Contributed by: kellyseal on Wednesday, September 13 2023 @ 09:44 am
Last modified on Wednesday, September 13 2023 @ 09:50 am
Nearly half of Grindr employees quit the company after they were given an ultimatum to return to work in the office.
Company executives announced the new workplace policy on an all-employee call in early August, and gave employees two weeks to decide whether they would agree to work in the office or hand in their resignation. Executives demanded employees relocate to one of the Grindr offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, or Washington D.C.
According to CNN[*1] , 80 of Grindr’s 178 workers who had turned down the in-office mandate were forced to quit by the end of August. Most of these employees were remote workers, and many said that this would put an undue burden on them, including finding housing and schools for their children to attend in a new city.
Employees have also been vocal about Grindr executives using the new policy as a retaliatory tactic against employees, who only weeks before voted to organize a union, demanding fair wages and equal treatment for all employees. Grindr employees worked in partnership with the CWA (Communication Workers of America) to initiate.
“Rather than recognize the union, the company issued a new return-to-office policy requiring staff to relocate or quit,” the CWA said in a statement. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Grindr with the National Labor Relations Board, according to CNN.
A Grindr spokesperson denied that the union formation had anything to do with the new policy, according to CNN. “We are looking forward to returning to the office in a hybrid model in October and further improving productivity and collaboration for our entire team,” the spokesperson said.
Companies are having a difficult time retaining employees who prefer to work remotely. Amazon and Meta have put in place some new policies to get people back into the office, including tracking employees’ days at the office with penalties if they don’t come in the required three days per week.
These moves by big companies are getting some pushback from employees, who are turning to message boards like Reddit to discuss their legal rights when it comes to remote work, according to The Independent. Many who have been hired in the past year have been seeking answers as to their rights, since when they were hired, they were given the choice of whether to work remotely or in the office.
Many workers also moved to smaller, less expensive cities during the pandemic. Cities like New York or San Francisco may be cost-prohibitive with housing prices soaring.
The CWA is still behind Grindr employees’ push for the union, so despite the exodus, the plan is to move forward with unionizing.