When new employees join Patagonia, they're handed a copy of

Patagonia gets serious

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2024-11-27 21:30:02

When new employees join Patagonia, they're handed a copy of "Let My People Go Surfing." The company's founder, Yvon Chouinard, who wrote the book in 2005, said it was intended as a "philosophical manual for the employees of Patagonia."

In the book, Chouinard declares that treating employees well is a key corporate responsibility. "One thing I never wanted to change, even if we got serious: Work had to be enjoyable on a daily basis," Chouinard wrote. "We needed to blur that distinction between work and play and family."

Since its founding in 1973, Patagonia has positioned itself as a workplace nirvana — a community more so than a company, one that prioritizes the well-being of the Earth and of its employees above all else. But in the past few years, as sales have slowed, the outdoor-apparel brand has buckled down, cutting redundant jobs, tracking performance metrics, and banning long-standing practices such as letting sales representatives sell Patagonia samples to friends and family on the side.

It has also started to respond to customers' demand for delivery at Amazon speed. The rejiggering is a means of survival, a necessity, Patagonia says, to provide for its 3,000-plus employees. But the retailer is now dealing with the fallout from disappointed staffers who say the new rigidity feels antithetical to the company's ethos.