Context
On March 19, 2026, a communication was made by management to the customer service department (which includes the support team, the technical reference team, and the exclusive team).
It states that a “test for the month of April” will take place. As such, “remote work days may no longer be scheduled on two consecutive days”. In addition, remote work days must be distributed so as to always maintain a minimum number of people on-site.
The justifications
The stated overall objective is to “find a better balance between remote work and office presence” as part of a “continuous improvement approach to our organization”.
→ For those who don’t speak corporate bullshit (feature request for Duolingo), this can be translated as “we’ll take the good side of the balance and leave you with the bad”. This is a regression.
In detail, this measure would:
-
“maintain strong team dynamics”
→ Nice one, making everyone angry really brings people together. -
“encourage quick exchanges and mutual support”
→ Faster than fiber optics? The benefit is very limited compared to the inconvenience. -
“avoid days with empty or under-occupied offices”
→ Then let’s avoid days with completely full offices, like Wednesdays when attendance is mandatory for the weekly team meeting. Imposing one in-office day will mechanically spread remote work over 4 days instead of 5. You have to decide what you actually want. -
“ensure continuous managerial presence to support teams on a daily basis”
→ We’ve got a solution for that: one manager working remotely on Monday/Thursday, another manager on Tuesday/Friday, and there you go, no need to bother the teams. Thanks for your dedication.
Remote work days at risk
But don’t worry, “remote work is of course still in place,” as if that were self-evident. After all, “we in customer service are lucky to benefit from these two days” compared to other departments, so stop complaining, you bunch of unionists!
Yet at the same time, the threat of moving from 2 days of remote work to just 1 is very real and explicitly mentioned.
These 2 days of remote work therefore no longer seem to be a given, but a privilege that management could take away at any moment, and they are making that clear.
A strange approach
While customer service struggles to retain new hires, here we are also putting obstacles in the way of those who stay and keep the ship afloat.
Perhaps if the upper end of the gross annual salary range in the support team (visible in the job posting) had increased by more than €1,000 over the past two years (barely enough to cover inflation), there would be more people in the office 🤔
Hands off my remote work days!
We strongly urge management to reconsider its position. We believe things are heading in the wrong direction. This “improvement” will only worsen working conditions and increase psychosocial risks. This will therefore lead to even higher turnover and an increase in sick leave.
On this topic, thanks to the collective agreement1 that applies to us, if a doctor ever decides to place you on sick leave (which we do not wish for you), and you have at least 1 year of seniority, there are no waiting days.
You should also know that you are entitled to a quota (over a rolling 12-month period) of sick leave days (consecutive or not) during which your salary is maintained by the employer:
- ETAM (Employees, Technicians, and Supervisors) (1 to 5 years of seniority): 100% for 30 days (then 80% for 60 days)
- ETAM (Employees, Technicians, and Supervisors) (at least 5 years of seniority): 100% for 60 days (then 80% for 30 days)
- Engineers and Executives (1 year of seniority): 100% for 90 days
(The employer’s share of meal vouchers as well as remote work allowances will not be covered, resulting in a loss of approximately €120 per month of leave.)
We also encourage anyone who witnesses an attempt to roll back rights to not remain passive, as this would send a signal of absolute power to management and lead to rights gradually deteriorating. Together, we are stronger.
Feel free to contact us to report a situation or if you have any questions.