#collaboration

This entire argument reads like it was written by someone who still thinks the internet is a fad. It’s not 1997 anymore. Knowledge workers don’t collaborate by walking over to a cubicle. They collaborate across states, countries, and time zones every single day.

It’s fascinating how some leaders still talk about remote work like we’re trying to connect through dial-up and fax machines. We’ve spent years proving that distributed teams can deliver complex work, and somehow we’re still pretending physical proximity is the secret ingredient.

Apparently we’re expected to believe that sitting 20 feet apart magically produces innovation, while sitting 200 miles apart somehow destroys it. Funny…the technology industry seems to have missed that memo.

By this logic, Microsoft Teams has apparently been a very expensive mistake. Someone should probably let Microsoft know their entire business model only works if everyone sits in the same building. 🙃

Large financial institutions should consolidate functional teams into regional hub locations rather than dispersing small groups of employees across multiple states. Fragmented team structures—particularly where only a few employees are located in a state without local leadership or broader team presence—tend to reduce operational efficiency, weaken collaboration, and increase administrative complexity. Consolidation into hubs improves leadership effectiveness, strengthens compliance consistency, reduces cost, and enhances employee engagement and development.

Business Case for Consolidating Teams Within Major Financial Institutions

Large financial institutions operate most effectively when functional teams are geographically concentrated rather than dispersed across numerous states. While remote work has proven successful in many circumstances, scattering small groups of employees across multiple states—particularly when only a few team members are located in a state without local leadership or colleagues—can create unnecessary operational challenges.

Concentrating teams in regional hubs offers several advantages:

Stronger leadership and accountability. Employees benefit from direct access to managers and team leaders who understand the team’s daily operations. Local leadership can provide coaching, address issues promptly, and foster stronger engagement.
Improved collaboration. Teams that are located together, whether in person or within the same regional office, build stronger working relationships, communicate more effectively, and resolve issues faster than teams that are fragmented across many locations.
More consistent training and knowledge sharing. Financial institutions operate in highly regulated environments where consistency is critical. Centralized teams make it easier to deliver standardized training, mentor new employees, and ensure policies are applied uniformly.
Greater operational efficiency. Supporting very small groups in multiple states can increase administrative complexity, including office support, equipment logistics, travel, and state-specific employment compliance. Consolidating teams can reduce these costs and simplify operations.
Stronger organizational culture. Employees who work alongside teammates and leaders often feel more connected to the organization, resulting in higher engagement, better morale, and improved retention.
Enhanced career development. Employees working in larger team locations have more opportunities to collaborate with experienced colleagues, participate in cross-training, and pursue leadership opportunities.
When business needs require remote employees, organizations should consider maintaining a meaningful presence in each location rather than having only a handful of employees isolated from their team and leadership. As a general guideline, assigning fewer than four employees to a state where no other team members or leaders are present may not provide sufficient operational or organizational benefits to justify the added complexity.

For these reasons, financial institutions should periodically evaluate whether highly fragmented team structures continue to support their strategic objectives. Whenever practical, consolidating teams into established regional hubs can improve efficiency, strengthen leadership, reduce costs, and create a more consistent experience for both employees and customers.

The Kuga is coming back—but this time with Geely technology. Here's what to expect from the new model that will replace the Kuga. In a move that surprised many, the crossover will be built on a Geely platform. What does this mean for buyers, what changes could it bring to the European auto industry, and why might it affect pricing? Here's what you need to know.

News that Ford has chosen a Geely platform for its future crossover has become a major talking point among car enthusiasts. The decision could reshape the competitive landscape and influence how accessible modern technology becomes for buyers. As Western automakers look for new paths forward, partnerships like this are becoming increasingly important.

Ford has officially begun work on the successor to the popular Kuga. The biggest surprise is the use of a platform developed by China's Geely. According to the head of Ford's European division, the new model will feature a completely American design and will not resemble any existing vehicle. The interior is expected to offer generous space and comfort, particularly for families and drivers who value convenience on long trips.

I learnt from my friend that there are certain teams(like his in CLM) who have been allocated a Claude Code subcription. Do you if this is only certain location/teams or is it being pilotted?

