Employees at Farmers Group are staging a revolt after the insurance company’s new CEO has reversed remote work policies they say were promised to them last year.
The Wall Street Journal reports more than 2,000 workers have complained about the about-face decision from Raul Vargas on the company’s internal social media platform. Some have threatened to quit. Others have started talking about unionization.
“I was hired as a remote worker and was promised that was the company culture moving forward,” said one worker quoted in the Journal. “This is seemingly a power move that is frankly disgusting.”
Farmers told Fortune it was moving to a hybrid work structure that will go into effect in September.
"With this transition, employees within a 50-mile radius of a Farmers office will work from their respective office location at least three days per week while having the flexibility to work remotely two days per week," a spokesperson said. "Based on business need and different types of positions, roughly 60 percent of Farmers employees will be hybrid, while other roles will be either virtual or in-office."
Employees, though, argued they had made life changes last year after they were told they would be remote workers, from moving to new cities to selling their cars.
The company rep said "as business conditions -- such as emerging from the pandemic -- change, so must business approaches."
California-based Farmers is the latest company to face worker unrest after insisting employees return to the office. Amazon employees staged a protest this week over that company’s mandate that remote workers should return to the office by May 1. Disney, Starbucks, News Corp. and Lyft have also demanded employees return to the office.
Last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called working from home morally wrong, arguing the “laptop class” were unfair in demanding privileges that other people, like service workers or factory employees, couldn’t enjoy.
