(Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of Walmart Inc. employees joined what they thought would be a routine Zoom call in May when talk veered to mandatory relocation to Arkansas. The policy is “a bunch of bullsh-t,” blurted out one participant.
Workers on the call were startled, but not surprised, according to people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the meeting. Thousands of employees from smaller offices and remote workers around the US have been ordered to the retailer’s corporate hubs, a move by the company to draw more people back to offices.
While some employees are happy to comply, others shared worries ranging from partners’ jobs to childcare options. Some who have been working remotely said they want to maintain that flexibility. There are also concerns about increased workloads as colleagues leave rather than relocate.
Walmart’s not the first big employer to ask workers to relocate. Unlike the office migrations of years past, such as Boeing’s 2001 move to Chicago from Seattle, recent shifts have come amid the pandemic-era adoption of remote white-collar work, along with more attention and investment paid to worker wellbeing.
Those trends have sparked resistance, and even some outright refusals, among corporate employees at firms such as Amazon.com Inc. and AT&T Inc., who have been told in varying degrees to move to one of several “hub” locations around the country or risk losing their jobs.
One Walmart employee, who asked not to be named discussing his employer, said he opted to leave the company instead of relocating and giving up his remote work arrangement. He expressed frustration by the mandate requiring he and his wife to reinvent their lives on relatively short notice.
Walmart is making the case that the sacrifice is worth it. Donna Morris, Walmart’s chief people officer, said that being together improves the company and strengthens its culture while helping to collaborate and innovate. The majority of employees being asked to relocate are doing so, she said, with most going to Bentonville. A smaller amount are headed to Walmart hubs located in Hoboken, New Jersey and California’s Bay area.
“We know many associates are in the process of moving and are already enjoying the benefits of being together with their teams in offices on a more regular basis,” she said in a statement.
Walmart hasn’t disclosed the total number of affected employees. Employees were required to notify the company by July 1 whether they would relocate, and have until Oct. 31 to make the physical move if they accepted, said people familiar with the matter. Some employees were offered cost-of-living adjustments depending on where they were asked to move.
The company is offering relocation packages and helping workers dealing with unexpected issues that may impact the move. A small percentage of Walmart employees in satellite hubs were offered exemptions and can stay where they are. The efforts are ongoing, and most of those opting not to relocate are leaving the company between August and January, according to the people.
Walmart is bringing more workers to its hometown ahead of a new 350-acre campus that’s scheduled to open next year. The site will have 12 office buildings, 10 miles of walking and biking trails, a rooftop bar, a hotel and a child-care center. A new fitness center will house pickleball courts and hot yoga classes.
Some Walmart employees are embracing the change, such as Jeff Bartlett, a senior product manager who recently moved to Bentonville from Dallas. Bartlett said he and his wife, who are both from Texas, decided to make the jump after a visit to the city and a desire to be closer to nature. He said that Bentonville’s housing costs were still lower than those in Dallas and there’s less traffic. Leaving their extended families was hard, but he had already been mulling a change for career reasons and Arkansas “feels like the right place to be,” he said.
Bliss Deylami, a senior director for global talent and learning, said she’s been able to interact with her staff more effectively since moving to Bentonville with her husband and two kids after working remotely at Walmart for over a decade. Her team is collaborating more and working faster, she said.
“People didn’t even realize how isolated they were,” she said.
Exchanging Notes
On a Zoom meeting in May with about 300 designers, the chat was flooded with questions about life in Arkansas, according to people who were on the call but weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the meeting. Some worried about safety concerns for LGBTQ people in the state, which has laws limiting healthcare for transgender minors and bans teachers from referring to students by preferred pronouns.
Screenshots of the chat show one employee asking whether people with kids could have more time to decide on the move, while another questioned the effectiveness of in-office mandates. After one participant asked whether there will be free snacks at headquarters, another fired back that the relocation is a serious matter and such questions weren’t helpful.
Northwest Arkansas, where Walmart has been based since its inception in 1962, is no longer the sparsely populated region that founder Sam Walton wrote about in his autobiography. Bentonville’s population rose 53% to about 54,000 between 2010 and 2020, according to the US Census. Big companies including J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc. also have headquarters nearby, creating an ecosystem around those workers, in addition to suppliers and other businesses that support them.
Mike Duley, who has been a realtor in the area for eight years, said average housing prices have roughly doubled to $400,000 in Bentonville since he started selling homes. He anticipates prices will increase more in the city and surrounding communities. “We’ve had more calls the last 30 days from people who are moving,” he said.
--With assistance from Matthew Boyle.
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