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So seems that Patagonia are looking to lay a bunch of staff off in the USA, if they don't move to a local hub.
Never bought any of their kit, but it doesn't seem to tie in with their original ethos.
Thoughts?
https://www.businessinsider.com/patagonia-cx-staff-told-to-relocate-or-leave-california-2024-6
From the outside, I could imagine there was a consultation process which led to the Cx staff saying that they thought the culture was bad because they didn't feel connected to each other and part of a team. Solutions were 'workshopped' and the most obvious attempt to work on the culture is one that adversely affects a lot of staff (but not a majority according to the article) - making it easier for them to have f2f contact. Not great for them, but hardly corporate crime of the century.
Wouldn't buy anything with their logo on due to their use of far-left woke doctrine as marketing. Also overpriced and worn by numpties.
My employer has done this systematically on a UK wide level over the last few years.
Closing smaller locations to office workers, (operational use only) ending home working and centralising major office roles.
Basically if you don't relocate or you can't or won't swap your desk and spinny chair for a van, ladders, tools, and a completely new set of skills, your only option is to take 'voluntary' redundancy.
This, along with offshoring desk jobs to a huge contractor in India, has resulted in thousands of highly skilled and experienced people leaving the business. The offshore teams work from minimal training (and I imagine, a fairly small crib sheet that breaks down each scenario they need to deal with)
And there is no office location in the South East so if I ever get to the stage I'm not fit/able enough to do a highly physical job, the traditional route into a desk job is now gone!
Obviously the wage bill and headcount have reduced massively which is all part of the plan.
(Edit: Affected staff do get weeks to decide what to do, however! 3 days is just nuts, and it says their laptops were disabled until they made a decision so could they work/get paid in the meantime?)
We would like you to make a potentially life changing decision to move to another part of the country, you've got 3 days.
Sounds pretty shitty to me.
The other thing to remember, as this is the USA many people are trapped with employers due to health insurance. I bet they have far slower staff turn over than the UK.
Wouldn’t buy anything with their logo on due to their use of far-left woke doctrine as marketing.
I'd be fascinated to see an actual example of far left woke doctrine used as marketing. Could you please share one?
WFH but living near a hub (if a big company, a single centre if smaller) is probably the sustainable model if you value face to face time too. I guess its how you get there that creates the problem. Surprised/disappointed they didn't give a third option of staying but committing to travelling to a hub at your own cost to existing employees and changing recruitment policy for new employees given they are only talking face to face once every 6 weeks. 3 days, can't imagine that would be legal in the UK.
On the up side, whilst I don't own any Patagonia products, it does sound like it's an effective gammon repellant, so might reconsider my choices.
The link you posted is behind a paywall so I can't see it. Anyone else got that or are you all business insider subscribers....?
The US has such poor worker protection this sort of stuff is normalised
Unrelated point: Is it un-woke to call someone a dribbling idiot on the internet?
It’d be snowflake-like for you not to do it so crack on!
Dribbler will love the B-Corps!! https://bcorporation.uk
Anyone else got that or are you all business insider subscribers….?
just got to be quick with the CTRL-A ---> CTRL-C
Edit: ... but this is probably the salient bit, and it'll give grimep a semi too !
"The reality is that our CX team has been running at 200% to 300% overstaffed for much of this year," she added. "While we hoped to reach the needed staffing levels through attrition, those numbers were very low, and retention remained high."
The link you posted is behind a paywall so I can’t see it.
If your browser has an immersive reader mode that seems to show the whole text of the article.
Wouldn’t buy anything with their logo on due to their use of far-left woke doctrine as marketing.
Must all be quite confusing for the gammons what with all the nazis fleeing to Patagonia after the war.
The article also says; The workers themselves complained of feeling disconnected to the larger organisation. The California employees effected were asking for pay raises to off-set the cost of living in Cali "for a long time", and the whole CX operation is 200-300% overstaffed. That's only really going to end one way.
Honestly , I feel bad for the folks effected but 'Business acting like a Business' is hardly the stuff of headlines.
Wouldn’t buy anything with their logo on due to their use of far-left woke doctrine as marketing. Also overpriced and worn by numpties.
You're really something quite special, aren't you, @grimep.
You’re really something quite special, aren’t you, @grimep.
I think the nom du jour for someone who get's perpetually offended and has a meltdown over every minor thing is "snowflake"
I now have an image of Grimep as one of those skinny-trying-to-be-hard-men in a stone island puffer.
“The reality is that our CX team has been running at 200% to 300% overstaffed for much of this year,” she added. “While we hoped to reach the needed staffing levels through attrition, those numbers were very low, and retention remained high.”
We have 3x more staff than is required, and as they all work remotely they've been able to doss off / daylight so haven't quit.
As anti-WFH policies go it's not exactly newsworthy.
It's a tough one to decide on in 72 hours; Reno, SLS, Austin or tidy payoff.
I'm guessing it'll have the desired effect. The younger employees will relocate to some decent outdoor lifestyle orientated areas and the older, settled ones with families will take the generous package.
We've been asking for raises for a long time, and they keep telling us that your wage is based on a Reno cost of living and where you choose to live is on you.
I take it this employee interviewed lives on the other side of Tahoe. That's got to be spendy.
I think it was Patagonia who did some highly contentious dissing of the fish farming industry a good few months back. A lot of talk with a lot of very questionable facts I believe.
Oh, and I think if you look into the background of the new owners they have a vested interest against fish farming.
