#rto

All those posts reporting bl oo d baths
All the hysteria
1000 cuts is SOP
The real issue moving forward is RTO less flexibility. How will we be punished if we can’t make it in due to extraneous circumstances?
I heard many ppl complaining this week is there truth to the rumors that they may tweak it? Or is that just wishful thinking?

1. Loans taken to cover payroll. All that LHXNext savings still can't stop the debt created implosion.
2. Accelerating the full transformation into the ENRON of the defense industry.
3. 160 hours vacation and sick combined cap being enforced in certain businesses. Director level approval required above 160 hours combined.
4. Auto rejection of planned sick or vacation leave if not provided with enough advance notice. Override requires manager and second level approval.
5. Rolling layoffs still occurring.
6. Stock price down $70 from recent high of around $370. Currently around $300.
7. Insider selling accelerating.
8. RTO harassment still occurring even with commuting costs skyrocketing due to fuel spikes.
9. Outsourced IT company not getting paid due to cash flow issues. Leads to more service outages and lack of support.
10. Morale has hit a new low. Parking lots emptying rapidly after 5 PM. Only time I've ever seen people leave faster was after a 4 hr college chemistry lab was over.

Please comment with additional information regarding the state of dysfunction @ L3H

Its been literally years now with daily posts about RTO.
Bichin on a layoff forum won't change a thing.
Sh#t or get off the pot.

I know it's exactly what these knuckle-heads want from us, but I just can't tell if this RTO B.S. will come back around or not. I don't make nearly enough to be spending extra money on gas just to sit in virtual meetings! I know many of ya'll are in the same boat as me. But what about the Mgrs, any news on RTO? Its been months and all we've heard was ZIP.

Forced to RTO :(

BNY keeps pushing RTO 4 days/week and open‑desk seating like nothing in the world has changed, while employees are left wondering whether leadership has even skimmed the latest CDC guidance on workplace exposure risks. The CDC may not mandate hantavirus controls, but it’s clear about best practices: identify and control rodent presence, seal workspaces, improve ventilation, use PPE when needed, and restrict work for exposed or symptomatic employees. OSHA’s general duty clause still applies — employers must provide a workplace free from recognized hazards. Rodent‑borne pathogens qualify.

Many employees in the Jersey City office in particular have reported concerns on this forum regarding concerns of rat infestation and control.

So here’s the question employees keep asking: Will BNY communicate anything at all? Will they adjust RTO, restrict open‑desk seating, or even acknowledge that shared workspaces increase exposure risks? Or will they continue the pattern — silence, spin, and “business as usual” — while employees shoulder the health risks?

With the recent cruise ship outbreak and the 2025 death of actor Gene Hackman's wife and dog, people are concerned and fearful, especially given current RTO policies.

BNY has a stewardship responsibility, not just a shareholder one. If state or local OSHA programs tighten requirements, the bank won’t be able to hide behind “CDC guidance is voluntary.” And even now, nothing stops BNY from adopting the CDC’s recommendations as a basic duty of care.

People aren’t asking for miracles. They’re asking for transparency, updated safety protocols, and a realistic assessment of whether RTO makes sense when exposure risks — viral or otherwise — are rising.

Until leadership addresses these concerns directly, employees are left to wonder whether workplace safety is a priority or just another line item to downplay.

I believe Verizon needs to continue building a stronger market-driven culture focused on performance, accountability, and long-term competitiveness. That means making difficult decisions when necessary, including reducing redundant positions and streamlining teams to stay agile in a rapidly changing industry. A stronger return-to-office policy is also important because in-person collaboration improves communication, training, innovation, and team culture in ways remote work simply can’t fully replace. If Verizon wants to compete and grow, the company has to prioritize efficiency, execution, and a workplace culture centered on results.

Has anyone noticed that the new FAQs about time tracking don't state punishments for low compliance?

Is your area experiencing attrition because of people quitting in favor of other companies that are more flexible? I’m curious if Dimon’s stance on 5 days in office is hurting Chase’s ability to retain and recruit talent.

