#rto

It sounds like call center representatives are gonna get cut. They all jumped on the WFH angle, when asked to RTO, most refused. Now it’s time to go and let automation take over.

https://www.inc.com/leila-sheridan/kevin-oleary-loves-why-his-companies-will-never-force-a-return-to-the-office/91291726

Kevin O’Leary — a real investor with actual companies laid out why forcing people into offices is a losing strategy:
“If you’re trying to say to people, ‘Oh, you got to work in an office,’ you’ll just get the bottom quartile of people who have no choice.”

He points out that in his portfolio of 50 companies, 40% of employees stayed remote after the pandemic and that’s true across the economy.

That’s pure talent economics. If you force everyone back full time, you literally shrink the talent pool to people who can’t choose otherwise. Meanwhile the companies embracing flexibility get the best performers and stay competitive.

This is about facts not feelings. It’s about results, real hiring markets, and the fact that companies that mandate RTO are choosing the bottom quartile instead of competing for top talent. Investors and workers alike see through it.

I haven't heard anything beyond recent rumors, but that means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Remote workers, sorry, you saw a real impact. As for all the doomsayers saying no more work from home or hybrid, you were WRONG! Always bringing this up during layoffs cause you are too worried about where someone is doing their job. foh!

I am considering an offer from a global company where I will mostly be managing/co-developing a team of developers building a product. The downside is I might be the only one on-site in the city and rest are spread across the world. RTO is 2 days a week 40 miles away.

I have a pretty good standing at T but just afraid of all these lay offs and relocations to god knows where. What do you guys think makes sense to do here?

"The direction is global, but implementation may vary by country to account for local laws and regulations..."

So EMEA is next once they get Work Councils sign off

I saw an article pop up in business insider but it’s behind a paywall. Did you answer honestly?!

This company feels like a team stuck with bad coaches who refuse to adapt, and the scoreboard proves it. You don’t win by wearing out your players. You win by putting them in a position to succeed.

Employees aren’t asking for less accountability. They’re asking for flexibility, which most of the market already offers. If five day RTO actually drove performance, we would see it in execution, morale, retention, and the stock. We don’t. We see burnout, attrition, and continued underperformance.

In sports, when coaches pile up losing seasons, blow money on bad deals, and lose the locker room, they don’t get more time to tighten discipline. They get fired. And we already have a losing record. Years of bad acquisitions, billions written off, talent walking, and a stock that can’t keep pace with the league.

Good coaches listen to feedback and adjust. Bad coaches double down, blame the players, and keep losing. Flexibility is the fix. Rigid RTO is the mistake. Until leadership accepts that, this team isn’t turning the season around.

What is RTO policy for non exempt employees? We don’t have access to the average hours dashboard, do we still have to RTO 5 days?

Get ready for the RTO email and the chaos that will ensue

North America right away but it will be the same for rest of world shortly once the company has spoken to work councils

Get ready for 5 days of coughing / spluttering / loud noise / body odor / alcoholic breath and fun !

Now that we know about layoffs, are there RTO changes?

Employees in Charlotte will focus on emerging cyber threats, designing defenses using AI and serving as part of AT&T Dynamic Defense, a network-based security service designed to detect and stop threats before they impact a business.
New office to be located approximately 1 mile from the Charlotte NRC.
And yes, RTO will be in full effect

Can someone please share the directives coming down right now? Every leader seems even more in a scramble this week than the last 8 combined.
Yes it’s clear layoffs happened this week, but it’s something more. I had vaguely overheard, I was trying not to be obvious, about a directive that was given from HR about a RTO mandate. As in some directive about a larger mandate to ensure employees are in hubs and not remote. What is going on? All of us see and sense something.

Yes, a new Office First policy will be announced.
No, not every employee will be mandated back to an office.
Yes, employees currently assigned as hybrid office based will be required to work from that office each day. No more 3 day schedule. This will happen over a few months.
Yes, if you are currently a virtual employee (meaning that your HR profile which you can access on Talent Central has you listed as virtual), AND your home address is within 31 miles of an OT office, you will be reassigned as an office employee and will be required to work from your assigned office every day. These employees will be given several months before they have to begin working from the office.
Yes, this applies to ALL employees in the US who live within that distance to an office, other than customer facing sales.
No, employees in countries with council will not immediately have to comply. OT is negotiating with these councils.