Though I might be completely missed remembering!
Edit: Quick Google found a link
https://seawestnews.com/patagonias-hypocrisy-displayed-in-new-anti-salmon-farming-book/
I do sympathise with those involved and the 3 day notice thing is obviously pretty sh-tty, but I find it odd I'm reading about the plight of 90 workers thousands of miles away, like why it's really newsworthy?
I work for the NHS, my discipline is being centralised in locations all round the country, moving it from the local hospitals into central hubs. When it happens to us, the lower paid bands won't be able to justify the commute and will either have to relocate or move. Hundreds of staff across the NW will be affected, and over the last few years hundreds more will have gone through the same nation wide. I doubt it will even make the local newspapers.
I find it odd I’m reading about the plight of 90 workers thousands of miles away, like why it’s really newsworthy?
It's deemed "news" because of Patagonia's ethical marketing positioning, and because it's a well-known brand that people love/hate.
A bit like when Dyson left the UK, but different.
I share your view and in my news editor days I wouldn't have gone big with it, but it would certainly attract interest.
I think it was Patagonia who did some highly contentious dissing of the fish farming industry a good few months back. A lot of talk with a lot of very questionable facts I believe.
Interesting article on the site you linked to there, calling it a propaganda site for the farmed salmon industry. According to the site Patagonia make some of their profits out of canned salmon.. I guess that would be easy to prove if so. Dunno, just reads like a fake/bias news to me anyway.
Mass fish farming is as bad as any other mass farming and the damage the mass fishing industry does is well understood, it's all pretty grim.
I consider myself lucky...end of 2019, my office location got moved, so my commute went from 10 minutes to over 1 hour each way - really wasn't happy. Anyway, 3 months in, pandemic hit and I was WFH. Once the pandemic lockdown was removed, we were offered to work at closest office, so I was there for a few days a week.
My office location has now been moved back to the original office officially again, so I'm back to the 10-minute commute without the guilt of not being officially based there.
Wouldn’t buy anything with their logo on due to their use of far-left woke doctrine as marketing. Also overpriced and worn by numpties.
So now they've proved by their action that's bollox and they are your typical capitalist company you WILL be buying from them, yes?
"The reality is that our CX team has been running at 200% to 300% overstaffed for much of this year," she added. "While we hoped to reach the needed staffing levels through attrition, those numbers were very low, and retention remained high."
Hmmm, I guess you could interpret that as their products being soooo good, and their customers sooo satisfied that they simply don't need customer service personnel anymore. So they've come up with the most humane way to boot a 3rd of them based on geography.
Can I add a lol to this
use of far-left woke doctrine as marketing
Where far left doctrine = facts and science.
WTF is far left woke doctrine. I’d love it to be explained to me. Oh, wait, he can’t, because it doesn’t ****ing exist. Just like tramp spanner dog fish. See I can string words together too. Dickhead.
Grimep - conspicuous by absence....
I don't get the use of the term 'Woke' in the post above.
I was under impression the term 'Woke' is to be informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and (racial)inequality, which to me sounds like a positive position to be in, yet the poster uses is as a insult.
I get needing to right size staffing, that’s business, although how you end up 200-300% over staffed is a bit of a mystery unless the effected teams are all tiny.
Surely forcing people to relocate goes against the green credentials of the company. They want people to move house and all the carbon emissions associated with that to avoid increasing some salaries. Not very green or eco
Green/eco versus profits surely. In this case profits win.
Seems harsh on the time frame but even green/eco businesses have to stay afloat, cut costs and adapt.
I don’t get the use of the term ‘Woke’ in the post above.
I was under impression the term ‘Woke’ is to be informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and (racial)inequality, which to me sounds like a positive position to be in, yet the poster uses is as a insult.
That is what it means but the hard-of-thinking can't understand that and believe it to be some sort of Communist agenda. Judging by a lot of social media posts they also think wanting to take care for those less fortunate than ourselves is Communist, caring about the environment is Communist and generally being a decent human being is Communist.
I don’t get the use of the term ‘Woke’ in the post above.
I was under impression the term ‘Woke’ is to be informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and (racial)inequality, which to me sounds like a positive position to be in, yet the poster uses is as a insult.
People who think that "woke" is an insult are, IME, 100% universally [Butcher from The Boys' favourite word]. Anyone who thinks that being nice to other people is a bad thing to be railed against, well, that says more about them than the subject under discussion.
See also, "snowflake" and "triggered."
You've just triggered something...
@grimep - Agree. I much prefer to buy my outdoor clothing from far-right brands. Or I love me a centrist, Ed Milliband jacket like a Rab - absolutely NOT avocado in colour. That'll show the bloody woke lefteyes!
Using "Woke" as some kind of gotcha catch-all type of insult has always been hilarious to me. I once saw people decrying the administrative renaming of Snowdon to Yr Wyddfa as "Woke".
We would like you to make a potentially life changing decision to move to another part of the country, you’ve got 3 days.
Sounds pretty shitty to me.
My wife worked for an US company. In the states they fired the “bottom” 10% of the workforce on an annual basis.
My wife worked for an US company. In the states they fired the “bottom” 10% of the workforce on an annual basis.
It's my understanding that they have employment laws that make workhouses look generous.
My dad also worked for an American company. Talking to a us based colleague he asked about his holiday plans. The reply was, if I go on holiday someone else will be sitting at my desk by the time I get back.