#rto

I've got a week of WFH coming up (taking 3 half-day PTOs). To try to manage my burnout levels, I am thinking of getting a short-term rental somewhere nice and working from it for the week, rather than from my normal home office. I'm not sure if this is going to trigger any kind of monitoring that might cause a problem for me. Is there any known monitoring around what location you are connecting from?

Prior to the pandemic, when I had a full time telecommute agreement, I did this once or twice a year. My wife and I would rent a beach house or a place up in the mountains and hole up for the week. Still working but changing the scenery for awhile. It did wonders for my mental health. Never cleared it with a manager, just did it and never heard squat about it being a problem. But I haven't done anything like this since 2022, and given the way leadership has been flailing around about RTO and putting various heavy-handed monitoring in place, I'm not sure if it will still fly these days.

Any advice appreciated.

There is a 0% chance the executive team provides a statement regarding the ongoing and increasing dangerous crime around the PNC buildings. 15yr old sh00ts 17yr old early Sunday morning [https://www.wtae.com/article/17-year-old-shot-in-ki-led-in-downtown/71580605]
But we shouldn’t be surprised considering how silent they’ve been since January. I’m aware this crime is a problem for the mayor and police and not a PNC problem.

If you get surplused please post the following info:

Landline or Wireless
Your VP Org
Management or Union
Years of service vs weeks of severance
Did you reject the RTO new location mandate

I'm curious to see if all those claiming union layoffs are correct.

Thank you

It’s because our so-called leadership are all id1ots and completely out of touch with what the average employee does here. For example, they tout the importance and success of meeting-free fridays. Don’t know about you all, but I’m still having meetings on fridays.

And, their justification for meeting-free Fridays is to wallow employees the ability to “connect with colleagues.” First off, the average employee is too busy to just set aside time to “connect” for the sake of connecting. Second, our colleagues are all spread out at different sites so it’s hard to “connect” on a teams call. Third, none of us have our own desks anymore, we have community seating, so even if we work at the same site, none of us even sit in the same area to “connect.” Forth, good luck finding an open area to “connect” in.

Since leadership wanted to try and cover-up their bad real estate deals and are packing us all in to the brim, there are never any conference rooms or lounges available. The other day, I saw two employees working in a focus room meant for one employee. Yeah, it’s getting that bad! Don’t let “leadership” fool you. They are just a bunch of inept employees who either have a piece of paper stating otherwise, got lucky or knew someone already in that “leadership” circle.

I am being let go today at 10am well I think at 10am there is a random meeting with myself and the wonderful people team and my manager set for then. I haven’t been here long , was out of the Boston office told to go to Everett for time being. Only been with company for 4 years, so I’m not too upset. The way they went about it was just unprofessional in my honest take. My grandmother died last year and I will admit I didn’t put In for bereavement right away due to I was very close to her and had to travel to California for services. They got me with failure to meet RTO because I was in fact red for that time period so I guess it’s my own fault. Just to me seems dastardly to get me for that when I’ve gotten all meets or above since I have been here. I told my manager I know it’s not his fault and he apologized but I guess that is how they are doing things now. Just be careful with your days in office or any tiny hang up they can get you on. Wish everyone good luck in finding new jobs away from here.

K.L

At least not that I know of. If the whole ploy of being forced back into the offices to thin out the workforce (we all know that's the real reason) doesn't work out, are we looking at another major round sometime soon? How long are they going to wait to see if their plan is working?

If the answer is yes, did you receive any blowback so far?

Besides basking ridge and hidden ridge, how many people still have offices to report to for GNT? So sub markets still have hub offices? I think it’s ridiculous those that live near office have to go in 3 days week and some people are fully remote (same teams//same roles)

I mean if you were in office before Rona... why is it such a big deal to go back to that?... I understand there were alot of remote workers who started during the covid period and its not feasible but if you did it pre covid then what changed?

