Executives back to the office
VW is cutting home office days for managers
November 3rd, 2023, 5:56 p.m
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After the corona pandemic, Volkswagen is introducing a generous home office policy for its managers. That’s enough of that. From now on, managers should work in the office four days a week again.
The VW leadership is bringing its managers back to the office. Instead of just one day a week, management employees should come to work four times a week again, as company circles say. The changes have been in effect since November 1st at the four production sites in Wolfsburg, Emden, Osnabrück and Zwickau as well as in the development department at the company headquarters. Several thousand employees are affected, including many from middle management.
“In order to optimally design hybrid work, it is important to create the right balance between mobile work and work in the office,” said a VW spokeswoman. “Accordingly, Volkswagen continues to offer its employees the opportunity to work remotely if the job allows it.” She did not provide any further information on the scope of the compulsory attendance or the changes that have now taken place.
Previously, VW had a generous home office rule for office employees who were not directly involved in production: only one day of attendance per week was planned, which could also be completed once a month as a four-day block. VW introduced the regulation in March 2022, when the general home office requirement during the pandemic ended. Many external employees took advantage of the regulation to primarily work from their main residence, which was often far away, and some left their second home in Wolfsburg. CEO Oliver Blume and brand boss Thomas Schäfer, who commutes by plane from his main residence in Ireland to Wolfsburg every week, have long been pushing for employees to be on site more often again.
According to company circles, the departure from the generous regulation was now justified by ensuring product launches and working on the planned efficiency program. This requires a greater on-site presence. The design of the efficiency program, with which VW wants to save ten billion euros, is currently being negotiated with the works council, and the results should be available by the end of the year.
The works council said that there would be no change to the current company agreement on mobile work. This already provides for up to four days of attendance per week. “But it was and continues to be true: no one is generally entitled to a certain number of days of mobile work,” said a spokesman for the committee. The exact design must always be adapted to operational needs. “That’s exactly how it was before, and that’s exactly how it is now.”