Up to 90 Patagonia staff could be fired from the company for living too far from its offices, after the sustainable outdoor brand ordered remote customer service staff to move closer to the company’s seven centers , or give up.
The affected US employees were given the ultimatum on Tuesday, with just three days to decide whether they would be willing to relocate across the country to keep their jobs.
Patagonia CX employees must now live within 60 miles of one of seven “hubs” in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Reno, Dallas, Austin, Chicago or Pittsburgh.
Workers were informed at Tuesday’s meeting at City Hall that equipment will be moved to a new “hub” model, before they were disconnected from company laptops and phones later that day. They were also reportedly told that failure to respond within the 72-hour time frame would essentially result in a notice.
“It was very targeted. If you don’t live in these seven metropolitan areas, you have to move there or give us your stuff and leave,” said one affected CX worker. Business Insider.
“If we don’t respond by Friday, they will assume we have chosen the severance package and we will begin that process.”
Other workers told BI that the severance package is generous; However, the proposal makes them feel like they are being “laid off” and they don’t know anyone who is considering moving.
Those who decide to move must do so by September 30 and have been offered $4,000 and additional PTO to assist with the move.
However, Patagonia did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment, a company spokesperson said. Business Insider that 90 of CX’s 255 U.S. employees were affected and that several employees have already indicated they would relocate.
Relocation Ultimatums Are Not Common (or Risk-Free)
Before the pandemic, ultimatums about relocation were relatively unknown, but companies went on a hiring spree while many professionals worked from home and now many want them back in the office.
Although return-to-office mandates generally apply to those within commutable distance of a company’s vertical tower, some companies have gone a step further, like Patagonia, and asked staff to relocate on behalf of collaboration.
The company hopes to bring staff together at the centers at least once every six weeks for in-person training, company meetings or activism hours.
Amazon employees who were hired (or transferred) during the pandemic were also told they would have to move closer to the offices in order to comply with the company’s three-day in-person work requirement. Meanwhile, gaming giant Roblox warned workers who can’t get to the company’s physical office in California that they would have to find another job. Then there’s Walmart, which asked hundreds of employees to move to an entirely new city to comply with its RTO mandate.
But such ultimatums are not without risks.
In fact, professionals have more career options than ever before thanks to hybrid work. Now, research highlights that people are no longer willing to move away from home for professional reasons and would even prefer to endure a “supercommute” for some days of the week to maintain their after-work life in the suburbs.
Grindr’s executive team found out the hard way that staff can put their employer on the spot. The dating platform lost nearly half of its workforce in two weeks, including most of its engineering team, leaving the company struggling with technical issues as a result of its aggressive RTO order.
Meanwhile, Twitter (now