The countdown is on... Let's see how it's going to be when CFS and Burlington Cusa/CSA are under one crowded roof.. It would be so much easier for Burlington Cusa/CSA to be in office Mon/Tues and CFS keeps their Wed/Thursday this way there isn't such an overcrowding for everyone but since that clearly won't happen because you have to "collaborate", let's see how much of a cluster this will really be..Starting with the parking situation...

Since there is a post around location strategy, what about groups having to be together?

Any news or updates for co-location strategy?

https://newsroom.intel.com/artificial-intelligence/intel-google-cloud-announce-collaboration-to-accelerate-intel-ai-enabled-enterprise-transformation

Does that mean intel going to cut more people ?

Does Sammy Sun not believe that CFS needs to “collaborate” as much as CUSA?

What happened to “One Canon”, “Transform as One”, “Lead as One”, “Grow as One”, etc….Whatever regurgitated slogans they come up with the word one in it.

This company is filled with hypocrisy and incompetency. They should make CFS come in to Burlington on Thursdays & Fridays. Simple fix.

But oh no, boo hoo, they don’t want to make them come in on Fridays. Or maybe, Wednesdays are to be designated as the big pow wow day for CFS & CUSA to get together to sing “Kumbaya, My Lord” around the campfire and do the Limbo Rock?

Whether it’s Google, office consolidations, pricing…this company botches everything.

It’s been almost a month since we were required to return to the office in the name of "collaboration," and all I have seen is people including leaders finding different ways to minimize their time in the office.
Leaders have families to take care of too, so many leave after just a few hours because they need to pick up their kids from camp or school. It’s a reminder that everyone is balancing work with personal responsibilities.
Meanwhile, I haven’t seen any meaningful increase in collaboration. What I have seen is hours lost commuting, searching for parking, walking to and from the office, and dealing with all the extra logistics. It feels like a significant waste of time and energy that could have been spent doing actual work.

Buckle up
https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-bt-group-international-joint-venture

It used to be a place that valued intelligence and creative thinking—a place that took the time to nurture those ideas and bring them to life. Bottom-up really worked here, once.
And now? Collaboration in name only.

It’s full of political operators who shamelessly claim their subordinates’ achievements as their own, and mere clowns who latch onto those operators like remoras clinging to a shark. It’s a culture that swats down bold, unconventional ideas with the brute force of majority rule.

Talk of short-term results and targets has become deafening. There’s no respect left for building a real argument, no respect for intelligence. The only thing that thrives here is harassment carefully calibrated to stop just short of being called harassment.

I’ve concluded that this company has rotted from its people outward.

Goodbye.

I HAD TO REPOST, NOT MY POST:
6 days ago by Anonymous | 10 reactions (+10/-0) | Reply
Post ID: @pj+1kva8jdvr

So we were informed that we need to have 7 hours of steady typing, mouse clicks and phone per day. After removing allotted lunch/breaks, that is 100% of time chained to a desk? So we are forced to drive hours to sit in an open plan sweatshop just to continuously type and click? Wasn't the "purpose" of forcing everyone into an office for COLLABORATION? Why does WF hate their employees?

Lots of talk on this message board. There's an internal article from a few days ago that says cubicle seating will be reintroduced and general badge access for hub markets.

Can someone who knows actual details elaborate? Will people be able to visit other offices in their hub?

Is everyone dealing with Sapience watching over everything you’re doing? Leadership is a joke now. RTO mandate is also terrible since the whole thing was about collaboration but the moment I leave my desk it shows I’m not working on the sapeince reports. Everyone in the office looks like they are in prison, su-ks how much this place changed because of Gunjan

What is this collaboration with the clothing brand, Municipal? I'm failing to understand the strategy behind this.

Do they collaborate well or do they have pointy elbows?

Now that we’re all back in the office four days a week, we’ve started noticing something interesting: there are a whole lot of headphones out there.

And listen, I get it. Sometimes you need to focus. Sometimes Teams is lighting up like a Christmas tree, your inbox is acting like it has a personal grudge, and you just need to put your head down and get through it. We are not trying to outlaw concentration, peace, or the occasional musical escape from reality.

But if everybody has headphones on all day, we may have accidentally recreated remote work, except now we added fluorescent lights, badge access, and a commute.