Theres a phrase i keep hearing around Fidelity lately.,. usually said quietly between meetings ... or dropped into side conversations when nobody senior is around... "this place aint what it used to be." i don’t even think people say it with anger anymore. mostly it sounds tired. like people have repeated it enough times that it stopped feeling dramatic and just became accepted reality. Ive been here long enough to remember when fidelity actually felt different, and no, i’m not pretending it was some magical workplace where everybody skipped through hallways smiling at each other because obviously it wasn’t... nope. there were always POLITICS, red-tape/bureaucracy, sh-t leaders, pointless meetings, all of that existed back then too... but there used to be this fine sense that leadership at least understood employees were human beings first and workers second. there was a ton of fu--ing pressure, absolutely! but there was also trust... We all felt like they were contributing to something stable. Managers could actually manage. we believed hard work mattered. loyalty certainly mattered. relationships mattered and were meaningful. now it feels like everybody spends half their day trying to decode silence instead of listening to actual communication...

The communnication piece is probably what changed the most. Every reorg comes wrapped in this crazy vague language. Every Townhall somehow manages to say nothing (while making everybody more anxious and pi---d at the same time). Lies galore. Official updates feel so carefully polished that people stopped trusting them many, many, many years ago. you can literally feel employees trying to read between the lines during leadership calls because nobody believes they’re getting the full story anymore. and maybe leadership thinks uncertainty protects the business, maybe they think controlled messaging prevents panic, i don’t know... but what actually happens is people create their own explanations. Rumors (and all these posts on layoffs.com) become more believable than official statements because at least rumors feel emotionally honest... Morale drops because employees feel trapped in this permanent state of ambiguity where nobody knows what’s happening until it’s already happening. some of the strongest mgrs i know look completely drained and fu---d up now. They’re expected to reassure teams about decisions they had no role in making. they deliver messaging they clearly don’t believe in themselves. Not a little bit... Middle management at Fidelity increasingly feels like emotional shock absorbers for exec decisions...

then there’s the RTO situation... which I think broke something culturally that execs still dont fully grasp. this was never just about commuting. that’s the part they seem to miss every single time they talk about collaboration and culture and hallway conversations and whatever other corp sh-t buzzword gets recycled that quarter!! during hybridwork, people rebuilt their lives around the expectations the co itself created... families adjusted. people moved. some employees finally found balance after years of burnout... it was something new. and the thing that frustrates people most is we already proved the work could get done. productivity stayed as high as it's ever been. teams just worked, things clicked... clients were supported and notobdy was complaining... bus performance remained strong.. then suddenly the messaging changed, but leadership rarely explained why. instead we got carefully managed language, vague references to culture, soft pressure, badge tracking, attendance monitoring, and this growing feeling that presence became more important than contribution again. people notice when trust quietly gets replaced with surveillance...

what makes all of this harder to swallow is that fidelity is still successful. the company performs well. leadership talks about growth constantly. and yet employees feel less secure than ever?? that disconnect changes people over time. you start seeing high performers emotionally detach because they realize performance alone no longer creates safety. long tenured employees feel disposable. loyal employees feel disposable. everybody starts understanding that no matter how much they contribute, they’re still ultimately just another line item during workforce planning discussions somewhere behind closed doors. and once employees internalize that reality, culture shifts permanently. people stop investing emotionally and stap talking truthfully. we preserve energy for life outside work because deep down they no longer believe the company will protect them in return. i don’t even blame them anymore.......

the strange thing is the best part of fidelity still exists, and it’s mostly the people working beside each other every day. coworkers still help each other. teams still carry impossible workloads together. managers still quietly shield employees when they can. some of the most thoughtful, intelligent, genuinely decent people i’ve ever worked with are still here, trying their best inside a culture that increasingly feels transactional and emotionally distant. ironically, i think peer level empathy is the only thing keeping parts of this company functioning normally right now. NOT the culture slides... also - not the branding campaigns. not another executive speech about values. just exhausted people trying to support other exhausted people while pretending everything feels normal...

Maybe that’s what makes this whole thing feel sad instead of angry.

