#rto

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.

PP is cutting again - this time is massive almost a quarter of all employed. It's going to be about 300 people which in the grand schema of things is not that big but for us at PP it's the biggest round ever - the impacts are massive. JH got her promo, kudos girl, but you are responsible for the mess as much as anyone else. this time they are not blaming it on ai cause by now everyone knows that story is all bs. i shall be back with a rant on RTO and all failed promises the execs sold us over last few years. well done jill.

Guys are in our building today moving out old furniture to get things ready for the final group coming back in! Good luck in getting a spot you like. Those of us that have been coming in for TWO YEARS have taken all of the good ones. Enjoy your final days at home!

After 6.5 years of successful remote and hybrid work, leadership decided employees must return to the office more than half the time. Despite years of strong performance, increased productivity, and record results, management couldn't even provide a basic explanation for the decision.

The announcement itself perfectly reflected the company's culture. After months of rumors and speculation, employees were informed through a Teams meeting while many of us were already sitting in the office. Cameras were off. Employees were muted. Questions were not answered. Instead, we were told to ask our managers for information that leadership should have communicated directly.

The return-to-office rollout has been just as poorly executed. Some employees have been separated from their managers, collaboration has become more difficult, and basic equipment and workspace issues remain unresolved. Apparently, requiring people to commute was a higher priority than ensuring they had functional tools to do their jobs.
What makes this especially frustrating is that employees spent years proving that remote and hybrid work could be successful. The company benefited from our flexibility, commitment, and results. Now we're expected to accept a major change without transparency, accountability, or even the courtesy of a meaningful conversation.

This experience has made it clear that employees are viewed as resources to manage, not people to respect!

Leadership seems to need a decoder to comprehend the results, so here it is.

The negative survey results are not about healthcare perks or wellness programs no one uses, they are only about RTO and the lack of flexibility.

“I am proud to work at AT&T”


Once true. No longer. Public perception has deteriorated, and when people outside the company hear about the five-day RTO policy, the lack of any real collaboration, and the absence of assigned seating or co-located teams, the reaction is disbelief. Pride erodes when policies feel performative instead of purposeful.

“I would recommend AT&T as a great place to work”


That answer is now clearly no. A mandatory five-day RTO policy for roles that historically had been remote before COVID and can be done more effectively remotely is an immediate dealbreaker for modern workers. The policy alone makes the company undesirable and uncompetitive as an employer.

“We trust the leadership decisions”


Trust is broken. Loyalty is dead. Employees do not support the financial decisions that destroyed value, nor the RTO mandate that ignored clear employee feedback. Trust cannot survive when leadership consistently doubles down instead of course-correcting.

“The company provides opportunities to support career growth”


Opportunities are narrowly concentrated in Dallas, with limited mobility elsewhere. For a national company, that is a self-inflicted constraint that unnecessarily caps growth and retention.

“Our policies and systems support me doing my best work”


They do the opposite. The five-day RTO policy actively reduces productivity, and many internal systems remain outdated and inefficient. Physical presence does not compensate for structural friction.

“The company cares about my health and well-being”


Employees feel burned out, mentally and physically, largely due to excessive commuting and rigid mandates that add stress without any benefit to the company or the employees. Well-being is not addressed by pushing unused benefits or wellness messaging while ignoring the root cause repeatedly identified in feedback.

“Do you feel changes have been made as a result of prior surveys”


No. In fact, the opposite. Employees explicitly opposed three-day RTO in the last survey, and leadership responded by increasing it to five. Feedback was not just ignored, it was contradicted. The disappearance of the prior third-party McKinsey survey results only reinforces that perception.

Did I miss anything else?

The pattern is now set and clear. Instead of addressing the core RTO issue employees are raising, leadership deflects with ancillary benefits and BS messaging. That approach feels like gaslighting, and not listening. So why should I even bother taking this next one?

