In January, The Drum reported on WPP’s newly announced mandate that outlined the holding company’s plans to have all staff back in the office four days per week from April 1. At the time, managers from across the holding company’s various agencies shared that it had ‘left them reeling’ as they struggled to manage concerns raised by their teams. Many had only found out about the policy hours before the announcement, leaving them on the back foot when their teams pressed for details.
In a memo titled Winning Together, chief executive officer Mark Read stated that WPP was a ‘people business’ and that the campuses offer “superb working environments” but that it will take “detailed planning” in the months leading up to April to “address capacity requirements”.
Read also stated that the move was “key to our future growth and success,” but employees have told The Drum, as recently as March 26, that they still felt completely in the dark as to what these plans were and what a return-to-office would look like in practice.
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Take its Atlanta Campus, for example. One senior staffer at VML explained that they have been told that if people sit “ten-to-a-couch or make use of the high-top tables and pantry spaces, there is seating for everyone.”
The Drum has obtained floor plans from VML Atlanta, which occupies levels four and five of the Campus. These suggest that to accommodate all staff in the building, some may have to sit in ‘pantry’ areas, as well as on couches, high-top tables, and in the café. Photos of one specific pantry area (shown below) showed a corner sofa with a small round desk. WPP said “outlets would be available to plug in laptops” in these areas.
Overall, the plans state that the office can hold 321 staff across both floors, although this would include these informal makeshift areas.
The senior staffer expressed concerns about how this will play out in reality next week and how productivity could be affected by the commotion of people not having proper desks.
As a result, the source said they were worried that they will have to “finish up tasks at home,” leaving them “mentally drained.” They shared: “I don’t feel like leadership trusts me to do my work. It feels like they just want to see people who look like they are working, and not the actual productivity that comes from trust in employees.”
At VML New York, located at 3 World Trade Center (3WTC), an employee said that their first communication about plans for the upcoming week came on March 26. They explained that when they attempted to raise questions, they were directed to an AI chatbot or advised to speak with their manager. “Agency town hall chats are muted, and they’ve been keeping the Q&A function off,” they continued. “There’s just no public forum for us to discuss. What are we supposed to do, anonymously communicate via Fishbowl?" They said Read's response to the petition articles in the press had added to frustrations.
According to floorplans of 3WTC obtained by The Drum, levels 32 and 33 indicate a legal capacity of 319 people per floor. The footnote for level 32 reads: “includes 11 pods, 20 benches with tables, 2 oval tables, and 9 wood high tops,” while the notes for level 33 state: “includes 21 benches with tables, 10 pods, and 8 wood high tops.”
An email from VML New York’s chief executive officer, Audrey Melofchik, to staff dated March 26 states that “soft seating such as couches etc. will remain open for anyone to use and aim to help ease some of our space constraints. On that note, we will monitor our numbers and if we are getting too crowded investigate the cost and availability of space on other floors.”
The Drum understands the RTO plans were only shared with VML Atlanta in the past two weeks, adding to the frustration. The source notes that some other offices have yet to receive any formal communication on how they will accommodate all staff members returning to in-person working, even if it is staggered.
In another US office, one associate-level employee told The Drum that their team had only had one video call about the space issue, which “they [the agency] refused to record,” supposedly to encourage people to “speak their minds”. Contrary to that, the source believes that the rule was put in place so management staff on the call didn’t get into “trouble” for anything they said. The Drum has learned that this is the case for many calls around the RTO conversations within the WPP network.
Additionally, there has been no guidance on what qualifies as a “commutable distance.” Some employees living over 80 miles from the office are expected to drive more than an hour each way, the source alleges. When asked by WPP, a spokesperson explained to The Drum that they do consider the practicalities of reasonable commuting distance and time.
