SAP Employees Protest Return-to-Office Policy
- CEO Klein said working from home hurts culture, teamwork
- Move follows similar orders from IBM, Amazon and others
SAP, Europe’s largest software company, outlined a new guidance in early January that will require employees globally to work in an office or on site with a customer three days a week from April.
Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg
An internal letter criticizing SAP SE’s back-to-office policy has attracted more than 5,000 signatures in less than two weeks, with the German software company’s employees threatening to look for other jobs rather than return.
“We feel betrayed by a company that until recently encouraged us to work from home, only to ask for a radical change in direction,” according to the letter, which was posted internally and seen by Bloomberg News. The company’s European works council, a group that represents SAP’s employees on the continent, said the requirement to be back in the office was unreasonable after employees had been told they could continue remotely.