#rto

Hearing some sub-orgs in S&T (specifically Dave’s org) are now requiring their teams to be in 3-4x a week. Can anyone confirm?

The messages on this site are making their way to HR. Apparently the RTO discussion is making some headway and was brought up on their early Monday morning call.

To HR: push back on this mandate, no one likes it and it has no benefit over 4 days.

Post here for tips and recommendations to those venturing into the office. It’s a bit of a free for all in my opinion, not like going into the office pre covid!

AT&T would face a lot less resistance to change if leadership finally dropped the RTO obsession. Most of us support performance-based expectations and accountability, but the forced return and relocation policies have turned the majority of employees against upper management.

You can’t rebuild trust while punishing the workforce. People aren’t resisting change, they’re resisting bad leadership. Until that changes, you’ll keep getting the bare minimum effort and zero loyalty in return.

It is concerning how the company is handling remote work and RTO rules. In the same team, some people are working 100% remote while others with the same job have RTO. This is not fair or consistent. If people in the same roles are treated differently, isn't this discrimination, especially if any protected group is affected.

No problem with RTO, but the rule should be the same for everyone, including those hired remote. If not, everyone should have the same choice to work remote or RTO.

It is also unfair that remote employees get same pay while avoiding commute time and costs that RTO employees have to deal with. If this difference continues, pay should be adjusted to reflect it. Remote employees are tone-deaf in setting meetings when RTO employees are commuting.

This setup feels unfair and is causing frustration among many. The company should apply RTO fairly and equally to all employees.

Which caused voluntary attrition. Don’t get me wrong, they did lay some employees off but not on the same scale as meta, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.

What does the future hold for T? Do you all think they will start more structured layoffs in the years to come?

This site seems to be a colorful mix of teammates. With that, what do you dislike most about this bank? On the other side of the coin what keeps you coming back each day? Will RTO push you to leave?

Is it true the that Verizon wants to RIF most employees in non-directional locations in late 2026 and 2027 as part of the broader strategy to go lean?

Now that we have three main directional locations, Dan wants to accelerate the plan to shutdown real estate in non-directional locations (cost reduction), make 5 days in office and then start removing the employees in non directional locations. Of course some key ones would be asked to relocate.

This is probably not the case for the RIF this month but coming in 2026!

How does it look for the forthcoming years in terms of RTO? Are they going to close more non-hubs, open new hubs, force 3 days instead of 5? Who’s got the crystal ball?🔮

Purpose: To enforce mandatory physical presence and ensure measurable, minimum value generation during all assigned work periods to maximize shareholder return.

1. Mandatory Physical Presence and Monitoring

All workstations are equipped with a Certified Occupancy Sensor and a visible Presence Timer linked to the employee's system. Departure from the seat before the Work Cycle reaches "Complete" status (Green) is strictly prohibited.

1. Value Creation and AI Productivity Metrics
   All digital activity is subject to continuous monitoring by Proprietary AI Productivity Tools (PAPT). These tools track and quantify:
   Activity Volume: The prerequisite amount of digital activity (e.g., keystrokes, application usage, meeting participation) required for the cycle.

Created Value: The prerequisite amount of measurable output (e.g., ticket closures, code commits, report finalization) deemed necessary for value generation.

1. Incomplete Work Cycle Protocol for Salaried Employees

If an employee fails to achieve both the Activity Volume and the Created Value prerequisites, the Work Cycle will be designated Incomplete (Red Status).

Salaried employees with an Incomplete Work Cycle will be required to immediately extend their workday until all prerequisite metrics are met and the timer reaches "Complete" (Green Status), regardless of scheduled end time. This constitutes uncompensated time necessary to meet core job requirements.

1. Mandatory Adherence Tier and Workstation Restraint

Any employee registering three or more Incomplete or prematurely terminated Work Cycles in a 30-day period will be automatically placed in the Mandatory Adherence Tier.

These employees must formally consent to the installation of an Electronic Workstation Restraint System (Seatbelt), which will remain locked throughout the work period.

Failure to consent to the terms of the Mandatory Adherence Tier and the installation of the restraint system will be viewed as a refusal to comply with mandatory operational policy and will result in immediate termination.

