five days a week, or take severance.

About 600 Paramount staffers chose to quit with severance pay, the company said in its third-quarter shareholder letter on Monday.

Paramount offered severance to employees at the VP level or lower who weren't willing to work from the New York or Los Angeles offices Monday through Friday, starting in early January. The company had about 18,600 workers at the end of 2024.

Those severance packages cost Paramount $185 million last quarter, the company said in its quarterly filing. The company filed the expense under "restructuring charges" and said it helped "align the business around our strategic priorities" after the Paramount Skydance merger closed.

Ellison had told employees that "in-person collaboration is absolutely vital to building and strengthening our culture and driving the success of our business."

Ellison's RTO mandate isn't the only move the new media mogul has made since the merger that has drawn a polarized reaction from staffers. He also installed Bari Weiss as the editor in chief of CBS News, which has ruffled some feathers.

Besides the severance-related departures, Paramount also trimmed its workforce through job cuts in October, laying off 1,000 employees.

"When we launched the new Paramount in August, we made clear that building a strong, future-focused company would require significant change — including restructuring the organization," Ellison said in a layoff memo obtained by Business Insider.

More cuts are coming. Paramount said in its shareholder letter that in early 2026, it's divesting international businesses that are "non-core" to its future growth. The company said that the move "will streamline operations and reduce our workforce by approximately 1,600 additional employees."

Paramount isn't alone in calling employees back to the office. RTO has become a hot topic at companies ranging from AT&T to Amazon.

In the media world, NBCUniversal told employees in September that it wanted them working in person four days a week early next year, and similarly offered severance to those who didn't want to comply.

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