Patagonia’s relocation ultimatum, Netflix says to dismiss staffers that fail culture test

Greetings, comms pros! Let’s take a look at a few news stories from the last week and see what we can learn from them.

1 . Patagonia tells 90 employees to relocate or find a new job

Outdoor apparel brand Patagonia dropped some alarming news on its customer experience employees, informing them that they need to relocate to within 60 miles of one of the company’s “hub” cities or look for other work. Employees were notified earlier this week by both text and email about the news.

According to Business Insider:

“At 10 a.m. PST we will be hosting an important Town Hall Meeting,” read the internal email, which was seen by Business Insider.

“We understand that some are scheduled to be off today, but please know that we will pay you for the day [8 hours] if you can make the time to attend.” Half an hour later, in a 15-minute town hall hosted by executives Amy Velligan and Bruce Old, staff were informed that the team would be moving to a new “hub” model.

CX employees must now live within 60 miles of one of seven “hubs” — Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Reno, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, or Pittsburgh. If not willing to move state, staff must leave the company. They have been given 72 hours, until Friday, to confirm their decision.

“It was very factual. If you don’t live in these seven metro areas, you either need to move there or give us your stuff and hit the brick,” one affected CX worker told BI. “If we don’t respond by Friday, they will assume that we have chosen the severance package and we’ll start that process.”

The report went on to state that no affected employees that Business Insider spoke with expected to relocate and instead were looking to take the severance offer.

Relocation mandates are never going to be universally popular decisions, and as we’ve reported before, employees will feel more stressed and backlash will be fiercer the less time they have to react.

Beyond the jarring decision itself, ensuring you hit the right notes with your change communications is critically important, or else you risk losing both employees who jump ship at the thought of a move and the morale of those who remain. Even if leadership decides to make such a move, you can communicate about it in an empathetic way.

But if you find yourself in such a situation, embrace transparency and humanity:

• Push executives to explain the rationale behind the move and give people as much time as you can to make a decision.
• Craft messaging with empathy, and acknowledge that the decision may be painful. These choices aren’t about jobs — they impact livelihoods, homes and families.
• Formulate a plan to speak with those who remain behind after such a choice — they might have some strong feelings on the move, and taking their perspectives into account could make your culture more robust.

2. Netflix takes new approach to culture, empowers managers to cut employees who don’t fit

Work culture should underpin every part of your employee comms efforts. But what if that culture shifts and priorities change? According to a report from The Street, that’s exactly what’s going on at Netflix, with the focus moving from a “family” atmosphere to that of a sports team instead, with managers given the chance to cut employees they don’t feel fit from the team.

“We model ourselves on being a professional sports team, not a family,” said Netflix in the memo. “A family is about unconditional love. A dream team is about pushing yourself to be the best possible teammate, caring intensely about your team, and knowing that you may not be on the team forever.

Netflix claims that in an effort to strengthen its “dream team,” it encourages managers to use a “keeper test” to determine whether or not to fire an employee.

“Our managers use a ‘keeper test’ for each of their people: if a team member was leaving for a similar role at another company, would the manager try to keep them?” reads the memo. “Those who do not pass the keeper test (i.e. their manager would not fight to keep them) are given a generous severance package so we can find someone even better for that position—making an even better dream team.”

The memo goes on to also encourage employees to keep their managers accountable.

“We also encourage employees to check in with their manager at any time by asking, ‘How hard would you work to change my mind if I were thinking of leaving?’” reads the memo.

We love a great sense of culture and communicative managers — we really do! But instituting what almost amounts to a loyalty test to fire an employee isn’t an example of good manager comms practices.

Employees look to managers as the first touchpoint on cultural norms within a company. Rather than testing them, managers should walk employees through any potential cultural or procedural changes with clarity and transparency, rather than just conducting clandestine culture quizzes that decide the fate of people’s jobs.

Comms should also be sure to overcommunicate whenever there are culture changes — talk about what’s changing, why, and how managers can give employees the tools to succeed in a new atmosphere.

3. Former Boeing subcontractor says he was fired for reporting problems

Boeing has made a few appearances in our Week in Comms column for their recent appearances in the news, most recently last week after CEO Dave Calhoun testified before Congress.

Boeing is back this week, this time because a former subcontractor claims he lost his job for blowing the whistle on safety issues. According to a report from the Seattle Times, Richard Cuevas, a former worker at Strom Aviation, filed a lawsuit claiming that Boeing and Spirit Aerosystems changed the specifications for drilling holes in plane bulkheads, which could compromise air pressure.

Boeing said in a statement Wednesday that Cuevas’ concerns were thoroughly investigated and engineering analysis “determined the issues raised did not present a safety concern and were addressed.” The statement did not identify Cuevas by name.

“We are reviewing the documents released today and will thoroughly investigate any new claim,” Boeing said in the statement.

This adds yet another issue to the pile for Boeing, but it’ll be interesting to see how they respond. Calhoun said recently that his company is fully committed to safety going forward, and that’ll have to be borne out through both communications and culture. It’s one thing to just say you’re going to change for the better — it’s another to do it. That begins internally too — if employees are afraid of repercussions due to reporting safety problems, that’s a major issue. Encourage a culture of openness internally through clear messaging and available reporting structures for your employees, and your reputation externally might improve too.

4. How about some good news?

• China returned samples from the dark side of the moon.
• The Voyager 1 spacecraft resumed sending scientific data from billions of miles away thanks to a NASA fix.
• The governor of Maryland pardoned 175,000 people of cannabis convictions.
• Ragan Training is great for communications pros to find inspiration and resources.
• You should be rewarded for your work. Find out how to earn an award here!

Have a great weekend comms all-stars!

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports, a good pint and ’90s trivia night.