Authorized Release will only occur during assigned scheduled breaks, lunch periods, and one (1) pre-approved, ad hoc restroom break per half-day shift.

The layoffs were in the works for months and the execs certainly knew about it. And yet, Prat and Rick still decided to call us all back to the office on their arbitrary timeline, upend our lives and schedules, and scramble for desk space. All to lay off people mere weeks later. Do they get a sick enjoyment out of controlling us like puppets or are they just really bad at decision making?

Or is it just the worker bees? Who is monitoring management?

After that disastrous, blunt, outlook-vision, do we need to bother going in ? Why bother? Who cares about RTO

The rules:

• 4x days per week of 1sq ft of unassigned space ... only if you're lucky to get on the good side of the 1.3 ratio - otherwise, you must work on your laptop in the lunchroom.
• Take your own keyboard and mouse home every day.
• Apply noise cancelling ear-phones if you want any kind of focus.

Does not apply to VP+. They get their own office (they don't work better together).

The combination of strict 4+ Day return to office AND hotel desking is the double whammy of bad news. Think one or both could die off down the road? A lot of companies are doing 3 days with assigned desks, which I feel is far more reasonable. Hate to think this is the new normal indefinitely…

CBS did incur layoffs very few in sports many in news and some in CBS E even union jobs
for what's it's worth - and HR here can absolutely correct - management could be gaslighting us to calm down

were told no more planned layoffs this year no round two planned RTO will take effect for both phases Remote only jobs will end
that early 2026 is streaming related

and that yes news is a wild card with new sheriff - i'm not in news
--just conveying what was told me

Dan said in another 22 days they will have the plan which will be 44days him being a ceo, so who ever said nov 20 they will probably turn out to be true

I live close to the office, no-one in my team is at the office and I find the noise of other people on calls distracting. I've been coffee badging for a few years now, it's worked out great, not showing up on reports.

The new 8 hours in the office mandate has me wondering if I can swipe and connect to the network twice on "in office" days, 8 hours apart and stay off the reporting? Has anyone done this successfully?

I know the policy, not looking for people to remind me of what I'm supposed to do...

AT&T’s latest masterclass in self-sabotage: spend millions attacking T-Mobile, violate NAD rules, and get slapped with a cease-and-desist.
You’d think someone in legal or marketing would’ve caught that — maybe the one competent person who actually reads compliance documents.

But that person got RTO’d to Dallas or Atlanta five days a week, fighting for a seat, dodging “collaboration days,” and wondering why their life turned into a bad sitcom.
Meanwhile, the yes-men who approved this ad are sipping coffee in their corner offices, calling this fiasco “brand momentum.”

Let’s be honest — we’re not #1 in customer service or innovation.
We’re #1 in wasting money. We should be a Harvard Business School case study on how to find new ways to burn cash and call it a strength.
Only AT&T could turn a marketing campaign into a compliance violation and call it “forward-thinking.”

Now the ad’s gone, the money’s gone, and morale’s in free fall — but hey, at least leadership gets another “All-Hands” meeting to tell us how proud they are of the team.

Thoughts?

Move on good teammates. This is reality. I don’t like it but it’s my only option now. Let’s focus on making good business decisions so the bank does well. We’re all in this together. Truist is poised to be the best regional bank. Leadership may need some coaching but the frontline teammates are solid. Let’s focus on the clients, they picked PURPLE for a reason - let’s commit to serving them.

Does anyone know what the targets were for this round and what they will be for future rounds?

Do we expect more groups to be cut more or wait for RTO Phase 2 happens also to see who leaves then

More head scratching incompetence from Truist higher ups as usual. The most insulting thing is the brain dead word salad they come up with to justify this latest folly. "Foster a champion mindset"... how? by sitting in a loud call center and further impacting the client (and teammates) quality of life? We all hear how cacophonous offshore calls are. I guess they're just looking for some chaotic cohension. This will backfire miserably and I'll be in the shadows chuckling.

Am I crazy or did that town hall this morning not give insight to anything? The only time Farley talked about rto was how personal he took the conference room hack but the culprit has been found and fired. Being the first GTH since this policy went into effect and not addressing it in the slightest is such a coward move by leadership. How does he get paid 20mil + gifted jerseys to drive around Utah in a Bronco and give these sh---y town halls?!

