#officeculture

The last time I was in the same state as a teammate of mine was in March 2020. I go into office, no one talks to me and I talk to no one, then I badge out. Depressing.

Only really poor performers who wouldn't travel to office are being let go

The company is stronger without these people

We are office based and a high energy workforce that is growing rapidly

There has been large-scale cultural change in the workplace the last 15 years. It’s not limited to Fidelity. Assuming this is a Fidelity-specific problem and punishing Fidelity’s workers to try to get them to revert to an office culture that no longer exists is short-sighted and cruel. No wonder we are all miserable.

Everyone loving your new computer screen?

Makes me forget this place is a complete dumpster fire

What’s up with the elf igloo Christmas wallpaper pushed to our laptops?? It’s not even Thanksgiving yet.

Anyone else getting sick of being retired to come into the office, just to spend all day in Teams meetings, never taking to anyone face-to-face?

95% of my day is solo work, email/Teams messages, and Teams meetings, because there's always at least one person in some other location, so every meeting needs to be over Teams.

Why are we in the office if everyone is wearing headphones, only taking to each other online?

How is this improving productivity or culture?

Is it just me, or are others noticing how everybody is becoming genuinely mean for no good reason? I know nobody likes working here and the stress is sometimes unbearable, but why do some use that as an excuse to bully their coworkers? We're all in this together, for goodness sake.

I’m so sick of the call center environment and people sitting next to each other on competing calls seeing who can yell the loudest so their voice gets through.

How the fu-k am I supposed to focus with 4-5 people sitting 3 feet away from me all screaming on the phone having different conversations? This is not a serious professional working arrangement.

I took early retirement last year. During my time at Humana, I was always amazed by the number of lazy and preoccupied coworkers. Despite their constant smartphone scanning, long lunches and inevitable coffee runs, the work always got done.

This was especially true in the tower, where “the help” would always swoop in to tidy up the loose ends. All the world was their stage as they strolled across the check-bouncing salaries of those who kept them afloat.

Give them credit. They know how to play the game; some to the seven-figure level. It’s a different and lucrative brand of intelligence.

I just always wondered how they sleep.

Can anyone tell what kind of watch D is wearing in the earnings video? And what ring is he wearing on his right hand?

Where is that conference room? In the cube? Looks swanky.

Some folks obviously have flexibility. Do you?

I always thought it was funny how the injury free days in campus sign is prominently (not) displayed by the back gate. Not the front gate. Oh and it also never seems to be working.

My location, I'm yet to speak to anybody outside of my manager for longer than a few words. Still have plenty of online meetings, though. So the whole RTO experiment is pretty pointless. But we all already knew that.

Has anyone heard if anything would happen if you just don’t obliged with the RTO mandate?

I know way too many people on my floor who just stopped showing up or decided to have hybrid schedule themselves

Are they going to impact your bonuses/raises or something? Tell you to go back into the office? Is it manager discretion?

Some managers are scared of being punished so they make their team go in. While others don’t care as long as you get your work done

I enjoyed my vacation but now it's back to reality. Did I miss anything important?

How does Fidelity expect to thrive as a Fortune 500 company when women have no where to put their purses during the day and end up putting them on the floor next to their desk? Are there no perks at all for managers? No offices for managers…just sit with the rest of the associates, nothing special for you. Do managers even get to make decisions? Or do they just carry out the tasks that the Senior Managers tell them to? No wonder they have a problem with no one wanting to take managers roles. No perks.

Been hearing whispers of an increased focus on dress code. Then a subtle link to the appearance policy in an email this morning. Curious how much more this sadistic hr department can tighten the sc--ws.

My director just met with my group about attendance. Seems the 25% minimum in office per your requirement is going to 50%. Not exactly sure when. Also, they are on to people who badge in and immediately leave. I heard some offices require you to badge out. More good times here.