If leadership truly wants different survey results, the solution is not another email, benefit rollout, or talking point. It is addressing the one issue employees are consistently, overwhelmingly, and clearly raising.

Flexibility. Trust. Results over “presence”.

That is the message of the survey, whether leadership wants to hear it or not.

RTO is here to stay, we all know that. I badly want to move states. Does anyone have experience with moving locations, how did that work out? I will report to the office to keep my job of course, but I don’t want to live in this location anymore. We have team members that live in other states and report to their office even walking in and working alone. I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to change locations.

BNY Used RTO, Performance Reviews to Cut Jobs: Ex-Staffers

The firm has consistently reduced its headcount for the last six quarters, regulatory filings show. Former employees told Ignites how they were pushed out due to unexpected poor performance reviews and forced relocations without benefits.

Hey California ,any update on you guys going rtm q3 ,or any other region updates ..
Let’s keep the nation informed

Are you guys still doing 35 days per quarter? Disclosure: I work for a competitor and was just curious (comparing it with 5/wk that we have)

Here we go! Day one of ELT's move to get more of us to quit. Post your concerns, complaints, funny stories, frustrations, etc in this thread so we can keep the comment section active for our neighborhood ELT trolls who love to lurk here (they are useless anyway, so might as well give them something to do today). Good luck everyone, and enjoy the collaboration this week! 🤡

PS. r/st louis (edward jones) has a post from a few days ago that links this site if reddit is more your scene.

Considering taking a position with the company but am reading about their strict onsite policy. Is it tracked by how many days you are on site or how many hours? How is it addressed if you have an offsite meeting or had to work from home part of your day (such as a coworker asking you to join an early or late meeting before or after you are at the office)?

I'm looking forward to reading all about "return to office" four days a week tomorrow in this forum.

Yes, you read that right. Twice now I’ve had to watch where I walk because someone decided to de-----e in public. I never experienced that while remote. Before I forget did anyone see the pervert exec on the home page this week. Gosh it’s going to be so uncomfortable when he speaks to us at the June town hall. Hopefully he doesn’t ask us about our boxers or briefs 🥴 >> https://www.thestandard.com.hk/finance/article/167954/BlackRocks-Mark-Wiedman-sorry-for-off-color-comments-to-women-such-as-boxers-or-briefs << When I’m not playing frogger to avoid stepping in sh-t I’m either (1) hoping for my bus to arrive less late than usual (2) watching my back as a woman amongst the crazy people in town (3) witnessing open air dr-g use/dr-g exchanges and public urination (4) avoiding confrontation of any panhandler because I’ve seen the tension escalate to punches being thrown and if it comes down to it I would like to defend myself but I can’t carry a pepper spray deterrent with me and into the building (5) calling the babysitter to let her know I might be 80 minutes or 120 minutes before I get home (6) chatting with my son to see how soccer practice went since I can’t be there as often (7) hoping that my vehicle didn’t get damaged sitting at the park and ride lot (8) wondering if I’ll have enough time tomorrow to complete what I couldn’t get done in office the previous two days. Plus much more. Don’t ask me how many home cooked meals I’ve been able to make and eat with my family like we usually did before May 4. On the financial side of things I am struggling with this worrying dilemma. Do I cancel my IRA contributions to cover the cost of daycare and a frequent babysitter? Do I cancel my HSA contribution to pay for gas? What can I cancel to pay for my time? Seriously I am drained. This is the 2nd payday under the RTO policy and I am in the negative yet again. Thankfully my enormous 1.25% raise allowed me to buy a few tanks of gas this month. Not sure what I’m going to do next month. Probably have to bring the older child into work to avoid babysitter costs. My team is loosing talent soon. I’m sure my workload will increase. I’m sure I’ll be asked to get things done in the same amount of time. I’m definitely sure I won’t get any additional compensation for covering an empty seat. As of May 4, working here has become financially unjustifiable, incredibly stressful and a waste of time. It would be different if this was a job that physically needed my presence. But it isn’t. Same goes for the rest of my team. We have this futuristic ability to do our work remotely like we were doing for years but now all of a sudden we are needed in office to justify their real estate investment. Here is the best part my team is all remote with respect to each other. We are at least 250 miles from each other. The policy literally makes no sense. It’s causing me to lose cents too, well actually dollars — lots of dollars. So yea my testimony is sh-t is literally hitting the fu--ing fan. So if more sh-t hits the fan we can expect to have to avoid more human sh-t piles. If this is brilliantly boring well I am having trouble finding anything brilliant about it. Maybe I’ve been too generous by meeting or exceeding all expectations every year for over a decade. To Bill: make the brilliant decision to reverse the RTO policy completely before you wreck the careers and lives of more of your loyal employees and customers. The customers who no longer want to bank with us because of this terrible decision.

