Grindr has lost about 45% of its staff as it enforces a strict return-to-office policy that was introduced after a majority of employees announced a plan to unionize.
About 80 of the 178 employees at the LGBTQ+ dating app company resigned after the company in August mandated that workers return to work in person two days a week at assigned “hub” offices or be fired, the Communications Workers of America said in a statement Wednesday.
love seeing companies going full mask off now — not even trying to sell the ‘collaborative environment’ bile, it’s purely punitive
muse@kbin.social 1 year ago
That's a weird way of saying "grindr found a way to lay off half its staff without having to pay severance"
anon232@lemm.ee 1 year ago
This should honestly be the top comment, most companies appear to be using RTO as a means of doing mass layoffs without the negative PR hit.
krayj@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Exactly right - this is a thinly veiled excuse for a planned large scale workforce reduction sidestepping some of the normal repercussions.
What I find most interesting here is that WFH is essentially a benefit (a big one) at this point, and they just eliminated a huge benefit. That usually has the effect of causing some of your greatest talent to walk - and leaving behind those people who either don’t care about the benefit (there may be some, but I think this number is small) or don’t immediately have the hireability to resign and go for greener pastures.
The tradeoff for grindr is that it’ll make them temporarily look better on paper, but the loss of talent will probably hurt them in the long run. If there’s one thing that seems to be true of modern capitalism, it’s that companies are more than willing to fuck their futures over some perceived short term gains.
Grindr isn’t the only company doing this. I’ll be interested to see how this works out for all the employers using this same tactic.
_number8_@lemmy.world 1 year ago
RTO itself isn’t negative PR?
xantoxis@lemmy.one 1 year ago
Strange that they think this isn’t a negative PR hit, then.
CoderKat@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’m not sure about anyone who was hired before WFH, but generally, a substantial change to job duties or location is considered constructive dismissal. ie, it’s legally the same as being fired without cause. That might be eligible for severance and definitely for unemployment.
cooper@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
For most roles, severance is not a guarantee and only given as part of layoffs because companies that don’t are crucified.
I.e. getting fired/quitting will not trigger some severance clause for nearly all employees.
Cheers@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
This really needs to be some level of labor issue. If an office decided to move across the country and you didn’t move with it, would that be you quitting? You applied for the job that was on your side of the country, not the one across the country. To me, the employer’s terms changed, which means they need to handle the difference.