Coop CEO lectured employees because they prefer to work from home

The head of the cooperative gives a lecture to employees, because they signed a home office petition

A group of younger employees wanted to help reduce the number of cases in Switzerland using the head office. The CEO obviously didn’t like that, letting her and her superiors jog around headquarters.

When the number of cases began to rise again in September after a relatively relaxed summer, the call for a recommendation from the federal government’s central office became louder again.

At retail giant Coop with 90,000 employees, the home office is banned. This is why an internal petition was circulating in which office workers demanded that they be allowed to do their work from home. This was justified by his health and that of his relatives. It is no different than spring during the first wave.

According to “NZZ am Sonntag”, the petition was signed by 70 employees. With consequences: the head of the group Joos Sutter summoned the corresponding people on two mornings in an auditorium at the headquarters in Basel, writes the NZZaS:

As the saying goes, it quickly heated up: Employees counterattacked the CEO, who then gave a lecture “and makes it clear who’s in charge. The home office is still banned.” In the article, the NZZaS refers to several people who independently confirmed the process. Coop only reacted when the Federal Council made a recommendation from the central office again in October due to the skyrocketing number of cases. Meanwhile, most headquarters employees should go back to working from home.

What does Coop say?

When asked, the retailer’s media office responded: “A clear distinction must be made between working from home during the pandemic and working from home in general.” The recommendations of the federal government are followed. According to the NZZaS, between the lines you can see that some solidarity is expected: “About 90% of our employees work in sales, logistics and production. The home office is generally not possible there »

And why were the employees summoned to headquarters? Response: “In a good corporate culture, management personally responds to open-ended questions from employees.” So you can discuss them together.

Apparently those present saw it differently, it was not a conversation at eye level. The meeting was characterized by mistrust, employees were subliminally accused of wanting to make themselves comfortable at home and only use Corona to push more flexible work models.

However, something seems to be happening: protection concepts at headquarters have been improved and, according to the media office, the home office will be “assessed with the necessary distance” after Corona. (Yes W)

How do you experience the home office theme at work? Write it in the comments.