Private Jets and Pop-Up Workspaces: Boeing Eases Return to Office for Top Brass
livemint.comFor Boeing’s senior executives, returning to the office has been a smooth flight. Chief Executive David Calhoun, who took over the company just before the pandemic, started working from home and then never made the move when Boeing shifted its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Va., last year. Instead, Calhoun travels via private jet from two homes, one a sprawling waterfront house at New Hampshire’s Lake Sunapee, the other in a gated South Carolina resort community.
Boeing’s fleet of private jets have made more than 400 trips to or from airports near Calhoun’s homes in the past three years, according to flight records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Chief Financial Officer Brian West, who joined Boeing in August 2021, hasn’t relocated from his home in New Canaan, Conn. The company recently opened a small office about five minutes from his house.
When a reporter entered through a propped-open door for an unannounced visit on a midsummer Monday morning, Boeing’s second-highest-ranking executive was wearing a polo shirt, shorts and slip-on shoes. West showed a spartan office that he uses, but otherwise declined to comment. Boeing, like companies all over the U.S., is trying to navigate a complicated postpandemic workplace environment.
Although some positions require full-time attendance, the company is allowing hybrid work for many jobs. About 30% of recent Boeing job postings were for hybrid or remote positions. Managers eager to get employees back to the Arlington office over the past two years have turned to happy hours, guest speakers and even visiting alpacas, say people who have worked there.
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