Meanwhile, VML’s Detroit office – part of the Detroit campus – opened in 2020 to better serve Ford, but it has been temporarily closed due to concerns about unhealthy lead levels, staff told The Drum. Employees reportedly alerted management to the issue, prompting action. When asked about the claims, a WPP spokesperson confirmed the closure and stated that remediation efforts were underway, with plans to reopen soon. However, they did not specify a timeline or detail the steps taken to address the alleged lead contamination.
In the UK, WPP’s Sea Containers campus in London houses the likes of Ogilvy, Wavemaker and VMLY&R. One source at Wavemaker said that they were promised an update on the return-to-office, but as of March 27, no communication had been given. A manager from within the WPP network in the UK said: “Mood remains low, especially with the Publicis wins. And the office is not fit for a four-day RTO. There have been no additional desks added or meeting room amendments.”
They stressed that the offices are not ready for next week’s influx of employees. Within the building, lots of desks “still don’t have screens to connect your Mac to,” and even when they do have screens, there are “lots are missing cables,” and the Wi-Fi is “rubbish.”
Over the past few months, staff have had to book meeting rooms “weeks in advance,” according to the UK source who said the current tech set-up is also hampering communication. “People who have dialed into calls, including many clients, can’t hear what is happening in the room.”
As a manager, the source adds that in leadership meetings it’s been made clear that they are “expected to monitor line reports and project teams to make sure they are making it to the office when they should be and address it if not.” They claim that they have never been sent anything in writing about the RTO, and all information has been given over Teams calls.
When put to WPP, it was confirmed by a spokesperson that the RTO mandate is agency-led and managers are responsible for overseeing their team’s attendance.
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The Drum obtained a video of WPP’s ‘Town Hall’ meeting which took place on March 27 where Mark Read, and other members of the holding company’s leadership team addressed the return-to-office mandate. To the audience, which was a mixture of in-person and online attendees, he stated that they have made this move to a four-day office return because they want the company to be “successful” and that they are in the business of “people”.
He continued: “When I walk around this building and I go to the floors that are busier, they are the floors that are doing better.”
Read goes on to say that data shows that busier offices have a “higher client satisfaction score” and he believes it’s “absolutely” the right thing to do for WPP, following in the steps of Amazon and Dell, which the holding company counts as clients.
“We’re not going to go back to exactly the way things were before Covid. We will be flexible,” he assured staff, in part, stressing the value of transparency between employees and their managers. “I’m sure next week will be busy; I’m sure people will post photos of people with nowhere to sit, but we’ll work our way through that. It will be a nice problem to have, frankly. We’ll get over it, and everything will be better.”
Michael Houston, WPP’s president in the US, spoke about what this looks like in the US generally. “This is phase one of getting everyone together. We’re going to see the lines at the elevator, we’re going to talk about the Wi-Fi. We’re going to all cry together about the meeting rooms,” he stressed. And then in Phase two, we’ll fix it. If we need to take more space, we’ll take more space.”
Getting into the nitty gritty of 3WTC, he explained there were specific “nuances” when it came to that campus. “Some agencies will have neighbourhoods, some will have assigned seating, some will be a free-for-all,” he said. “We know right now that Group M and VML are going to be really really busy. It will be a challenge, and we will address it. Historically, we have had complaints about meeting rooms. We will find you a meeting room.”
According to Houston, they are working with the landlord to find additional rooms that WPP does not own, that they will have access to. “There are additional spaces in the neighbourhoods, if we need to go to that extreme. Rather than getting frustrated and hating your life and talking about how this is a failed project, just let us know.”
The Drum reached out to WPP on each of the claims made in this article by staffers and a spokesperson gave this statement: “We believe that more time spent together in person results in better work, better culture, better mentoring and ultimately better performance – for everyone’s benefit. As we said in January the expectation is that most of our people will spend an average of four days a week in our campuses from April,”
“Our agencies have been talking to their people for the last three months about the new approach. There’s a clear process for requesting greater flexibility, and in any locations where capacity becomes an issue we’ll deal with it pragmatically and ensure everyone has the workspaces they need.”