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Furniture maker Steelcase is being acquired by HNI Corporation in a $2.2 billion deal that shows the upside to office furniture at a time when return-to-office remains on the rise. HNI Corporation, which manufactures workplace furnishings and residential building products like fireplaces, announced the acquisition with Steelcase Monday. The companies cited their complementary geographic footprints, dealer networks, and skillsets as the deal’s benefits and said they estimate an annual revenue of about $5.8 billion should shareholders agree and the transaction close by the end of 2025. “This is a historic moment for Steelcase as we embark on the first step of a transformative combination that will unlock new possibilities for our customers, dealers, and employees alike,” Steelcase president and CEO Sara Armbruster wrote in a letter to employees obtained by Fast Company. “Together, we will be positioned to redefine what’s possible in the world of work, workers, and workplaces.” Armbruster said Steelcase would maintain its Grand Rapids, Michigan, headquarters and continue to operate as Steelcase with its brand and business strategy following the close of the deal, but that HNI chairman, president, and CEO Jeffrey Lorenger would lead the combined company. RTO growth Steelcase has rebounded from pandemic lockdowns with 12 consecutive quarters of year-over-year gross margin growth, including 7.11% year-over-year growth in the most recent quarter for a reported $779 million in quarterly revenue, according to PitchBook data. As firms instituted return-to-office (RTO) policies in the years since lockdowns, Steelcase’s office chairs, work stations, lockers, and phone booths have been in high demand. As recently as last year, RTO was still picking up steam, and fast. The percentage of employees who work “mostly in person” rose from 34% to 68% between 2023 to 2024, while the share of employees who work “mostly remote” has dropped from 44% to 17% in the same time period, according to McKinsey & Company. Steelcase, which did not respond to a request for comment, reported strong order growth from financial services companies and large technology companies on its most recent earnings call. Armbruster noted on the call healthcare was an area of growth and said Steelcase’s work in the education space was “well-positioned” but threatened by federal policy targeting education.
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E-Commerce
When Susana Pacheco accepted a housekeeping job at a casino on the Las Vegas Strip 16 years ago, she believed it was a step toward stability for her and her 2-year-old daughter.But the single mom found herself exhausted, falling behind on bills and without access to stable health insurance, caught in a cycle of low pay and little support. For years, she said, there was no safety net in sight until now.For 25 years, her employer, the Venetian, had resisted organizing efforts as one of the last holdouts on the Strip, locked in a prolonged standoff with the Culinary Workers Union. But a recent change in ownership opened the Venetian’s doors to union representation just as the Strip’s newest casino, the Fontainebleau, was also inking its first labor contract.The historic deals finalized late last year mark a major turning point: For the first time in the Culinary Union’s 90-year history, all major casinos on the Strip are unionized. Backed by 60,000 members, most of them in Las Vegas, it is the largest labor union in Nevada. Experts say the Culinary Union’s success is a notable exception in a national landscape where union membership overall is declining.“Together, we’ve shown that change can be a positive force, and I’m confident that this partnership will continue to benefit us all in the years to come,” Patrick Nichols, president and CEO of the Venetian, said shortly after workers approved the deal.Pacheco says their new contract has already reshaped her day-to-day life. The housekeeper no longer races against the clock to clean an unmanageable number of hotel suites, and she’s spending more quality time with her children because of the better pay and guaranteed days off.“Now with the union, we have a voice,” Pacheco said. Union strength is fading nationally These gains come at a time when union membership nationally is at an all-time low, and despite Republican-led efforts over the years to curb union power. About 10% of U.S. workers belonged to a union in 2024, down from 20% in 1983, the first year for which data is available, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.President Donald Trump in March signed an executive order seeking to end collective bargaining for certain federal employees that led to union leaders suing the administration. Nevada and more than two dozen other states now have so-called “right to work” laws that let workers opt out of union membership and dues. GOP lawmakers have also supported changes to the National Labor Relations Board and other regulatory bodies, seeking to reduce what they view as overly burdensome rules on businesses.Ruben Garcia, professor and director of the workplace program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas law school, said the Culinary Union’s resilience stems from its deep roots in Las Vegas, its ability to adapt to the growth and corporatization of the casino industry, and its long history of navigating complex power dynamics with casino owners and operators.He said the consolidation of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip mirrors the dominance of the Big Three automakers in Detroit. A few powerful companies MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts now control most of the dozens of casinos along Las Vegas Boulevard.“That consolidation can make things harder for workers in some ways, but it also gives unions one large target,” Garcia said.That dynamic worked in the union’s favor in 2023, when the threat of a major strike by 35,000 hospitality workers with expired contracts loomed over the Strip. But a last-minute deal with Caesars narrowly averted the walkout, and it triggered a domino effect across the Strip, with the union quickly finalizing similar deals for workers at MGM Resorts and Wynn properties.The latest contracts secured a historic 32% bump in pay over the life of the five-year contract. Union casino workers will earn an average $35 hourly, including benefits, by the end of it.The union’s influence also extends far beyond the casino floor. With its ability to mobilize thousands of its members for canvassing and voter outreach, the union’s endorsements are highly coveted, particularly among Democrats, and can signal who has the best shot at winning working-class votes. The union has and still faces resistance The union’s path hasn’t always been smooth though. Michael Green, a history professor at UNLV, noted the Culinary Union has long faced resistance.