Charter has partially backed away from its strict rules against working from home during the coronavirus pandemic and will let up to percent of call-center employees do remote work.
Charter Executive VP Cliff Hagan sent a memo to employees today, explaining that employees will have to meet certain conditions before being allowed to work at home:
Call center is “breeding ground for germs”
As we reported in previous articles, Charter has resisted requests to let employees work at home during the pandemic even as Comcast has been (shifting thousands of call-center employees) to remote work. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge told employees in a memo last week to keep coming to the office even if their jobs can be performed from home, because people “are more effective from the office.” Charter has 533, (0 employees and is the second-biggest cable company and Internet provider in the US.)
One Charter engineer resigned rather than being forced to keep working in the office, saying that his job can be performed just as easily at home. We talked to several other Charter employees who complained that they should be able to work at home instead of in call centers; one employee described a call center as “an absolute nightmare breeding ground for germs.”
Media attention and pressure from employees seems to have caused Charter executives to rethink their position. The memo today explained:
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