I chose freedom over compliance, flexibility over obligation, and peace of mind over RTO. Feeling retired, paycheck intact.

What is the purpose of RTO - just to burn gas, tires, increase car insurance, increase carbon emissions, stuck in traffic - and again on Teams call...

The slavery mind set of the CXO suite is mind blowing

Gas at $5.50/Gallon + Doubled Car Insurance Rate + Kids, Family and the 2+ hours traffic, but a bare minimum salary..this is majority of us 60,000 employees vs. Gunjan and CXO suite making Millions a year,Luxury travel to and fro paid and expesned to the company. They are the to set the RTO policy but do not have to worry or comply it, its the 90% of us who have to bear the brunt.

OUR (60,000 employees) Necessity is the mother of this invention (leave powered locked laptops at work in secret places), given no other company demands or measures Talent and Performance by the Timestamps and not actual delivery or management of aspects. STUPID and DuB GOONjan and CXO suite

Did they change how it’s tracked? Before I recall them just caring about the 8 week average, do they care about weekly average now?

If I go all 5 days this week, and next week I go in once, wouldn’t my weekly average be 3? Or do I need to go in 3 times a week to avoid any complaints or issues?

If I take one day of vacation, does that count as an office day?

Hello
How is the RTO policy now ? Asking for a friend. I heard like a month back the the new CEO don't care much about coming to office and many ppl stopped coming to office as less as once a month?

They’re pushing more and more towards 3 days in office

Supposedly, they are logging in office time via your computer connected to the network. VPN or not, your sourece IP address while in office will always be a 10.x.x.x. VPN IP will be different.

They are looking for at minimum 1 hour in office - which I assume is to prevent "coffee badging."

I don't know this 100% for sure but this is what Ive heard lately so, for those of you RTO id spend at least an hour in office...

It was to go RTO full time.
You cannot go half a decade and blow it up like that.
It’s a cauldron of bad mojo and stupidity sprinkled with greed.
Bad corporate decision made my dei and fools.

Whats stopping us from collectively and politely saying no, collectively staying home, and forcing their hand? They are doing it in bits because they are scared of p*ssing off everyone all at once.

A friend in GD was fired today for not going into the office. No severance package, realy firing. Has this happened in any other group? Was this just GD or did it occur in other BUs/CFs?

Stink is a genius, RTO is working!!!

In all this mess, good thing is that no one is controlling if you work from office 3 times a week for a long time. So stay home, learn new skills, and send those applications

How do I tell on someone in the business who is taking advantage of RTO and ruining it for everyone else?

This person in particular is taking the kids to the pool everyday during work hours and still counts it as working.

The question isn’t why they’re leaving. The question is… what do they know that you don’t?

Morale is collapsing. Talent is walking out the door. People spend more time worrying about where their job might be moved next than how to grow the business. RTO and FTW are a major distraction and ruining what’s left of the company.

Meanwhile, leadership remains fixated on RTO, badge swipes, and presence reports as the company continues to lose ground.

RTO hasn’t created growth. It hasn’t created innovation. It hasn’t improved execution. It’s become a distraction from the real problems and significantly reduced hours. I can’t get in contact with anyone in the afternoon anymore.

At a time when the company needs stability, focus, and a reason for people to stay, leadership is kicking the company while it’s already down.

You can’t attract new young talent when you have prison policy. Nobody worthwhile is willingly signing up for this.

Need a bit of math help here - What's larger: -23% or +76%?

For example, if one company grew in value about 76% and the other grew negative 23% in value, who grew more? To make it a bit easier, you chose some fixed time fame and let's keep it in the industry, so let's make tmobile be 76 and att be -23...

Finally, once I understand what's larger, I'd like to see which factors cause numbers to differ. For example, if tmobile has a hybrid WFH system, and att is having all employees come be in the office all the time, would someone analyzing the numbers difference, be able to establish some kind of correlation here.

thank you!