Word is new seating assignments have been announced in Deerfield support office. But that the areas assignments for the most part aren't big enough to accommodate all the team members. Also, that the parking lot will be 325-350'ish spots short once OPO staff join in Deerfield in 10 days. Anyone hearing anything else? Feels too quiet this week.

Email tomorrow? North America only?

July or September?

Does anyone know anything for sure ?

I assume Dallas will shut down this week when the snow hits. Some forecasts predict twelve inches. Is everyone planning to work from home? Or since we can’t get to the office, and that’s the only place we can work, do we get a snow day off? My supervisor is on maternity leave so no info coming,, wondering what others are hearing.

Can anyone explain the financial benefit to Edward Jones by having people return to the office?

The lack of any mention of relaxing RTO minimums while also sending out daily safety alerts (sometimes more than 1 a day) to those of us working in downtown Minneapolis is appalling.

When revenue tightens and the stock slides, forcing five days in-office is pure waste. Higher real estate costs, higher attrition, lower productivity. If leadership is serious about discipline, RTO should be the first thing cut. However, it will just be headcount. Expect layoffs and FTW letters to increase at record speed.

I've heard on good authority that there are no changes to the hybrid schedule planned

We've all shared our grievances, but I'm curious to know how this will affect others, not just personally, but at work. Many of us are clocking in 50+ hours a week and if they expect us to come in 8-5/5 days a week AND continue working from home... yikes.

If the return to office thing is happening, can someone confirm what will happen to virtual

There are thousands of virtual employees so they won't all be let go

Will they be told relocate ? Or will they remain virtual if over 50 miles to an office

I was reading this Wharton article about how small slights from employers cause a loss of productivity. link to article: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-wharton-when-employees-feel-slighted-they-work-less

PNC better get ready for this on a grand scale. Obviously, RTO increases costs for employees (parking, gas, additional child care, loss of time because of the commute, the list goes on). But we’ve also lost our personal day out of nowhere, HSA wellness contributions have gone down significantly, and rumor has it that bonuses will leave a lot to be desired. All in one year. This company is ran by CLOWNS. I encourage everyone to use every second of every occasional absense day in 2026. Don’t work a minute past 5pm. Don’t even think about logging in on the weekend. They take, take, take and only give back to the C Suite. Don’t give them anything more than the bare minimum, because PNC sure isn’t going to give you anything.

When’s the email going out ? How long do we have to search for a new job

What if everybody just ignores the 5-day RTO mandate? What exactly can they do if nobody shows up at the office? Fire us all? I'd like to see them try. I know we sadly can't get the majority to agree to this, but I truly believe this would be the best course of action in this situation.

The temperature could feel like as low as -4 F next week, and yet we still have to come to office and talk to people all over the world. But hey! our office is nice and warm right? My life is a beautiful dream. Thank you Robin!

I've noticed several people commenting about the need to be in the office 4 out of 6 weeks.

Don't managers get notified each week when someone isn't meeting the 3-day office requirement? How are people able to use the reporting period workaround?

I think the typical departments will get hit hard again - ISG, CSG, Sales, Engineering, and IT... but I also think Dell is going to start going after full remote employees.

Dell no longer allows remote positions (future positions that is) and all new roles/REQs MUST go to the office, meaning they want all employees to be local to an office, right? Well that won't/can't happen until all remote employees are either laid off or quit.. OR relocate on their own dime. They are going to have to start going after remotes sooner or later and I feel like it's gonna be sooner than later; after the RTO mandate. OR, they will tell remotes that they can either relocate and keep their job, or have bonus's/raises minimized + the already not eligble for promotions/internal movement.

I think a LOT of the engineers, PMs, Managers/directors who were very heavily involved in mav will be let go as well, considering the OG deadline was pushed back a quarter...

Just my guess.

Why don't they eliminate all of the satellite offices and remote employees first? There are some directors, senior directors and VPs that hide at home all the time, some that wear the same clothes days on end that are never in the office. They hide with background pictures of their office, and while their leadership knows it, leadership isn't strong enough to do anything about it. So just fire them. If you are not in one of the 3 campuses, then you should not have a job.

How is your RTO going?
I hear that all offices are packed and do not have enough space, not enough conference rooms, etc…. Certainly the case in Dallas and Atlanta!

I do go 3 times a week, but just badge in and go home right away.

Been trying to organize a badge-in service, but looks like all people are a bunch of pu----s…

Time to raise up and organize an insurrection against the IBM Execs!

