For more than 50 years, Patagonia has built a reputation as one of the most respected brands on the planet. In addition to making fleece vests that are equally prevalent in corporate offices and mountain lodges, the outdoor clothing company is known for being outspoken about climate change and donating a portion of its sales to environmental groups.
Additionally, Patagonia’s conscientious approach to business has long extended to its employees. From the start, Yvon Chouinard, the mystical climber-turned-entrepreneur who founded the company, instituted flexible working hours that gave staff the freedom to hit the waves when the swells were right, or pick up their kids from school — all part of a alternative approach to business that Chouinard described in his autobiography, Let my people go surfing.
So it was no surprise that when Patagonia announced earlier this week that it was asking a third of its customer service staff to either relocate to one of seven U.S. cities or part with the company, the decision made headlines.
Corley Kenna, head of communications at Patagonia, said wealth that for most of the past year, its customer service team, which has been completely remote since the pandemic, has been anywhere from 200 to 300% overstaffed for most of the year passed.
“A lot of times the staff only had about two hours of work a day,” Kenna said. “This is not good for your career. This is not good for business.”
The company began piloting the hub model last year, Kenna said wealth, in large part due to the backlash he had received for being completely aloof.
“A lot [employees] lost a lot of the important cultural aspects that come with Patagonia and that come from being close to people. They were also worried about career transitions and career growth and felt a bit isolated that way.”
Under the new model, 90 of its 255 employees are required to move within 60 miles of a new “hub” city — Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Reno, Dallas, Austin, Chicago or Pittsburgh. Workers were asked to make a decision by Friday and if they chose to move, they had until September 30. The company said it would help pay the cost of the relocation.
Some staff say the time frame they were given to make the decision seemed rushed and unreasonable.
“It’s a big decision to make if you’re going to uproot your life and move to another city, and you have to decide that in two or three days?” an employee told him Ventura County Star, which first reported the decision.
Kenna said he understood why some employees were upset, but that the transition to the central model was something Patagonia had been transparent about with its employees, and that given the company’s overcrowding problem, it could have happened sooner.
“We wanted to be really intentional and we wanted to make sure this was the right model,” she said. wealth. “We knew it would affect a lot of people and so we took it seriously to think about all the different ways we could take care of our people. So you think it’s a fair call, but I think that’s our real answer.”
Kenna also said there was some flexibility in Friday’s deadline.
In 2023, Patagonia ranked as the most reputable brand in the world, moving up from third place a year ago, according to an annual Harris corporate reputation survey. He dropped to eighth place in 2024.
In 2022, Chouinard and his family gave away their profits from the $3 billion company, dividing the company’s shares into two new trusts created to address climate change. According to New York Times.
“Instead of harnessing natural resources to make shareholder returns, we are turning shareholder capitalism on its head by making the Earth our sole shareholder,” chairman Charles Conn wrote in one. wealth op-ed.
But in the wake of this week’s decision, some of the affected employees say the company’s attitude toward employees has changed.
“I think the company has changed a lot since it was sold to Mother Earth,” said one employee Business Insider. “Since Yvon left, it’s been a slow burn away from caring for employees.”
Under the restructuring, the Chouinard family still has strong control over the company.
“It’s factually incorrect to say that Yvon is gone,” Kenna said wealth. “He’d tell you he’s working harder than ever.”
“In the last three years, we’ve really worked to improve the way we communicate and care for our people,” she said. “And I’m sorry to hear that people think we’re doing less of that because we’re working so hard to do more.”