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The call center was expected to have 300 employees; now the 40 or so workers will be going virtual and the call center closed.

Wayfair Closing Pittsfield Call Center; Employees Will Go Virtual

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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Wayfair founder Niraj Shah takes a selfie with state Sen. Smitty Pignatelli, left, and Congressman Richie Neal at the call center's opening in 2019. 
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Wayfair opened a $5 million call center in the Clock Tower Building three years ago with plans to bring 300 jobs to the city. 
 
It was a pledge by Chairman and CEO Niraj Shah, a Pittsfield High graduate, to ensure his hometown benefited from his burgeoning home goods business. 
 
Now the company is planning to close that center by July and shift its 40-person staff to virtual work. 
 
Wayfair announced last Friday plans to layoff upwards of 1,750 employees, following 900 let go in August. The restructuring is expected to save the company more than $1.4 billion, some $750 million from reducing its global labor force by more than 10 percent of its 17,000 employees reported in August. 
 
"Although difficult, these are important decisions to get back to our 20-year roots as a focused, lean company premised on high ambitions and great execution," said Shah in statement about the reductions. "The changes announced today strengthen our future without reducing our total addressable market, our strategic objectives, or our ability to deliver them over time. 
 
"In hindsight, similar to our technology peers, we scaled our spend too quickly over the last few years. The good news for Wayfair is that we have operated in a highly productive and efficient way for the vast majority of our 20-year history, and we are now simply returning to that."
 
The company reported a 9 percent decrease year over year in total revenues for the third quarter and a net loss of s $283 million.
 
Susan Frechette, Wayfair's director of communications, confirmed that the company would be not be renewing its lease for the two-story Clock Tower space. 
 
"Like many companies, we have seen an increase in employees effectively transitioning to remote work, driven in part by the COVID-19 global pandemic and cost savings efforts," she wrote. "Moving our customer service team to a virtual working model continues to allow us to best serve our customers while supporting cost saving efforts for the business."
 
Frechette said the company remains committed to Pittsfield and will continue to provide support to its employees in the region. 
 
The opening of the call center was considered a major coup for the city and numerous public officials — including then Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, and U.S. Rep. Richie Neal — attended the ribbon cutting
 
In 2018, Wayfair was awarded $31 million in Economic Development Incentive Program tax credits to open the Pittsfield call center, expand its footprint in Boston, and hire 3,300 new workers. This was also contingent on the company investing $33.9 million. 
 

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North Adams Regional Reopens With Ribbon-Cutting Celebration

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz welcomes the gathering to the celebration of the hospital's reopening 10 years to the day it closed. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The joyful celebration on Thursday at North Adams Regional Hospital was a far cry from the scene 10 years ago when protests and tears marked the facility's closing
 
Hospital officials, local leaders, medical staff, residents and elected officials gathered under a tent on the campus to mark the efforts over the past decade to restore NARH and cut the ribbon officially reopening the 136-year-old medical center. 
 
"This hospital under previous ownership closed its doors. It was a day that was full of tears, anger and fear in the Northern Berkshire community about where and how residents would be able to receive what should be a fundamental right for everyone — access to health care," said Darlene Rodowicz, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years. It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated county wide system of care." 
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and closed on March 28, 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC was able to reopen the ER as an emergency satellite facility and slowly restored and enhanced medical services including outpatient surgery, imaging, dialysis, pharmacy and physician services. 
 
But it would take a slight tweak in the U.S. Health and Human Services' regulations — thank to U.S. Rep. Richie Neal — to bring back inpatient beds and resurrect North Adams Regional Hospital 
 
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