Ubisoft has reportedly fired an employee for criticizing its RTO policy, adding to growing discord over the unrelenting return-to-office work mandates. The opposition to Ubisoft’s RTO policy echoes a similar trend of resistance that has been witnessed across industries.
A tense atmosphere has befallen the gaming industry in recent weeks, and tensions remain high. Layoffs have resulted in the most prominent sign of strain, but studio shutdowns and project cancellations aside, return-to-office mandates have also further pushed employees towards frustrations. In the most recent incident at Ubisoft, the gaming giant reportedly fired an employee over their public criticism of the organization’s RTO policy.
The Ubisoft team lead reported that he was initially suspended after his post on social media, but within a few days, he returned to announce his firing. Ubisoft’s communications indicate that the firing was for a breach of the company’s Code of Conduct. After the negative attention that the company’s decisions have drawn, the general public appeared particularly unhappy with Ubisoft’s RTO policy-related firing.
Ubisoft fired an employee for publicly mocking its RTO strategy, laying the blame on a breach of the company’s code of conduct. (Image: Pexels)
Ubisoft Fires Employee Who Publicly Criticized Its RTO Policy as Workplace Tensions Mount
Earlier this year, Ubisoft announced a five-day RTO mandate across its operations, requiring workers to return to their desks full-time later this year. The announcement was made alongside reports of layoffs and cuts across its operations. The RTO policy also came shortly after the company shut down some of its key studios, including Halifax, an operation where workers had just voted to unionize a few weeks prior.
Understandably, the atmosphere at the organization has been far from ideal. Many employees shared their thoughts on the matter privately and publicly, with Ubisoft’s internal RTO dispute spilling out into the public eye.
The RTO Opposition at Ubisoft Took an Unfortunate Turn for One Employee
On the announcement of Ubisoft’s RTO mandate, David Michaud-Cromp, who was a team lead on one of the company’s Level Design teams, took to LinkedIn to express his dissatisfaction over the policy change. “So… Ubisoft wanna bring back 5 days in the office… because they ‘believe in collaboration’… but c’mon, we’re not completely stupid… we very well know why you want to go back to 5 days in the office…,” he stated in his post. “Spoiler alert: it’s not about efficiency or collaboration,” he added, sharing a link to a YouTube video on Why Companies FORCE People Back In The Office.
Soon thereafter, he provided an update on the issue, stating that the company had informed him of a three-day unpaid disciplinary suspension in relation to the comments he made “regarding the company’s return-to-office policy, and based on an alleged breach of the duty of loyalty.” The next update came as the employee then spoke to a news agency that discussed his suspension, followed by the final update: a permanent termination from Ubisoft.
The comments on the post were flooded by an outpouring of support for the employee, with commiserations from others who were let go. Many expressed their frustrations regarding the state of Ubisoft, the rise of RTO policies, and suggestions to seek a lawyer to explore whether the employee could seek compensation for this firing. While Ubisoft fired the employee not due to their resistance to RTO but the nature of their public comments regarding the business, the impact was just as evident.
Ubisoft’s RTO Mandate and the Resulting Backlash Are Not Unique to the Business
Ubisoft defended its decision to fire the employee, explaining to Wccftech, “Sharing feedback or opinions respectfully does not lead to a dismissal. We have a clear Code of Conduct that outlines our shared expectations for working together safely and respectfully, which employees review and sign each year. When that is breached, our established procedures apply, including an escalation of measures depending on the nature, severity, and repetition of the breach. We won’t comment further.”
Neither Michaud-Cromp nor Ubisoft dove into the details of the internal conversations related to the post, but the incident does raise many evident issues in the workplace. For one, employees do not want to return to the office full-time. Where businesses appear to have set face-to-face communication as the gold standard of operations, employees continue to believe that no such interaction is necessary if workplace operations are managed correctly. The RTO tug-of-war has been a major point of contention between employers and employees, with neither willing to budge on their preferred method of operations.
How Much Freedom Should Employees Be Allowed Online?
The internal dispute over the RTO policy at Ubisoft aside, there is also the matter of curbing what employees are allowed to say about a business online. Taking to social media to express frustrations and discuss experiences has always been discouraged by employers, but for workers, it is often the only way for them to be heard. Most employees hold their tongue over any negative opinions about their employer online, but anonymous forums are filled to the brim with workers connecting over employer woes.
Suppressing employee opinion on public platforms is often an aspect built into the employee contract. While Ubisoft claimed that employees are free to share their opinions respectfully, it can be hard to determine where the line of professional poise and discretion stands. This is especially true when employees have negative opinions to share that echo their experience and the sharp-edged tinge that comes with it.
Ubisoft may have introduced the RTO policy to “strengthen collaboration” among employees, but with its recent decisions, employees have grown more distant from the business instead. From the outside looking in, Ubisoft’s firing over public communications and expressions does appear to be a harsh measure to dissuade other employees from following suit, but such extreme measures only allow frustrations to continue to simmer rather than reach a resolution.
For now, the matter with the fired employee may have been conclusively resolved, but the company’s approach in the aftermath may determine how other employees respond and react to future company orders.
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