PacifiCorp Workers Must Return Full-Time to the Portland Headquarters
Employees of the electric utility, PacifiCorp, can no longer work from home.
They have been instructed to work permanently from the company’s Northeast Portland headquarters from January 6.
Many PacifiCorp workers opted to work remotely since the pandemic, only visiting the office for company events and meetings.
CEO Says Additional Pay Rises Will be Given for Certain Employees
CEO Cindy Crane changed all that in an email telling staff to ‘work in person in our offices as we were before the pandemic.’
Crane says while PacifiCorp has accommodated hybrid working arrangements since 2020, ‘there is no substitute’ for learning, collaboration, and connectedness that can be achieved working together in person.
Crane also announced that the utility would be giving pay raises by the end of the year to an unspecified number of employees – the raises are separate from PacifiCorp’s annual increases, said Crane.
In a statement on Friday, PacifiCorp stated that it was ‘navigating the post-pandemic work environment’ for the benefit of its customers and communities.
The electric utility, owned by billionaire Warren Buffet’s investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, employed about 1,000 people at its Portland headquarters before COVID-19.
In November 2020, PacifiCorp was one of the first Portland companies to instruct its workers to return to the office. They said employees who refused would face a 10% cut in salary.
That mandate was reversed and then reintroduced a year later. The following year, in 2022, PacifiCorp again rescinded the pay cut and allowed employees to continue working remotely.
PacifiCorp Follows Example Set by Nike and Amazon
PacifiCorp is following the example of two large corporations that have clamped down on remote working.
Nike has instructed staff to work in the office four days a week, and the downtown office of Amazon has also announced that employees must return to a five-day-a-week office routine.
Some employees have expressed dissatisfaction with the instruction to return to the office. Some said they believed working remotely was an indefinite arrangement that prompted some employees to move away from Portland.
Employees enjoyed cutting a commute to work out of their daily schedule and enjoyed the flexibility that working remotely offers.
The Takeaway
The employment landscape has changed since the pandemic, with job vacancies dropping to pre-COVID days.
The fact that there are fewer jobs available could give government agencies and businesses the leverage to instruct employees to return to the office.