Farmers Group CEO ends remote work policy, sparks employee revolt

Raul Vargas, CEO of Farmers Group, reversed the company's earlier policy on remote work

The new CEO of Farmers Group has reversed the company’s previous stance on remote work, sparking a revolt among employees. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the US-based insurance company had last year told staff that most of them would be working remotely. The announcement prompted many employees to make major lifestyle changes – some sold their cars, others moved cities.

However, the company’s new CEO, Raul Vargas, announced last month that most employees would be required to work from office three days a week. The announcement drew the ire of staff members and led to more than 2,000 critical comments on the company’s internal social media platform.

Some employees threatened to quit Farmers Group while others floated the idea of unionization.

“I was hired as a remote worker and was promised that was the company culture moving forward,” one employee told WSJ. “This is seemingly a power move that is frankly disgusting.”

A Farmers Group spokesperson told Fortune that, starting September, employees would have to show up in office three days a week for the new hybrid work model. “With this transition, employees within a 50-mile radius of a Farmers office will work from their respective office location at least three days per week while having the flexibility to work remotely two days per week,” the spokesperson said. “Based on business need and different types of positions, roughly 60 percent of Farmers employees will be hybrid, while other roles will be either virtual or in-office.”

The spokesperson said that “as business conditions—such as emerging from the pandemic—change, so must business approaches.”