WPP staff, deeply upset at a direction to return to the office four days a week, are considering seeking new roles and some high profile candidates for jobs at the global advertising group are bailing out, insiders said.
Some employees suspect another motive; seeing the global move by CEO Mark Read to restrict working from home for all 110,000 employees as a strategy to get resignations, to reduce overheads in a difficult advertising market without expensive redundancy payments.
Others say they will now work to rule, refusing to take calls out of hours from global colleagues.
The policy has sparked widespread outrage within WPP, with some starting a petition urging the mandate be overturned. At last report the plea has more than 16,000 signatures, most of whom said they work for WPP. The petition is open to all, including non-WPP staff.
Insiders speak, on condition of not being identified, about the personal impact, including long commute times, higher child care costs, reduced family time and deteriorating mental health.
Some argue that WPP is effectively asking employees to adopt a lower standard of living without compensating by increasing pay or providing other benefits.
“It's clear that WPP really doesn't care about its people that much.”
Staff say those on lower salaries are impacted the most because they, unlike senior management, cannot afford to live close to offices.
And “this is showing that the group doesn't have any trust in their employees. This is like micromanaging the teams”.
And overcrowded offices. “The offices are not set up to accommodate this change. They are already overcrowded, not set up for disabled employees to thrive (harsh lighting, distractions, open plan), and limited meeting rooms.”
It is unclear whether or not WPP has enough desks to have staff in four days a week. This year WPP Sydney moved into a new campus in Shelley Street, Barangaroo, housing 13 agencies and more than 1300 employees.
"There just isn’t enough space in our office for one (a London campus)," one staffer said. "Tuesdays and Thursdays are already a bun fight with not enough desks or space; people having to go home to work; it’s impossible to concentrate and I can get very little work done in that environment."
The organisers of a petition and a survey of WPP staff have gathered personal comments from insiders who describe the policy as “rigid and authoritarian, which could negatively impact WPP’s image as an employer that values innovation and employee well-being”.
“This is a make a make or break moment for many WPP employees,” the organisers, who wish to be anonymous, told AdNews.
“We are already aware of a number of employees intending to resign and migrate to competitors, as well as a number of high-profile job offers falling through as prospective candidates have become aware of the sudden mandate.”
Staff complain about the way the new policy was communicated. “The way it was dumped on people in an email was so poor for a communications company,” one said. “It's embarrassing.”
Others suspect a hidden motive. “I think it's a move to make people resign without having to fire them.”
The comments include a lot about how this will impact lives
“Unfortunately, it will make huge negative impact on my personal/family life. It will make the whole life balance idea promoted by WPP fail,” one said.
“I chose to join WPP precisely because of the flexibility it offered, which allowed me to maintain a healthy balance between my professional and personal life. This policy shift feels misaligned with the values that initially attracted me to this organisation.”
Middle managers who worry about productivity. “My team has been thriving in the current hybrid/remote setup, successfully collaborating and maintaining efficiency while enjoying the balance that remote work provides. A mandatory return to the office disrupts this equilibrium and risks lowering morale rather than fostering improvement."
The style of senior management and disconnect with employees comes under scrutiny.
“I think it's a display of lack of awareness, anachronism, prioritising corporate interests over the well-being of employees, and a contrarian behaviour to the values of progress and modernity that WPP flaunts so openly.”
Many on the creative side made comments.
“As a creative, you work in all different ways, some like noise, some like the quiet, free from distraction. Pre pandemic, I would have to leave the office and find a quiet space to come up with ideas. It just wasn’t the way I worked. Being confined to a box as a creative person affected a lot of us.
“To not consider how other people might work best is very outdated and not very progressive. It’s also a stab in the foot to a lot of parents who have now been able to see their children, drop them off at school etc. there’s so many things that are wrong with how society has been set up, we create ads to make a change, yet we can’t even enforce real societal changes within our own industry. This would not inspire a lot of different people into choosing advertising.”
And staff point out they have already made big changes to their lives to fit with hybrid conditions.
“I think that most of the people who work now in WPP have organised their lives with the awareness of smart working and now they have to change their entire lives in order to ensure office attendance.
“So the first problem is all the commuters who now have greatly diminished free time or diminished purchasing power because in our case … it involves much greater expenses than living outside in other cities.
“That means a decrease in quality of life that many will be able to bear. This therefore will take less flexibility in working hours, having to deal with about a three hour commute every day or a higher salary demand to be able to live in cities with a very high cost of living.”
And others live in regional areas. “I live 500 km from the office. For me, coming four days a week to the office would mean a radical change in my life and be detrimental to my mental and physical well-being. I would have to figure out how to manage my dogs in my absence and give up the house I just moved into with my family.”
Others talk about different needs across the world.
“I imagine that no one would ever say that introducing the six-day working week would increase the spirit of co-operation and benefit the company. I guess no one can think that all over the world people's needs are the same.
“So in the same way, I ask myself and I would like to ask Read what sense does it make to dismantle the flexibility granted to employees based on an assumption that seems to be born out of an outdated mentality, to take steps backwards when everyone else is future-oriented, what sense does it make to equalise WPP employees around the world?
“I believe that if there really is a convenience in going back to working in the office four days out of five then it should be demonstrated locally specifically for each location.
“Nevertheless, if this decision is not reversed, there will be many resignations due to logistical and insurmountable problems on the part of some employees, not to mention the loss of WPP's attractiveness to new talent.”
Some say the policy is flawed from both a business standpoint. “It's going to make it increasingly harder to hire and retain talented individuals.
“This is especially in the area of Data & Tech, where i work, in which the majority of the industry has moved in the opposite direction.
“Many of the individuals are more introverted in nature and quite frankly, dislike working in an open-plan, hotdesking-style office environment. People in Data & Tech need long, unbroken stretches of time to focus on solving difficult problems, which is only really possible on days spent working remotely.
“WPP is such a large organisation that employing a one-size-fits all approach will not work. You need to give individual teams the choice to operate in the way that allows them to deliver their best work.”
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