In October, in a message to staff that caused quite a stir, Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun announced restrictions on teleworking, including the impossibility of working remotely on two consecutive days and an obligation to be in the office on Mondays. “Since that message, I’ve been less popular,” he told Figaro TV. “But if people aren’t together, there’s no more innovation and young people don’t progress.” The communications group’s HR director in France qualifies the scope of the statement. “The two days a week of teleworking were pretty much the norm before the agreement,” Anne Decouzon explains to mind RH. “It was a global issue. In the United States, for example, we were confronted with the fact that employees were working far away from home. Publicis was not questioning the principle of teleworking but wanted to emphasise the importance of in-person work. The statement was reiterated but did not give rise to any internal discussion.” In the agreement signed on 8 December 2023, there is no mention of compulsory attendance on Mondays, nor of a ban on consecutive days of telework.
