Sawdah Bhaimiya
Updated Fri, February 2, 2024
Employees at the German software giant SAP are revolting against its return-to-office policies.
Thousands of staff signed an internal letter saying they felt "betrayed" by the "radical" pivot.
But SAP's CEO recently said he didn't believe virtual meetings could foster workplace culture.
The German software giant SAP recently announced a return-to-office mandate, which has been met with backlash by thousands of employees, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
More than 5,000 SAP employees have signed a letter posted internally — and viewed by Bloomberg — criticizing the company's RTO policies and have threatened to quit as a result.
"We feel betrayed by a company that until recently encouraged us to work from home, only to ask for a radical change in direction," the letter from SAP's European works council said.
The company ordered its more than 100,000 global staff in January to return to the office or work on-site three days a week from April. This is a pivot from its flexible working policies introduced in June 2021, which allowed staff to work from home, remotely, or in the office.
The council further outlined in the letter that "the absence of significant salary increases" over the years had forced staff to find ways to adapt.
"To compensate for this, we took advantage of the remote work possibility and moved where living costs were lower, away from expensive metropolises," it wrote.
SAP CEO Christian Klein said last week that he didn't think a good work culture could be fostered via virtual meetings.
"I'm not a big believer that on a video conference platform, you can understand our culture, you can get educated, and you can get enabled to do your job best," Klein said, per Bloomberg.
Business Insider contacted SAP for comment but didn't immediately hear back.
There's been a significant push to bring workers back to the office in the past year. A number of major firms have put in place strict return-to-office policies and are even tracking workers' attendance, including Google, Amazon, Citigroup, and JPMorgan.
Tech staff rebel over flexible working ‘betrayal’
Matthew Field
Thu, February 1, 2024
Germany’s biggest technology company has suffered a staff rebellion over plans to force employees back into the office three days a week.
As many as 5,000 employees at SAP, the accounting software giant, have signed a petition claiming they have been “betrayed” by management.
SAP promised a “100pc flexible and trust-based workplace as the norm” in June 2021 and said it would allow staff to “decide when they work aligned with business needs”. Chief executive Christian Klein said in a blog post at the time that employees could “work from home, at the office, or remotely”.
However, the company changed its policies last month, saying SAP’s more than 100,000 staff would be required to be in the office at least three days a week.
Mr Klein has pushed back against working from home in recent weeks, telling investors he was “not a big believer that in a video conference platform you can understand our culture”.
The change in policy has prompted a backlash from a significant minority of staff. The petition signed by employees said: “We feel betrayed by a company that until recently encouraged us to work from home, only to ask for a radical change in direction.”
Workers have threatened to look for jobs elsewhere rather than be forced back to their desks, Bloomberg reported.
The staff letter accused SAP of trying to drive away employees by ordering them back to the office in what it claimed was a “zero-cost staff reduction strategy”.
SAP said last month it would cut up to 8,000 jobs as it sought “AI-driven efficiencies”.
Technology companies have struggled to coax staff back to the office after working from home during the pandemics, prompting internal protests and resignations across the sector.
Demand for home working has also remained high in Germany, with around 25pc of the workforce embracing “Das Homeoffice”.
SAP is one Germany’s biggest employers and, with a market capitalisation of just under €200bn (£170bn), its most valuable listed business.
A spokesman for SAP said: “We’re evolving our flexible work policy to align with best practices in the market and our own experience as a front runner in hybrid work.”
A study by the European Central Bank last year found that a third of eurozone workers wanted to work from home more than their employers allowed and were willing to quit if they found a better deal.
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