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.

Gas prices keep climbing, yet we’re still pretending there’s a business case for forcing people to drive to an office five days a week to do work that happens on a laptop.

Every increase at the pump is another pay cut for employees.

More money spent commuting, time wasted in traffic for the same work and same Teams calls that can happen anywhere in the world.

The cost of RTO keeps going up. The benefits remain impossible to find.

Hearing rumors going on about this.. can anyone here 'in the know' confirm?

I believe she will falter and rethink the FT RTO. It’s a bad decision it’s creating animus and very bad publicity which isn’t good for the bottom line.
People don’t like seeing their accounts handled by newbies outsourced and disgruntled employees.

I’m being asked to relocate as part of RTO to a location where my current skillset does not have long-term scope in ATT, so I chose to go to HQ that may offer more internal opportunities and some extended family support.

Now I’m second-guessing the decision. The move is coming up soon, and I’m worried about relocating my family only to face a layoff later because it is not the assigned location as per new presence indicators. What to do?

We are a family of 4, with 2 in elementary school assigned to go to ATL but I asked for Dallas and manager and VP were ok to Dallas with no confirmation from HR or ATS. I don’t have a choice except to move as I have single income. I am super scared of moving as there is no job guarantee after I move and could get surplused in a year as it happened to many people. I have tried for jobs since 3 years but did not land any. Was anybody in this situation where they chose one location over the assigned location? I live in a metro but still no jobs here

That's the whole point. It was always meant to be an attrition tool.

Former employee here. Been away for a while and haven't kept up on the latest with Wells.

Out of sheer (and I mean sheer desperation) I'm considering applying for an open role.

What is the RTO requirement these days? When I got laid off it was 3 days in office, with rumors of going to 4 or 5 days, combined with reporting to show if anyone isn't spending 8 hours everyday in the office.

But where did things actually wind up?

Alright, let's hear it! Comment below on the first week back under the new RTO mandate. People going from 3 to 4 days a week, how bad was it having that extra day and having 3x the amount of people around you all day? HBAs returning to office (myself included), was it as bad as you thought, worse or better? My personal opinion and observations were the following:

• Commutes: These are only 'tolerable' if you get there before 7 and leave before 3. Traffic is and always will su-k in a post covid world where everyone drives like they are either on me-h or sleeping pills.

• Collaboration: We have to sit around people we already work with (I work with cool people thank goodness). Zero difference in teamwork, communication etc other than talking over a cube wall instead of in a teams chat. The idea that being in person will "increase collaboration" is one of the biggest lies told to us. In fact, it seems that people are less likely to do any type of extra "collaborating" because everyone is tired, burnt out, and of patience. Another Fail for ELT. (put this L on the stack with the others)

-"Culture": Day one had lots of chatter and "summit energy" from associates seeing others they had not seen in years. This type of "energy" also can be found at Founders Day. Oh wait, PP ki-led that whole event with no explaination. By day 3 people appeared to be less "bubbly" and were more or less just focused on staying in their cubes, plugging the ears with a headset or ear buds, and counting down the hours until it was time to leave. Everyone looks tired and checked out. If EDJ had any brains, 2 days in office seems to be the sweet spot if you were going to have RTO and not make it fail horribly. But, these people are stupid and will never notice this. Also, for the folks that think HBA peeps are lazy because we are (or were) at home, please sit down and take your L. Lazy people in the office are no different than a lazy HBA. In office are actually worse about getting out of doing work because there is nobody watching them. HBAs always felt like they had to go above and beyond to stay off the radar.

• Productivity: This was the biggest fail of them all. The distractions of having people walking by my cube, the background noise, hearing other calls, and just general in office vibes. This is a horrible, outdated, beyond stupid way to complete non client/branch facing work. It is unbelievable how much less productive I was this week in office VS at home. The time it took to get day to day work done was increased due to having so many distractions. I made more errors this week than I have in years. Stupid errors from simply not being 100% locked in on the work I was doing.