“Historically, there have always been people who are anti-union,” Green said.Earlier this year, two food service workers in Las Vegas filed federal complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the union of deducting dues despite their objections to union membership. It varies at each casino, but between 95 to 98% of workers opt in to union membership, according to the union.“I don’t think Culinary Union bosses deserve my support,” said one of the workers, Renee Guerrero, who works at T-Mobile Arena on the Strip. “Their actions since I attempted to exercise my right to stop dues payments only confirms my decision.”But longtime union members like Paul Anthony see things differently. Anthony, a food server at the Bellagio and a Culinary member for nearly 40 years, said his union benefits free family health insurance, reliable pay raises, job security and a pension helped him to build a lasting career in the hospitality industry.“A lot of times it is an industry that doesn’t have longevity,” he said. But on the Strip, it’s a job that people can do for “20 years, 30 years, 40 years.”Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer and lead negotiator, said the union calls this the “Las Vegas dream.”“It’s always been our goal to make sure that this town is a union town,” he said. Rio Yamat, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
At a recent JPMorgan Chase employee town hall meeting, one brave soul brought up a petition pushing back against the firms decision to force workers to return to the office five days a week. “Don’t waste time on it. I don’t care how many people sign that f-ing petition,” CEO Jamie Dimon responded. Dimons language might be particularly salty, but his sentiment is common among CEOs of tech and financial firms. Amazon, Disney, Google. One after another, theyve ordered employees to return to full-time, in-office work over the last few years. Which means a whole lot of workers are grumpily packing their laptop bags and digging their hard pants out from the bottom of the closet, right? You could be forgiven for thinking that return-to-office mandates mean tons of employees are returning to offices. But recent data suggests that a whole lot of people are responding to RTO mandates differently. Theyre ignoring them. Bosses crack down on remote work Employees defying bosses various schemes and requirements to get them back in the office is nothing new. A Stanford study back in 2022 found that half of workers asked to go back to the office full-time reported they were simply ignoring the request. Since the pandemic, Reddit and other forums have been full of outraged employees calling their bosses various profane and unpleasant things for suggesting they give up their remote setups. But these are different times. Many companies are pursuing increased efficiency, including through large-scale layoffs. Like Dimon, bosses seem all too happy to let go of any employee who might defy their RTO orders. Which might make you think that employees are finally, begrudgingly heeding the back-to-the-office call. Not so, according to Nick Bloom, the Stanford economist behind the 2022 study and a long-time leader in research into hybrid and remote work. Employees are still ignoring RTO orders In 2023, Bloom shared real estate and transit data suggesting that most businesses were settling at three days in the office and two at home. The return-to-office push seems to have died, he tweeted. The RTO wars were over. Hybrid won.” The rhetoric from bosses may have heated up since then, but according to Blooms latest data, the numbers havent really budged. While policy requirements for office attendance have jumped 10% since early 2024, actual attendance has barely moved, increasing less than 2% during the same time period, reports Time. The Dimons of the world may be noisy, but 67% of firms still maintain a hybrid policy (and that rises to 70% in companies with less than 500 employees). Even those who have a five-day-a-week attendance policy on paper seem to be hybrid set-ups in practice. According to Occuspace CEO Nic Halverson, whose workplace occupancy sensor technology is deployed across Fortune 500 companies, many firms mandating five days in office see almost the same rate of utilization as those with more flexible policies, the Time report adds. Learn to lead remotely Entrepreneurs can take these numbers a few different ways. A few Dimon-style diehards may vow to continue the fight to the bitter end. But others, I suspect, will see an opportunity to scoop up top talent frustrated with bigger companies constant RTO hectoring. While data suggests hybrid work is holding steady overall, job openings advertised as remote or hybrid are down. Indeed shows a decline to 7.8% of jobs from 10% in 2022, while LinkedIn saw a fall from 26% to 21%. If you put your openness to remote arrangements in a job ad, you are likely to be deluged with candidates seeking flexibility. The other potential takeaway here is that, reluctantly or not, bosses need to finally learn to manage remote work. One 2024 survey of business leaders found a shocking 75% said their firms were still terrible at remote work. Other polls find remote employees waste vast amounts of time reassuring and performing busyness for anxious managers. You can try to browbeat and threaten your team into coming in five days a week, but the latest data suggests you probably wont have anything close to perfect success. That makes adapting for our new world of remote work and shifting how you lead a logical choice. Bloom and other experts have tips for making this transition, including setting communication norms and core office hours for hybrid teams and avoiding mixed messages from leadership. Read more about them here. By Jessica Stillman This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
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