This past June, Ford rolled out a new return-to-office (RTO) mandate requiring its global, salaried, white collar workers to report to those offices at least four days per week. This move came after years of work-from-home and hybrid models following the onset of the pandemic, and has been mimicked by most major corporations and Ford’s rivals, too. However, as one would imagine, that move didn’t go over well with folks that actually enjoy working from home or even find that they’re more productive in that setting. Regardless, Ford is now doubling down on its RTO policy, it seems.
As Ford Authority reported last week, things reached a boiling point when some Ford internal meeting room screens were hacked to display an anti-RTO message, which the company is currently investigating. Now, according to Business Insider, Ford has reportedly sent emails to some of its employees informing them that they could face termination if they don’t report to the office as required.
Two of those workers stated that they have in fact complied with the policy, and yet, received the email anyway. According to Ford Enterprise Technology division human resources director Homer Isaac, the emails are intended to instigate a “change of behavior” as it pertains to remote work, adding that workers who have been “doing the things that you were supposed to” were “caught up in a lot of that noise,” adding that those complying with the RTO policy won’t have to worry about losing their jobs.
“The letters up to this point, quite honestly, were based on a window where our standard wasn’t the same as everybody else’s standard. The communications are standard, and I will pledge to this team, we have asked for those to be changed or modified – we have failed in that,” Issac admitted.
“We have done everything we can to make sure our employees understand the in-office policy, and we have given everyone time to adjust their schedules and work with their managers to make sure they are in compliance,” a Ford spokesperson told Business Insider.
Comment
Maybe just an excuse to cull the white collar workforce even further. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day…and this is the new reality for the work-a-day world. Why waste hours upon hours commuting every day to a remote office, when statistics verify that productivity from remote locations which don’t involve long commutes is far higher than the alternative. Old business models, old cultures…old ways of thinking.