Grindr's two-week return-to-office ultimatum cost it 82 of 178 employees

In August 2023 Grindr gave its all-remote staff two weeks to pledge to work from an office two days a week from October, or lose their jobs on 31 August. The policy would have forced many to relocate to Los Angeles, Chicago or San Francisco. According to the Grindr union, which had gone public two weeks before the ultimatum, 82 of 178 employees (46%) were let go after rejecting the mandate. Grindr offered a relocation stipend to those who stayed and six months of severance to those who did not commit.

WIRED reports the policy blindsided many staff because, according to two staffers at the June off-site, CEO George Arison had said no changes were planned for six months, and an interim HR head posted on Slack that nothing was changing yet for current staff. The union estimated that 70% of the engineering team, 80% of product and 85% of product design were cut; Grindr disputed the figures but does not release its own. Nine of the 11 union organizing committee members were forced out, according to one employee.

The Communications Workers of America filed an unfair labor practice charge in August alleging the mandate punished unionization, and two more charges on 6 September over disabled Zoom chat and a severance agreement's confidentiality terms. Grindr said the return-to-office plan was unrelated to unionization and that it had begun shifting to hybrid in April when it concentrated engineering hiring in Chicago.

82 of 178 employees (46%) let go per the union; three NLRB unfair labor practice charges; union estimates 70% of engineering cut (Grindr disputes)

The ultimatum gave staff two weeks to decide whether to commit to office work, with relocation required for many of them.

Employees say prior assurances from the CEO in June and from HR on Slack that remote work would not change were reversed with little warning.

The mandate arrived two weeks after staff went public with their union, which the CWA alleges was retaliatory; Grindr denies this.

Roughly eight openly trans employees who would have had to relocate chose not to, an employee told WIRED, citing the political climate for LGBTQ+ people.

Reversing a remote-first promise with two weeks' notice, right after a union drive, invites both attrition and a legal fight. The people you lose are the ones who can easily work elsewhere.

WIRED reported that remaining staff worried about the app's functionality as engineering lost its institutional knowledge, with a second phase of the rollout due the following year for privacy and customer experience teams. The NLRB could revoke parts of the severance agreement or order Grindr not to prohibit such speech; the article reports no ruling. The union hoped to reverse the return-to-office policy. The figures for layoffs come from the union and company disputes the departmental estimates.