Anybody else not staying in office the full day? Or anybody having random people on the floor stalk you and report to your manager about not being in 8 hours/full shift? lol this place is all jokes

I am new to campus. I can’t find anywhere to sit! Every time I sit down in a desk people scowl at me and eventually walk over and say that is so and so’s desk or this neighborhood is for so and so’s group only. I went to my supervisor and they told me to just sit anywhere but wherever I sit I am told I do not belong there. Why doesn’t anyone admit this open seating experiment is a huge failure? My supervisor and manager sit in the same desk every day and clearly “lead by example”

Tired of coming to the office for zoom meetings! I reserve meeting rooms and people just dial in

https://youtube.com/shorts/6gNYCJma_dw?is=AShP0DnhSXSSJ3jP

I see more and more job postings with Houston as the primary or secondary location. What do we think is going to happen long term? Do we really need three offices?

Got someone’s dirty laptop with crumbs stuck to the keypad and dents all over it. Keep having to download everything over and over again which are “known system issues”

And we keep getting told the technology here is “world class” what a joke…

I am hearing they’ve changed the tracking for in office hours to time connected to the network. Does anyone know if this is true? So if I come into the office and badge in at 8am and spend the first half of the day on the phone with the help desk because I can’t log in those four hours don’t count? I had thought it was badge in/out time?

There are so many layers of management that nobody actually knows how to lead or connect with their teams. And that creates this environment where certain people start believing that being close to a manager gives them the right to talk down to others and treat them poorly. The culture here has become genuinely awful.

I want to be up to date with the gossip and also want to know who to avoid.

Knowing a few Shell retires, they talk about the times when the work environment was very collegial. Regular communication from the company about promotions, transfers, retirements, etc. - maybe holiday get-togethers or cookouts at the department manager’s home.
You knew about colleagues’ spouses, kids, achievements, vacays, etc.
Now, not everyone got along cheerfully and there were always some sharp elbows but the company they describe is hard to imagine when I hear of Shell today.
Are there any vestiges of what they relate? Hope so.

Grab a spot at JBS to witness the first ever lap around the lake in the buff. I am all set ....

If someone was already commuting to an office before COVID, why is going back such a big deal now? I get that it's tough for people hired during the pandemic, but if you did it before, what's actually different? My case is different as I joined relatively recently and I used to work at the place that never switched to working from home (aside for a brief period during COVID).

I could deal with the RTO, but having to fight for a place to sit every single time? Is it the same everywhere?

1. Why y'all drive like you need to po-p all the time?

2. No one greets anyone anymore. Y'all lose your social skills (lab buildings specifically)

3. Why is there such an entitlement mentality with specifically 3Mers

I've just heard of 2 people being let go in the St Johns Canada office. Ex Inmarsat people.

1 of them I think quietly quit a few years ago, so is probably no surprise to them.

Probably more happening.

Weds night, I laid in my bed thinking "not only do I have to go in tomorrow, I also have to go in the day after"

Traffic, office buzz, constant distractions, lack of personal space, zero ability to focus.

Just give us at least one day a week to work from a place where we can actually get work done.

So is the hybrid or remote working for part of the week just brushed under the carpet now, the question never even gets asked anymore at Townhalls
I assume it's just never going to change it will always just be 5 days in office.

What will we learn about today? That their idea of making people more comfortable is to add a Wellbeing center to a fully saturated, overpopulated, and loud office environment? Or pickleball for all? None of that will improve the quality of the experience for the customer, who can’t hear us on our calls due to the noise around us. The only part that makes me feel included is that it stinks for everyone.

The MN location I'm out - keeps getting areas reserved for group 'xyz'. And the tool to reserve cubes is never updated to reflect that. The notion that 'you can work in any office' that's close to you..... is a farce.

We’re 5x back in office since Sep 1. How’s it going? My manager just reminded me about attendance’ - he’s remote btw!

I hate going into the office but not landed a remote role yet despite interviewing. So, my act of defiance is coffee badging and maybe spending 1-2 hours about twice a week for ‘visibility’.

There’s zero in-person collaboration or meetings. So much for ‘culture’!