All of these changes have made working at CVX a complete nightmare.
I'll be taking my CIP and looking elsewhere.

The worst thing is the gas lighting that HMP and Leadership throw at us: "Better together", "We benchmarked against Exxon - they are doing it!", "If it works for Google, it must be good"

Well for those fortunate enough to keep their jobs, hearing RTO 5 days a week is coming as part of the new strategy going forward. Gone are the Friday through Monday "4 day weekends" many have been enjoying. Covid is long over...time for everyone to get back in the saddle 5 days a week.

Generally curious if people have peaced out since RTO. I know of one person who gave notice after a week back in office. I’m guessing a number of people thought they would be let to in the last round but survived. I can definitely see more people leaving after bonuses are distributed.

Hello everybody many people today is stress out about RTO, layoffs, high maintenence customer, manager etc. Below are several things you can do to help feel #blessed no matter what the day throws your way

• for a healthy vegetable and fruit snack get you some fun onions and orange fanta from the vending machine

• tickle your tummy with a supersize Dr Pepper from the soda fountain

• unlock the next luxury level with a Lil Yachty Platinum Deluxe Variety Rap Snacks™️ Sampler Bundle with Zesty Ranch Upgrade

• Tantalize your taste buds with some fiesta chicken strips and a large fry

*.Upgrade your Snickers bar to a winter wonderland edition by coating it in a white blanket of sugar from the coffee station

• for a tropical fruit adventure get you some starburst and skittles and arrange them in fun patterns on a piece of printer paper before using it as a funnel to pour them in your mouth

These are just of a few of the temptations that await as you enjoy your day at the office. Please print this out and hang it in the elevators and break rooms. Thank you and God bless.

About 70% of my team will be gone before Feb 1. Two people called it quits today. They didn't even give a full day notice. We can't function as a team of 3 people when Feb 1 gets here. This isn't just hurting the remote employees. It's crushing the in-office staff as well. I don't mind being in office but not everyone has that viewpoint. Losing 2 people today was a wake up call because my workload just increased. We know there is no such thing as overtime at PNC, (just overwork and underpaid). I know I will not get compensated for the additional workload. I'm trying to remain optimistic. The RTO mandate is pushing away loyal talented employees and pushing away people looking for a job. It's a lose-lose situation. Losing talented employees and pi----g off the employees who are trying to stick it out.

This entire 5 day RTO mandate isn't going to go well at all, and no, it's not JUST about having to go in the office. It's about how this is clearly a blanket solution to solve 1 particular problem within the company. A "solution" which will undo decade(s) of progress seemingly overnight.

Before COVID, we thrived on our 2-3 days in-person. That flexibility is why many of us joined and stayed. During COVID, we continued to thrive on remote work. And again, that flexibility is why many of us stayed. In return, many of us (without additional compensation mind you) gave back to the company by being available virtually 24/7. Fast forward to this day in 2026 and that mutual contract is broken. What does that mean?

Mandating 5 days in the office while continuing to expect 24/7 availability from most employees isn't sustainable. It's a recipe for burnout and resentment. Furthermore, claiming we've always been in-person and have been suffering due to our current arrangements completely contradicts the recent earnings report for 2025.

Look, this isn't another post by someone yelling into the void. This is a post from someone who cares. Believe it or not many of us do, which is why the following needs to be said:

This decision will hurt the company. In more ways than just one. It will damage morale, push out amazing talent, and ki-l the very culture that made this place what it is today. Locals are upset, news channels are reporting, employees feel disrespected, the list goes on.

2025 net income $7 billion
$16.59 diluted EPS
2024 Q4 net income $2 billion and $4.88 diluted EPS

By virtually all measures 2025 was a successful year. Strong execution across all business lines resulted in record revenue.

Don't be fooled by Bill's remarks that we are lacking in performance. His RTO announcement is nothing more than a fear mongering power trip. We have proven quarter after quarter, year after year, that remote work - WORKS! Its 2026 for f**ks sake. Maybe if we follow Bill's logic we should eliminate PNC Online Banking (something we delivered during the pandemic) because "we work best together in person" (Bill's words). So eliminate Online Banking and have everyone use a physical branch. Oh you live an hour away from a branch? Sorry you must use your nearest branch.

What does it show? Does it breakdown hours by day? Or does just show average or a bucket you fall in(7+ hours)