• Leaders: The only leaders that seem to be enjoying this new RTO are the ones at or above DL. The ones who wear the sport coat/blazer every day. They have the talking points down, the fake persona like a politician, and generally walk around thinking they are Gods gift to this company as they figure out new and creative ways to break everything they touch. They don't even seem like real people and make zero effort to interact or have any personal relationship with the people under them, unless of course they need a new 'work around' created for a system tech failure. They stay in their clique` with the other 'jackets'. They seem almost completely detached from reality and have zero ability to "read the room".

Summary: I knew it would be bad, but this is much worse than I imagined now that I'm seeing it in real time. People that love WFH don't care if someone is in office, teams chat is yellow/away, or someone doesnt reply right away. We simply do not care and only focus on the job we are paid to do. Nothing else matters to us if the work is getting done correctly. The in office junkies (the ones who love RTO) seem to be nothing more than micro managing control freaks. They dont have enough to do and have major insecurities. They love being in the office and therefore everyone needs to be in the office to fill whatever mental void they have. These people are borderline psychopaths with the way they obsess over what their coworkers are doing. It's sick and childish when it comes down to it. The obsession with seeing bodies in the cubes and nothing more has to be one of the biggest fumbles and fails EDJ has ever done (next to layoffs and outsourcing). I'm generally curious at this point as to how much extra $ is wasted on these buildings to keep them functional VS when the company was fully remote for almost 4 years. It's going to be a very long summer.

Just wanted to share something I heard from a pretty reliable source they’re bringing back Work From Home for Mondays because of the latest CES results. Apparently leadership took one look at the numbers and feedback and decided to hit the pause button on the full RTO push again.

It kind of makes sense when you think about it. The Chevron Way is supposed to be all about our people being the most valuable asset, building trust, integrity, and taking care of each other while getting results the right way. Forcing everyone back into the office when morale is already low and people are burned out doesn’t exactly line up with that. All the reorgs, constant changes, and pressure have been wearing folks down. Those survey comments probably reflected a lot of frustration and distrust that leadership can’t just ignore forever.

From what I’m hearing, some teams are already being told quietly to plan on WFH Mondays from August.

Has anyone else heard the same? Is your manager or skip level saying anything, or are they still acting like everything’s great? Would be nice if they actually addressed the real issues instead of throwing out occasional WFH days as a quick fix.

Does anyone know whether badge swipes are actually being tracked and if they are to what extent?

I’m not trying to call anyone out, and I certainly won’t be naming names, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to justify coming into the office five days a week when the building feels emptier by the day.

The communication around RTO has been incredibly vague. Other than the dry a$$ generic email that went out in January, there hasn’t been much clarity on expectations, enforcement, or how compliance is being measured.

If badge swipes aren’t being tracked, what exactly is the point of complying and coming in?

“Hi losers I want you to return to the office (I won’t be going in because that’s for wage jockies like you), also work even harder (I won’t be paying you more lol). Let me explain to you what AI is (even though I have no experience in it)”

Not sure if this is company wide or just certain departments, but it looks like they’re going to start cracking down on hours in office for salaried employees. Last month a girl on a neighboring team was placed on “administrative leave” as she was being investigated for hours spent in office. Then earlier today, a guy on my team received an email titled “Corporate Investigation - RTO”, but he was able to come back to his desk and continue his day. He said he’ll talk to me off campus about the meeting.

Stank tried to spin the metric that 79% of the employees that did respond felt committed and engaged and used that number as support for his policies. He did not share the next metric that if only 79% of those who responded felt engaged/committed, then it is a easy assumption to make that really only about 60% of the total work force felt committed and engaged.
Remember, the C-Suite will ignore the responses that do not support their ideology and strategy, and outright lie about what the employees really feel is important.
499/600 and 875/900 are the real survey numbers.