Don’t forget Bill gets a 30% comp increase and executive security. We get pennies on the dollar and a mandatory RTO five days.

Just read on a local news website that the 800 bldg downtown STL will be going up for auction next month (June). With all the RTO mandates it will be interesting to see if the bank will purchase the building not knowing whomever buys that building has different plans with that property that could potentially displace BOA altogether in that building. I hope not because I will WFH if that happens and not relocate to another location which I currently commute 2hrs already RT.

• WF will drain your patience
• We're all just headcount lines
• revews are always hanging over you
• Formal warning = slow exit
• One mistake will follow you
• RTO is control, not collaboration
• Badge reports replaced trust
• Office hours matter more than output
• Commute is your problem
• Morale is your problem
• Town halls are performative theater
• Location strategy keeps moving the target
• Offshoring is omnipresent and has no end
• Politics always beats merit
• Silence is safest
• Speaking's risky
• Everyone is trying to look essential
• But... Everyone is tired
• C-level lineup = the grift brigade
• Trust is long gone
• The job is no longer doing the work (it's surviving)

The town hall felt like the usual, with a few stand out moments. Plants legitimately asked how to get a req approved and filled faster and basically got an answer that EVP reviews weekly but other than that, we just don’t know! Also, having EVP say he’s not a process guy is frustrating- isn’t poor and cumbersome processes (tickets and self-serve apps that get you nowhere) a big part of the problem? That is probably the reason so much time is spent on calls and meetings and meaningless metrics. Joking about being EVP for a quarter means he outlasted the last guy was actually funny, but if exec levels turnover that fast, why wouldn’t employees? Don’t they quit bad managers before they quit bad companies? I guess we just need to be on site and that will fix things

When is phase 2? More lay offs? More desks?

I saw and read that someone passed away recenty at their desk. I feel sorry for this person and the family. Stinky and his minions do not care, in fact, they either want us to quit or expire. Same win for them. This is not the 1st time that someone with health issues or disabilities denied accommodation. In ATL alone, one of my coworkers passed away (he was disabled, walked with crutches), no assigned seating each time. I believe at one point he fell walking around and caused him to file FMLA and sadly he passed. Another one, walking with a walker, obviously impaired, also no assigned seats. I see this person walking around with walker assisting him daily. Some I knew had heart attacks, at least 2 people. Some lost their legs due to accidents, and yet were still told to report 5 days a week. This is just in 1 office here in ATL.

I just have RTO questions hoping the group can answer (not complaining, so don't come at me....) RTO is new for our team and I'm trying to get real answers, since no one in my org has answers.

1 - does anyone use a bank-owned iPad and have their hours NOT count/track in the system?

2 - I've seen mentions and heard rumblings of lower pay grades and/or no bonus eligibility for RTO Refusal - is that true?

3 hours a day.
15 hours a week.
60 hours a month.
720 hours a year.

That’s 30 full days of your life spent commuting every year.

One entire month annually sacrificed sitting in traffic so a presence report can show the “right numbers” for work that still just happens on a laptop and Teams calls.

Thousands in gas, tolls, parking, wear and tear, and unpaid time gone forever.

