600 Paramount Skydance employees quit instead of returning to the office, and it cost the company $185 million, filings

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Hundreds of Paramount Skydance employees decided they’d rather find a new workplace than go back to the office five days a week.

In September, following the long-stalled $8 billion merger of the two media juggernauts, CEO David Ellison told employees in a companywide email they would be required to return to working in-person five days a week or take a buyout, part of a series of efficiency changes to “unlock Paramount’s full potential,” according to the memo, as reported by Fox News.

“As I said during our town hall, some of the most formative moments of my life happened in rooms where I was a fly on the wall, listening and learning. I’ve never seen that happen on Zoom,” Ellison said in the letter.

About 600 employees in the company’s Los Angeles and New York offices at the vice-president level and below took the buyout, according to company disclosures filed on Monday—and the severance packages set Paramount back $185 million. The filings cited restructuring costs “associated with actions to align the business around our strategic priorities.” According to a shareholder letter released Monday ahead of the company’s earnings presentation, Paramount expects to incur $1.7 billion in restructuring expenses.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/600-paramount-skydance-employees-quit-170547513.html