‘If you don’t like it, please seek alternative employment’ — Sir Jim Ratcliffe Changes Work Routine For Utd Employees
Earlier this year, the second-richest man in the United Kingdom, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, was confirmed as the team’s co-owner earlier this year, and he’s coming in guns blazing.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a billionaire co-owner of Manchester United, has told staff he’s banning working from home after key metrics were missed at one of his companies.
Ratcliffe told Manchester United employees that traffic dropped 20% after one of his companies trialed work-from-home Fridays.
Staff are also under fire after Ratcliffe called out the untidiness of the club’s premises last week. The billionaire told staff the state of the club’s IT department was a “disgrace,” and other areas of the training ground weren’t much better, according to The Athletic.
But the strict policy change has some challenges. The Athletic reported that the company premises in Manchester and London didn’t actually have enough space to accommodate all staff coming into the office full time.
In an all-hands video call last week, Ratcliffe told staff they’d need to start coming into the office or “seek alternative employment,” according to The Guardian.
Ratcliffe, the 103rd richest person on earth, bought a 27.7% stake in the soccer club in February, and his company Ineos took over the management of football operations.
The billionaire is coming in strong by shaking off the company’s post-COVID flexible work policy to boost productivity.The policy shift was largely spurred by a dip in email traffic, The Guardian reported.
