Patagonia says customer service is experiencing a 300% increase in staff and is asking employees to relocate or leave.

Patagonia’s conscious approach to business has long extended to its employees. From the beginning, Yvon Chouinard, the mystic climber-turned-entrepreneur who founded the company, established flexible working hours that gave employees the freedom to chase waves when the waves were right, or pick up their children from school—all part of an alternative approach to business that Chouinard outlines 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 employees to either move to one of seven U.S. cities or part ways with the company, the decision made headlines.

said Curly Kenna, Patagonia’s head of communications luck Its customer service team, which has been working entirely remotely since the pandemic, was experiencing a 200 to 300% increase in staff for much of the past year.

“A lot of times, employees only work about two hours a day,” Kenna said. This is not good for your career. This is not good for business.”

Kenna said the company began testing the “hub” model last year. luck, This is largely due to the negative feedback she received about working fully remotely.

“a lot [employees] “They missed a lot of the important cultural aspects that come with Patagonia that come from being close to people. They were also worried about career transition and career growth and feeling a little isolated in that way.”

Under the new model, 90 of its 255 employees would be required to move within 60 miles of a new “hub” city — Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Reno, Dallas, Austin, Chicago or Pittsburgh. The workers were asked to make a decision by Friday, and if they choose to move, they must be moved by Sept. 30. The company said it would help pay for the transportation cost.

Some employees say the timeline they were given to make the decision was 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’re supposed to decide that in two or three days?” one employee said. Ventura County Star, Which first informed the decision.

Kenna said she understands why some employees are upset, but the shift to the hub model was something Patagonia was transparent about with its employees, and given the company’s overstaffing 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. luck“We knew this was going to affect a lot of people, so we took it seriously and thought about all the different ways we could take care of our people. So I think this is a fair call, but I think this is our true response.”

Kenna also said there was some flexibility regarding the Friday deadline.

In 2023, Patagonia was ranked the world’s most recognizable brand, rising from third place the previous year, according to the annual Harris Poll on Corporate Reputation. It dropped to eighth place in 2024.

In 2022, Chouinard and his family divested their $3 billion company dividend and split the company’s shares into two new funds designed to address climate change. Since the restructuring took effect, more than $70 million has been transferred from the company to environmental groups and other nonprofits, according to The New York Times.

“Instead of exploiting natural resources to generate shareholder returns, we are turning shareholder capitalism on its head by making the land our sole shareholder,” Chairman Charles Cone wrote in an article. luck Editorial.

But in the wake of this week’s decision, some 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. Interested in trade“Since Yvonne’s departure, the shift away from employee-centricity has been slow.”

Under the restructuring process, the Chouinard family still has strong control over the company.

“It is factually inaccurate to say that Yvonne has walked away,” Kenna said. luck“He’ll tell you he’s working harder now than ever.”

“Over the past three years, we have worked hard to enhance how we communicate and care for our people,” she said. “It saddens me to hear that people think we are doing less because we are working so hard to do more.”