And for what? Morale is worse. Burnout is worse. The stock is down. People are leaving.

That’s #LifeAtATT

Nothing and I mean nothing scares ppl investing with any bank more than turmoil and unrest.
They are really pushing for massive layoffs done by silent workers being threatened long insane hours and excessive workloads.
They WANT this to happen. Jump ship get the he-l out let them sink like State Street did.
They deserve their misery gaslighting employees. Reneging on five years of hybrid.
Abby is cooked she’s lost her way they’re going for the big sell out why taking about 25% in the wake.
She wants insane type A hyped up employees or the massively linear Indian and African workers willing to do this workload for Pennie’s on the dollar to escape genocide or sepsis in the streets.
This is tectonic.

Heard there are changes coming to WPE . What is it, 4 days a week or non consecutive days in the office?

It’s amazing to me how dismissive the ELT has been with our RTO mandate. We know from other companies that this initiative is often a huge failure and unfair burden on employees. Women are almost always impacted more than their male counterparts. My experience in HR has been one of the worst I’ve seen in my career. The communications are incredibly poor and borderline disrespectful. Since the initial announcement, I have not seen Suzan answer a question directly, but rather punt the heat and responsibility to her leadership team. She’s also stopped doing Q&A altogether in meetings she’s led. We are less than a week away with almost no questions answered, and our human capital division meeting today was so poor that it actually raised more questions than answers. Rather than discussing direct concerns with Monday looming, we spent time celebrating an arrogant partner’s records from 25 years ago and discussing employee discounts. We still have no word on assigned floors or desks. We still have no solutions for parking. Unbelievable.

Hope they relax the RTO policies soon !!!

Why is it that more than half the employees on my floor come in for 2 hours then leave? Do you think Executives don’t know you’re trying to manipulate the data they are collecting for RTO? I’d be careful. It’s not worth it to lose your job over it, is it? Of course, the choice is yours. I need my job.

That seemed to be the only qualification for people who were promoted. Not really anything other than their manager liked them and they were in the office.

That’s all.

Virtual here asked to relocate, But what’s with the layoff talk in June and July, when asked to relocate by October? Why will they layoff when they want you to relocate?

In the office alone again — just me, my badge, and the hum of lights that definitely don’t need to be on.
If I miss a day, I get put on “a list,” so I’m hanging on like a badge clip that’s one tug from snapping.

Meanwhile, the remote “leader” who is well within the RTO distance — but somehow got reclassified as remote — will probably need to set up a Teams meeting to talk to me about the importance of in‑office collaboration.
Peak corporate irony.

And the highlight of the month: after six months of coming in four days a week, I finally had my first in‑person meeting.
Pretty sure someone got forced to schedule it.

At this point, I’m basically the last survivor wandering an empty office park, trying not to end up on a list. But don’t worry leadership is listening, if we are lucky maybe some are thinking as well. 🙏

Have a great weekend and remember the holiday doesn’t count as a swipe next week.

I need to get back to work since I was asked to hire more remote workers for my team, who will never come in this office.

just had an all hands. VP announced that all leaders now must RTO 4 days/wk. hasn't trickled down to ICs yet but we all know it's a matter of time. and if you have been remote and don't live anywhere near an office? tough luck, I guess that means you can no longer serve your job requirements and will be let go.

this makes no sense because it's not like our entire team will be in the same office anyway even if we went full RTO. we'll all just be in different offices across the country.

Supposed to be daily drop ins - first come first served. Well. People are decorating and putting up their plaques.

What happened? Not fair to everyone.

Does the power structure in this company understand that forcing people into the office on Thursday next week after having Memorial Day off feels like a punishment for having the audacity to acknowledge a federal holiday?

I know they don't care but really? Waste our money and time and the company's utility bills because we've just GOT to have 3 days in the office?

Zero benefit, only inconvenience and annoyance. I suggest everyone just chit chat all day and use the bathrooms as often as possible.