The goal of being in the office together is to make it easier to collaborate. That means quick questions, hallway conversations, shared problem-solving, and those little “hold on, I know who can help with that” moments that save everyone from three meetings and a mystery spreadsheet.

So in the spirit of encouraging more cross-team collaboration, USB headphones issued for Teams calls will need to be returned at the front desk. Going forward, Teams calls taken in the office will be expected to use speakerphone whenever possible. This helps keep conversations open, accessible, and aligned with the collaborative environment we are trying to build.

We want to make sure we’re using our in-office time to actually connect with the folks around us, not just sit near each other while everyone broadcasts “do not disturb” from the ears up.

So let’s keep an ear open, say hello to the people around us, and make the office feel a little less like a silent library and a little more like a team.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4600557-ibm-google-team-up-to-provide-agentic-ai-solutions-to-enterprises

It certainly looks like IBM is exiting “enterprise cloud solutions”

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/foxconn-announces-strategic-collaboration-with-intel-next-gen-ai-infrastructure-2026-06-04/

I ended up getting formal performance feedback not long after suggesting during a meeting that product planning would probably run smoother if a few departments worked together earlier in the process. A mistake I won't be making twice, that's for sure.

I have been thinking a lot about ai and sw eng. work.... been doing it now for almost 3 decades... the productvity gains are real. code moves faster - test cases are easier, documenting takes less effort... and research that used to take hrs happens more quickly.

at the same time, engineering has never been just about producing code. at least for me and folks around me... a lot of the value comes from debugging, arch discussions, mistakes, tradeoffs. learning the system deeply enough to shape it yourself. if ai starts solving too much of that for us, we will lose some of the judgment and ownership that made work meaningful.

Anyhow I do not think the answer is to reject ai. It is way too useful for that... the question is how we use it without replacing the curiosity... craftsmanship... collaboration and mentoring that make good engineers, and good teams even better...

At the same time I do that my wishes will come true, the economics are against it. So, yea times have changed...

Everyone’s stressed, everyone’s worried about where they stand, and collaboration disappears the second pressure goes up. What happened to this place?

They spent 1000's of Dollars installing big screen TV's over all the departments in the Process Center to televise production information, but could never get it to work the way they wanted .... now the TV's are sitting idle and they have spent more money to hang dry erase boards in all departments and gone back to hand writing everything like we're back in the 80's!!

I love how my project team is in Houston India Manila and BA. How the F are we supposed to accomplish anything.

Layoffs can create significant safety risks for organizations. HR professionals are uniquely positioned to identify early warning signs in distressed employees. These signs often mirror predictors of su----e, linking workplace safety and employee wellness. Effective collaboration between HR and security is crucial to prevent escalation. Careful planning and empathy during termination meetings can mitigate potential dangers.

https://hrexecutive.com/when-layoffs-become-a-safety-risk-hr-is-the-first-line-of-defense/

New just in
Ty announced a giant reorg/struct after the recent LR's via Vidcast
Of course, Cisco is going all in on AI

Significant changes to Collab
How many years do you think we have until everyone is replaced with AI ?

Hey guys,

I had to post because the new elevator system that just rolled out with HMP is awesome. It creates even more chances to run into people from other teams and keeps that great collaborative energy going all day long.

Im all in on the open plan unassigned seating. The way it gets everyone mixing together, sparking real conversations and solving stuff on the fly has been a total game changer. Its made coming into the office genuinely fun and way more productive.
We should really accelerate the full HMP rollout and finally transition those last remaining private offices. Getting everyone out into the open would expand collaboration even more and help us become a true one team organization.

Leadership has been so smart and transparent about these workplace changes. You can see the vision is working and its helping us pull ahead of the competition.
This whole HMP direction just keeps delivering. Im more pumped about it every week.

Anyone else feeling the same? Would love to hear from the field and ops teams
especially. When you come into the office are you noticing how much easier it is to connect with people now?

Will Oxy pivot or concentrate on areas of strength or continue this bifurcated shyte show for ever…Oxy Greenway, Oxy Woodlands, Oxy International…when are all parties collaborating and when will Oxy have the courage to divest assets that no longer make sense

I've seen post on here dissecting and criticizing some of the collabs Nike has at the moment. Some of which has been relatively successful, like the Travis Scott collab. I haven't seen anyone pick apart the Drake line tho. That may have been one of the worst investments by Nike.

