100% teleworking at Ubisoft is over! In Montpellier, as on the other sites of the video game giant, employees are organizing a three-day walkout, from October 15 to 17, 2024, to defend their right to choose their work pace.
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For five years at Ubisoft, as in many companies, 100% teleworking has been possible, subject to exemption. Many employees had become accustomed to this mode of operation which is now being called into question.
Management recently imposed a return to face-to-face work three days per week for all employees. Employees were informed by email, which caused misunderstandings.
Employees were informed by email overnight of this change in work rhythm, without providing relevant justifications.
Clément MontignySTJV union representative.
Choosing your work rhythm, a measure that allows many employees to reconcile work and personal life. Some had even made this way of working a lifestyle choice. “This brutal announcement, without dialogue, plunges employees into worry“, underlines the majority union, which receives numerous messages from worried employees.
We have the feeling that we are not trusted, even though it has not been proven that teleworking has had a negative impact on productivity.
Many employees have settled far from the site for financial or family reasons. They now fear losing precious time in traffic jams to get to work. One employee interviewed is even considering leaving the company: “We received an email about this change without any notice. We had organized our daily life around this way of working.
In Montpellier, around 400 employees work in “open spaces”, each bringing together around a hundred people. Working conditions there are considered noisy by some employees, and the means of comfort for working in peace are limited to noise-canceling headphones. “I prefer to work at home, in peace, rather than in an open space with incessant noise and permanent distractions, it’s counterproductive“, confides an employee.
You have to like working in this constant noise. Many of us regularly use painkillers for headaches when we are in person.
Some employees perceive this turnaround as a “disguised social plan”. This decision comes as Ubisoft faces difficulties. For two years, the video game industry has been going through a crisis. Ubisoft, one of the largest companies in the sector with 45 studios in France and abroad, implemented a cost reduction plan in January 2023, leading to the departure of around 300 employees in France. Currently, Ubisoft employs more than 4,000 employees in France. According to the unions, the company is pursuing a “natural attrition plan” to reduce its workforce.
It’s a way of downsizing without announcing it. Well-being at work and flexibility are limited, and this pushes people to leave the company.
Social dialogue within the company has also deteriorated according to the video games union. At the start of the year, employees went on strike after wage negotiations failed. Recently no agreement on employee profit-sharing has been found. Unions fear an increase in psychosocial risks.
There are fears of increasing psychosocial risks by forcing people to return to a noisy open space. This will trigger suffering at work.
Clément MontignySTJV union representative
The unions are calling for the opening of a social dialogue with management to establish teleworking on a case-by-case basis, according to everyone’s needs, rather than a uniform rule. Management, however, affirms that discussions are underway with staff representatives.
For its part, Ubisoft management defends this decision: We will not return 100% face-to-face at Ubisoft!” She explains having thought about the needs of different professions, believing that the physical presence of teams in the office at least three days a week is necessary to optimize creativity.
The objective is to improve collaboration, cohesion and innovation within our teams, while preserving their flexibility, well-being and work-life balance. We are convinced that this balance will optimize both collective performance and individual satisfaction.
Ubisoft promises to give employees who need it the opportunity to adapt to this change, and specifies that local team leaders will determine when exceptions are justified.
In France, in 2023, 47% of companies will use teleworking, on average two days per week. Remote working is a divisive topic today. More and more French companies are reducing the number of teleworking days authorized per week. The American e-commerce giant, Amazon, has announced the full return of its 300,000 employees to the office from January 2025.
