Hybrid and remote employees at the all-online Western Governors University are being told to get back to the office.
Opinion
By Chandler Peterson
The Utah-based Western Governors University (WGU) is an online university where students can earn an undergraduate or graduate degree in a number of pathways, like nursing, teaching, business administration or IT. Described as the "University of You," WGU touts online learning and flexibility as cornerstones to adult education.
However, according to several employees who have posted on social media and a leaked presentation describing the "Future of Work" at WGU, the university is reportedly asking employees within 50 miles of its Millcreek campus to return to in-office work by October 1. What's more, employees outside the 50-mile radius are being asked to relocate to Salt Lake City by August of next year.
When asked if this were true, multiple WGU employees confirmed that they attended impromptu meetings where their immediate supervisors informed them of the new mandate. Employees told me that those who do not return to the office will either be ineligible for career advancement or face termination.
As a former WGU employee, who worked in their IT department for 7 years, I am shocked at the recent news. I can attest to the hybrid environment workers enjoyed—per their supervisors' discretion—before COVID-19. This was a practice in place long before I joined WGU, when Robert Mendenhall was the CEO.
This hybrid approach allowed employees to work remotely in the state, and some were allowed to move out of the state to work abroad. But now those same employees are facing a hefty relocation expense if they want to keep their jobs.
I have reached out to different connections at WGU, and it is apparent this recent mandate has sent shockwaves among the workers. They shared their concerns with me that this mandate is instead a disguised layoff.
It would not be the first reported incident of what is being called "Quiet Cutting" in the corporate world. AT&T recently mandated that 9,000 of its employees return to the office and one telecommunications manager eerily described it as a layoff disguised in sheep's clothing.
A similar "invitation" was reportedly issued at Dell, where 50% of its workers opted to remain remote at the cost of future career advancement.
According to a leaked document given to Business Insider last year, Amazon reportedly announced to its workers that a failure to return to their offices will block employees from receiving promotions. Another report from Business Insider detailed accounts of enraged Apple employees, after threats of disciplinary action were issued for those who failed to return to the office—it was further reported that Apple went as far as tracking badge access records to monitor office attendance.
Return-to-office mandates have been a recurring tool from CEOs ever since 2013, when then-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer banned her 11,700 employees from working from home. HP's then-CEO Meg Whitman followed suit months later when she banned work from home for more than 300,000 employees, facing backlash from corporate celebrities like Richard Branson.
This trend spells out a future where the possibility of remote work is in danger for American workers. CEO behaviors across the country indicate that remote work will be exclusive to executives or their nearshore resources, the same resources that enable leadership to rehire talent at low salaries in developing countries. These decisions also affect the environment and roll back any progress made in reducing CO2 emissions on a local and national level. In all of the aforementioned cases, there are thousands of employees returning to the roads, increasing the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere—heating the planet.
And then there's the risk of increasing the spread of infection as workers are forced into shared spaces. According to the CDC, the trend in positive COVID tests, hospitalization rates and COVID fatalities are all on the rise once more. If there is an increase in COVID infections and hospitalizations, what will that translate to when thousands of employees are crammed together? Will Utah be headed for another pandemic?
Is there anything that can be done when CEOs want it their way? Fortunately, there is. Namely, workers ought to organize in a rank and file strategy.
The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in their 2023 report suggested that union workers earned 14% more than their nonunion counterparts. According to a 2019 Economic Policy Institute report, as the number of union members dropped in the last 30 years, the share of total income going to the top 10% of wealthy Americans went up. Let me put it this way—when there are less union members, the rich get richer and, well, you know the rest.
Utah has one of the lowest union membership rates in all of the country. This needs to change. Workers need better working conditions, fair pay and dignity in the workplace. They have nothing to lose and only stand to gain by organizing. A worker ought to ask themselves, 'what will happen if I don't? What's next?'
Say you want to organize in your workplace. What should you do? Take a page out of the book of WGU workers who are organizing right now. Contact the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) at workerorganizing.org and sign up for free organizer training. Talk to coworkers about the troves of benefits from joining or creating a union. Form an organizing committee and host regular meetings where workers come together to share their concerns and experiences in the workplace.
Organizing is a difficult task and requires work, but to quote Theodore Roosevelt: "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty ... I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well."
The path to organization is not the path of least resistance, but it is the path to a better workplace and a better world for all.
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