New Boss Reverses Company’s WFH Policy, Employees Revolt

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Last year, employees at Farmers Insurance were told they could continue to work remotely. But this year, there is a new CEO in town, Raul Vargas. And he has a different plan. Vargas said he wants people back at the office three days a week. The workers went off on the company’s internal social-media platform. One employee said, “I was hired as a remote worker and was promised that was the company culture moving forward. This is seemingly a power move that is frankly disgusting.”

A Farmers Insurance spokesperson said in part, “The decision to embrace virtual work at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 was one that made sense at the time, and adopting a hybrid approach in September 2023 is what makes sense for our organization now.”

The new boss says he likes people in the office. Is this a power move or is this his right to shake up the culture?

This episode features:
WCCB TV’s Morgan Fogarty
WCCB TV’s Gary Brode
WCCB TV’s Kaitlin Wright