Cause I still want Fidelity to succeed. I think a lot of us do. People don’t spend this much time talking about cultural decline unless they actually cared about what the place used to represent. i just think there’s a growing number of us grieving a version of the company that made them feel human before operational... and once that feeling is gone, it’s impossible to rebuild no matter how many internal campaigns or leadership videos get released afterward...

long post huh. no matter what, i wish all the best and hope that, somehow, things will improve.

Posts on this site are personal reactions to what BNY employees are actually living through.

The feedback here is about executive leadership’s silence around McKinsey‑driven cost restructuring, real‑estate closures and consolidations, RTO used as a filtering mechanism, and a culture that’s become increasingly toxic and opaque. People aren’t imagining this; they’re documenting it in real-time.

When raises and bonuses are insignificant, when communication is intentionally vague, and when “efficiency” becomes a euphemism for unannounced layoffs, employees are going to talk — especially when leadership won’t. That’s why this forum looks the way it does. It’s not about traffic or ad revenue. It’s because BNY associates have nowhere else to get honest information about what’s happening behind the curtain.

If leadership communicated transparently, this board wouldn’t have to do the job for them.

It finally happened today: my supervisor told me I was on “the list” for not swiping my badge enough.

I pointed out the irony that we’re raising product prices because of higher oil costs, yet somehow there’s never any corresponding increase in cost-of-living adjustments for us peons.

Long story short: After a long time of searching I finally found the right therapist for me, and was reassured that RTO couldn't interfere with my appointments. Well sure enough, my manager allows me to leave the office for my appointments, but the real issue is having to commute basically 4 times just to continue seeing my therapist. I literally cannot afford it. Thank you Bill.

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?

No one really seems to have any idea what’s going on. I think the stress is 100% based on the rto news

If we might get laid off why should RTO and Workstyles matter? So let’s stick it to them!
Who’s with me?

My Mac RTO data was improved for old months. The only thing is I can't tell if they actually fixed the data problems or just restored preexisting badge swipe data for older months since they couldn't figure out a Mac data fix. Does anyone know?

Was your office busy?

It’s falling apart 45 min delay due to equipment shortage
And now they expect us to come in everyday?
I’ll be dead outside waiting for a train this won’t work.
Do they not see the impact with cars on the roads in the parking lot the mbta being useless!
She needs to get Maura involved. Maybe Maura can fix it.

lol yea right and vrabel didn’t cheat on his wife

Fidelity Investments will require many employees to return to the office five days a week. This new policy begins in September for staff at its Boston headquarters and other locations. Managers at the vice president level and above are also included across all company sites. Previously, most employees worked two weeks in the office out of every four. The company believes physical presence fosters connection, mentorship, and learning.

Boston, Massachusetts

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/30/newsletters/fidelity-return-to-office-five-days-boston/

$4.19/gallon and it was $3.30/gallon last year. Will they increase our merit this year to drive to office and follow the RTO policy?

They have done RTO since what 2023/4? We are now in 2026 and they still haven’t assigned people to desks. I don’t understand how they can continue to play games with their employees legally. I know the question was asked several times during town halls and they always punted the answer down the road. I just understand why they insist on making things like Last Man Standing. Just curious if they can be sued and forced into assigning seats to people

A few days of this and I'll feel like I'm paying for the privilege of working.

Hey Billie D! Let’s see how well the bank does this quarter coming up with lower productivity because you can’t adapt to modern time and need to save face with all of the real estate you purchased by displacing employees who could manage work life balance for once. How fun!! Can’t wait to hear about it!

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/72971/000119312519256649/d813177dex10a.htm

FTFA: "In connection with your position, you will not be required to relocate or engage in travel that would result in a change to your current state of residence. "

Started back to work and thought I’d take advantage of $5 North Shore Parking with a shuttle to and from downtown Pittsburgh. Because I don’t have the extra money to spend like most of us. What a bust. Shuttles weren’t running every 15 to 20 minutes as promised but rather an hour to an hour and a half long. So much for that. Got into the office and the majority of the floor was empty. Why did I bother? No work got done. I’m sure we are going to see productivity plummet. Wasn’t approved to work from home to be with my epileptic child. Job well done, Bill.

