For greater than 50 years, Patagonia has constructed a popularity as probably the most revered manufacturers on the planet. Except for producing fleece vests which are equally ubiquitous in company workplaces and mountain lodges, the outdoor-apparel firm is understood for being outspoken about local weather change and for donating a portion of its gross sales to environmental teams.
Greater than that, Patagonia’s conscientious method to enterprise has lengthy prolonged to its workers. From the beginning, Yvon Chouinard, the mystic climber turned entrepreneur who based the corporate, set versatile work hours that gave employees the liberty to chase waves when the swells have been proper, or decide up their children from college—all a part of another method to enterprise that Chouinard outlined in his autobiography, Let My Individuals Go Browsing.
So it didn’t come as a shock that when Patagonia introduced earlier this week it was asking a 3rd of its customer support employees to both transfer to one in every of seven cities within the U.S. or half methods with the corporate, the choice generated headlines.
Corley Kenna, head of communications at Patagonia, informed Fortune that for a lot of the final 12 months its customer-service staff, which has been absolutely distant because the pandemic, has been wherever from 200 to 300% overstaffed for a lot of the final 12 months.
“Many occasions employees solely had about two hours of labor a day,” Kenna mentioned. “That’s not good in your profession. That’s not good for the enterprise.”
The corporate started piloting the “hub” mannequin final 12 months, Kenna informed Fortune, largely due to detrimental suggestions it had acquired about being absolutely distant.
“Many [employees] missed a whole lot of the necessary cultural features that include Patagonia and that come from being close to individuals. They have been additionally involved about profession passing and profession development and feeling somewhat remoted that approach.”
Underneath the brand new mannequin, 90 of its 255 staffers are being requested to maneuver inside 60 miles of a brand new “hub” metropolis—Atlanta, Salt Lake Metropolis, Reno, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, or Pittsburgh. Employees have been requested to decide by Friday, and in the event that they selected to maneuver, they needed to be relocated by Sept. 30. The corporate mentioned it will assist pay for the price of relocating.
Some employees say the timeline they got to make the choice felt rushed and unreasonable.
“It’s an enormous choice to make in case you’re going to uproot your life and go to a different metropolis, and also you’re speculated to resolve that in two or three days?” one worker informed the Ventura County Star, which first reported the choice.
Kenna mentioned she understood why some workers have been upset, however that the transition to the hub mannequin was one thing Patagonia had been clear about with its workers, and that given the corporate’s overstaffing downside, it may have occurred sooner.
“We needed to be actually intentional, and we needed to make sure that this was the precise mannequin,” she informed Fortune. “We knew it will have an effect on lots of people, and so we took it actually critically to suppose by way of all of the other ways we may take care of our individuals. So suppose it’s a good call-out, however I feel that’s our actual reply.”
Kenna additionally mentioned there was some flexibility to the Friday deadline.
In 2023, Patagonia was ranked as essentially the most respected model on the planet, climbing from third place the 12 months earlier than, in response to an annual Harris ballot on company popularity. It dropped to eighth in 2024.
In 2022, Chouinard and his household gave away their income from the $3 billion firm, splitting the corporate’s shares into two new trusts designed to deal with local weather change. Because the restructuring went into impact, greater than $70 million has been funneled from the enterprise to conservation teams and different nonprofit organizations, in response to the New York Instances.
“As an alternative of exploiting pure assets to make shareholder returns, we’re turning shareholder capitalism on its head by making the Earth our solely shareholder,” chairman Charles Conn wrote in a Fortune op-ed.
However within the wake of this week’s choice, a few of the affected workers say the corporate’s perspective towards workers has shifted.
“I feel that the corporate has modified lots because it bought to Mom Earth,” an worker informed Enterprise Insider. “Since Yvon stepped away, it’s been a sluggish burn of shifting away from caring about workers.”
Underneath the restructuring, the Chouinard household nonetheless has robust management over the corporate.
“It’s factually inaccurate to say Yvon has stepped away,” Kenna informed Fortune. “He would inform you he’s working more durable now than he ever has earlier than.”
“Previously three years, we’ve actually labored to ramp up how we talk and take care of our individuals,” she mentioned. “And I’m unhappy to listen to that individuals suppose that we’re doing much less of that as a result of we’re working actually onerous to really do extra.”