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| Employees at Ubisoft Paris plan to walk off the job if CEO Yves Guillemot enters the office. |
Tensions at Ubisoft have escalated dramatically, with French unions calling for a full-scale employee walkout should CEO Yves Guillemot set foot in the company’s Paris studio. The move comes as a reaction to a controversial voluntary redundancy plan and a sweeping return-to-office mandate, highlighting a deepening rift between management and staff.
Already grappling with a shaky reputation on employee satisfaction, Ubisoft appears to have hit a new low. The company’s recent internal restructuring, which revoked previously established remote work options in favor of a mandatory office return, was met with significant internal resistance. The situation turned more acute when an employee who publicly criticized the policy was allegedly suspended for three days without pay.
Now, a fresh crisis is brewing. Management has proposed a voluntary redundancy plan that trade unions warn could lead to up to 200 job cuts at the flagship Ubisoft Paris studio. This proposal has acted as a catalyst, galvanizing organized pushback from a workforce already feeling alienated by recent decisions.
The call for a walkout was detailed in an internal union letter, obtained and published by the French newspaper Le Figaro. In it, the unions state unequivocally that if Yves Guillemot visits the studio, employees will abandon their workstations and assemble in front of the building in protest. As reported in the leaked internal documents, the action is designed to send a stark message to the Ubisoft CEO: he is not welcome as long as current policies perceived as mistreating the workforce remain in place.
Yves Guillemot was reportedly scheduled to visit the Paris studio in the week following January 28, though it is now unclear if that visit will proceed in the face of such organized opposition. Ubisoft has not yet issued a public statement addressing the threatened industrial action.
The discord extends beyond the studio walls. On platforms like Reddit, many users and industry observers have framed the planned protest as a justified culmination of years of questionable management decisions at the publisher. This latest standoff at Ubisoft Paris underscores the severe challenges the company faces in repairing trust with its developers, even as it navigates a difficult period of restructuring for the broader business.