Boeing Encourages Office Return with Unique Initiatives

Boeing is employing unconventional tactics to entice employees back to the office, including happy hours and visits from alpacas, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

CEO David Calhoun, who has logged over 400 private jet trips between his residences, is seldom seen at the office. Similarly, CFO Brian West has not relocated to the corporate headquarters, but a satellite office has been established five minutes from his Connecticut home.

Since relocating its corporate base from Chicago to Virginia last May, Boeing has organized various events to promote a return to office, while Calhoun and West remain elusive, according to staff accounts shared with the Journal.

Calhoun assumed the role of Boeing CEO just before the pandemic, leading him, like many, to work from home. During the past three years, Boeing’s fleet of private jets has made approximately 400 journeys to and from airports near his residences in New Hampshire’s Lake Sunapee waterfront and a secured South Carolina resort community.

In response to Jim Cramer’s inquiry on CNBC in 2021, criticizing Calhoun’s apparent absence amid production issues with the 787 Dreamliner, employees began displaying “Lake Sunapee” signs in their offices, and some had souvenir mugs with slogans like “Love Lake Life,” reports the Journal.

A Boeing spokesperson shared a statement with Insider, stating, “We have been transforming our leadership culture to encourage our management team to engage more frequently with employees, customers and other stakeholders.”