Employees, including executives and remote workers, will be required to work an eight-hour shift starting in the fourth quarter of this year, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

“We must stay connected to the core of our business to truly understand the challenges and opportunities our store associates face every day,” Chief Executive Officer Ted Decker said in the memo introducing the program.

A company spokesperson said it has long been the company’s practice to ask employees to spend time in stores and this new program is its latest initiative.

Home Depot, one of the largest U.S. retailers with annual sales of more than $150 billion and 450,000 employees, has fallen on hard times. After spending money on their homes during the pandemic, Americans shifted their spending to other sectors, causing a drop in sales across the chain.

Decker’s move to require everyone in the company to work shifts is unusual in the industry and comes amid increasing activism among the workforce. This includes both Home Depot, which faced a small unionization effort in 2022, and other retailers.

Sporadic work hours, physical labor and low wages have made working in stores difficult in the past. Work has become more difficult in recent years due to shoplifting and unruly customer behavior, and operators are introducing new benefits and increasing wages to improve customer loyalty.