On Workday

By being 6 years into this.
Some were hired as hybrid, and yes I know a company can change their business model whenever they want, but it also breeds bad faith and discontent. Many people were hired as hybrid or having spent 6 yrs wfh have built up an at home office. This maneuver shows zero respect for employees this late in the game.
And I think if/when another situation arises it may not work so well by the powers that be making these life altering decisions.
I sure hope they are sympathetic to employees if they need to be working from home if their kids are sick, on school vacation, doctor appts that don’t lend themselves to driving in and back twice there MUST be some flexibility. Seems to me all “US” companies like the visa payroll better and we’re about to see the ugliest side of globalization we’ve ever experienced coupled with the AI job ki-ling revolution

Good times. 🥵

Yes, State Farm su-ks but half of complaining about “woke” and “customers” don’t even know what you’re complaining about. It’s greed at the of the day, they’re trying to make this place as miserable as they legally can to get people to quit without severance or even the voluntary exit offers. RTO su-ks, i don’t care how much you loved your office back in 1980, times have changes and there is literally nothing that we do at home that can’t be done from office (other than wasting hours of our life in traffic and pointless dribble chatter with coworkers), “customers” are the last thing on the executives mind, much less mine, they can read what they sign up for before they complain. Yes, I am actively looking for other places to work and I can’t wait to leave.

With more and more organizations going to 5-day RTO, I'd expect a mediocre, follow-the-herd company like Cigna to fall in lockstep within the foreseeable future.

Evanko's Town Hall comments about the wonders of having a "best friend at work" just seemed to be laying the foundation.

Anyone with educated guess and/or practical insight and willing to comment?

Management in my BU looks mostly upset about having to come back to the office. No one really seems to think there will be layoffs.

It makes me feel better that the leaders are also unhappy about having to come back to the office.

When will we see it?

If they want me gone, they’re going to have to pay me for it. I’m not playing along with this RTO-driven attrition strategy. Hopefully people see it for what it is and don’t just hand them what they want.

Last week I found out that they're doing an RTO mandate for all of tech. An absolute cluster-fck of infrastructure to get 700 roles back in office. I'm sure this will make less driven employees more productive and the shoe designers who cry foul about fairness happy, but for those of us who actually cared about sh-t getting done, all it tells us is that it's time to hit the remote-first market, where there are no haves and have nots, only fair, trusting work models for competent people.

All of your most driven employees are now in the process of self-selecting their way out of the company. Velocity is going to sink as the people with the most initiative start using downtime to send applications instead of make up for their colleagues' deficits.

Just remember this the next time holiday readiness falls apart or you're dealing with unmaintainable copy paste AI slop. You are asking your best to leave, and a lot of us were perfectly content with your sub-par compensation schemes and nonexistent promotions before this because we didn't have to put up with 699 other guys trying to take Zoom calls from an open office with no privacy or hour long traffic slogs.

But at least it's fair now, and you can backfill those roles in ITC, and AI/ML will print infinite money for you any day now, right?

WFH was a success during COVID and could be at any time, it's the person doing the work, not the location. We sell global connectivity yet we do not want to connect employees who are also customers. We all know right now it's a 'do as I say, not as I do'. I'd respect honesty; yet that is not what the top brass offer normally; it's usually smoke and mirrors.

If AT&T wants to reduce its footprint, what better way than making the employee provide their own office? Case closed!

@rw+1kqf86bry is 100% right.

It seems like the roles impacted are only tech and agile.

What would be the reason to bring the whole company back other than phones, if there’s no RIF impact?

Based on what’s posted here if there’s so many groups with zero impact. Why make everyone miserable just to slash tech?

:(

I will never be available outside office hours again.

Can’t believe it’s here. Is anyone planning to skip this id--tic “mandate”?
I have been remote 13 years in this company. Now I have to go sit in a random office by myself and do the exact same thing I would do at home. Thinking of skipping and letting the cards fall as they may.