Nocta has really been a lackluster for the Nike and considering how big of an artist Drake is, he's never been someone people looked to for style, like never. Definitely wasted opportunity there.

I’ve been loving the open-plan HMP setup and how much it’s boosted real collaboration, but I feel like we’re leaving some upside on the table. A lot of the private offices were only supposed to be temporary, yet plenty of people (especially in Subsurface and the old CTC groups) are still camped out in them long-term. It’s starting to feel like the last holdouts keeping us from going full one-team.

If we accelerated the rollout and moved everyone into the open plan, it would be a game changer. No more closed doors creating little silos. Just full visibility, spontaneous conversations, and everyone including our geologists and reservoir engineers ... mixing it up with the rest of the business every day. That kind of constant collaboration would help us move faster, share knowledge better, and really crush the competition.
Management has already shown they’re willing to make bold calls on workspace. Speeding this up and finally transitioning Subsurface out of those temporary offices would send a strong message and unlock even more of the culture and performance gains we’ve been seeing.

Chevrons heading in the right direction. Let’s finish what we started and make the open environment the standard everywhere. Anyone else think it’s time to push harder on this? Especially curious how the field and ops folks see it when you’re in the office. Would getting Subsurface fully into the open plan help with handoffs and alignment, or am I off base?

At AT&T, I’ve learned that sustained success is rarely built on individual effort alone. It comes from being connected to the company’s priorities, engaged with the people driving the work, and committed to moving in the same direction as the broader organization. For many employees who have grown their careers here, relocating closer to Dallas has marked an important step toward greater impact and opportunity.

My own path has required real personal tradeoffs. I stepped away from what was familiar, adapted to new expectations, and chose career growth and responsibility over convenience. Those choices were not simple, but they opened doors to stronger relationships, greater visibility, and more meaningful collaboration.

Dallas is more than the company’s headquarters. It is a place where strategy, execution, and leadership come together. Being closer to key decision-makers and cross-functional partners creates faster communication, stronger alignment, and a deeper sense of shared responsibility for serving our customers and supporting one another.

That proximity also has clear business value. When teams are more connected, barriers are reduced, decisions move faster, and execution becomes stronger. Over time, that kind of discipline and coordination helps improve performance, strengthens the organization, and supports long-term shareholder value.

For that reason, moving to Dallas should be viewed as more than a personal career move. It reflects a willingness to invest in the company’s future, contribute more fully to the team, and help build a more focused, unified, and effective AT&T.

We already had a culture of “every employee for himself” thanks to stack-ranking (based on dubious criteria) and other shenanigans.

Adding the constant threat of layoffs isn’t going to make people more collaborative and more willing to share information. You have to laugh at the ineptitude of whoever came up with this strategy! It’s like shooting yourself in the foot because it was hurting.

Click2Expert on steroids!

My team is in a different office, and I’m the only one at another site. With full-time RTO, how are people approaching this when it doesn’t impact team collaboration?

Open forum. What functions do you find relevant for moving to shared services?

Which functions and teams coild be ki-led around the world and why?

Share the wealth.

Sitting in AT&T's open office today. No assigned desks. Five day mandate. "Collaboration" is the official reason.
The reality: complete silence. Cold shoulders. Headphones. Everyone either annoyed or running on fumes. The only conversations happening are between people who already knew each other before they got here.

Forced proximity is not culture. It never was.

McElfresh posted about collaboration last week and got 403 likes from 130,000 employees. The open office told the truth he won't.

And for the person who always replies "see you on the commute" congratulations. You've perfectly summarized what AT&T calls culture.

Two hours of traffic. A hot desk with no name on it. Headphones in. Eyes down. And a COO posting about collaboration from a corner office while the rest of us perform presence for a badge reader.

This is what market-based culture looks like from the inside.

Come on splunk, get on Webex already…

TPM
Cons Mktplc Comm
SCPT
IDSA
CIS
MARTECH
FPE OBS
Distribution OB Transit
Product Inno & Design
DAI

We need another meeting