Clorox, the Bay Area manufacturing giant, announced a round of layoffs this week.
Linda Rendell, CEO of the company, which is headquartered in Oakland, wrote in a blog post. This is about 4% of the “unproductive labor force”.
“Fortunately, the total number of people affected is less than that as we have been able to redeploy some colleagues to other areas of the business and close some open positions,” Rendell wrote.
Clorox declined to comment on the layoff round at a request from SFGATE.
In November 2024, Clorox listed four floors—about 80,000 square feet—of its office space at 1221 Broadway for sublease. The company has been vocal about its embrace of hybrid work.
“Like many other companies in the Bay Area and throughout the United States, we are constantly exploring options for making more efficient use of our office space as we adopt and adapt new ways of working,” a Clorox spokesperson told SFGATE. in November 2024. “This potential sublease, which could take up to two years to complete, will have no impact on the employees currently working in the building.”
Clorox is best known for its bleaching, which is the product the company started with in the early 2000s. They have been headquartered in Oakland since 1913 and now also own well-known brands such as Burt’s Bees, Pine-Sol, Brita, Fresh Step and Hidden Valley Ranch.
The company has about 1,500 workers in the Gulf region, according to LinkedIn.