Sycamore is mandating a four-day commute to Deerfield starting in February, which significantly increases out-of-pocket costs for employees, especially those who commuted to OPO previously. Yet, despite 3% inflation over the past year, salaries are not being adjusted - not even to cover a basic cost-of-living increase. What a slap in the face

Hey RTO folks - Anyone noticing their location being tracked via Teams now?

Thoughts?
We are paying RW how much to write his emails with AI?
Buybacks su-k and should be illegal.
“We don’t plan to cut benefits”. I’ll save that one also with the cr-p RTO quotes from years ago.

Micromanagement, no innovation in person 5 days 9 hours, for what? for the stock to drop 50%!
even now they didn't learn anything, we were told not to day trade in the office.
work on innovation , learn from paypal. just silos, too much process for years. too many slackers , just talking non stop 9 to 6 in the office, how will that create Next Gen Products ?

they said all is well but there will be silent RIFs. thats the only way to pumpup the stock.

You will find some areas that may be better managed and functional. If you are being brought in at a higher level with a specialized job, for example, if you are an AI expert and are part of the chosen, inner circle it is probably still a good option. But I would read through these posts carefully as there is a lot of factual info that should be given careful consideration. There is no real innovation, profits are being made shifting jobs off shore, via premature implementation of AI and via RIFs; that is not sustainable as a long term strategy. The senior leadership team for the most part is incompetent in my opinion. The CFO has no healthcare knowledge, the CIO has crashed and burned at several companies. Look at public records and you will see that the SLT is not buying Elevance stock, with the exception of one 2.3 mil purchase by Gail to shore up quarterly earnings, they have spent 400k total in stock purchases over the last year and are ditching their shares whenever that can. The chief security officer left, supposedly due to questionable behavior re in house self monitoring. The culture is very much a caste system where the SLT and their minions pass down impossible to meet goals and then also I believe misrepresent up the chain that goals are being met. RIFs are constant and are not communicated; it is like a horror movie where people are disappeared in the night. This results in the people who are left having unreasonable workloads and overall makes for a miserable culture. Many people who were hired fully remote and never went into an office were required to go in 3 days and wouldn’t be shocked if it goes to 5. Expect raises that don’t keep pace with inflation and cr-p bonuses. Advancement opportunities are also limited. If the job has anything to do with provider data, that is a mess. I would never do a call center job at this company. If you go in with your eyes open and limit yourself to 40 hour weeks from the outset and are able to manage your stress and understand from the outset that it is not you it is them; then perhaps it will be workable for you. I would strongly caution anyone who has underlying anxiety or an inability to compartmentalize against this company. You don’t mention percentage wise what the difference in potential salary is, I would perhaps see if you can negotiate with the other organization for a future increase.

Posted by @bg+1k8g1dfer, well said.

Anyone hearing a rumor about moving to track length of time laptop is connected on-premises to a USB network (not VPN)? Been hearing this in unrelated areas over the last few weeks, but it seems far too ‘big brother’. I know they can already track every moment on it, but I can’t imagine they’ll micro-manage this much to ensure RTO compliance to the point of tracking length of time on network. Anyone know more about this to confirm if it’s true?

Requested severance a year ago and was denied. Started plan to quiet quit and leave in a year. Had 6.5 weeks pto that i used to drag out projects and be gone during critical times. They tried to get me to RTO. I gave them a doctor's note that had reqmts they could not meet so i stayed remote. I ended up implementing 1 CR before leaving this fall.
It was the easiest year i had ever worked while making other arrangements for myself.

Think strategically for yourself and plan ahead and remember you owe them NOTHING.

not asking if you can share it here, just point me to where i can find it internally?

9 more WFH days left

ENJOY

Was notified last week all REMOTE workers would be displaced. Welp- Hello still 100% remote with my job!

Now who's Ready for the town hall meeting Friday?

Heard several say 4 hrs PTO don't count as day in, but I've also heard from others it does. In the same umbrella! Is it truly mgr discretion? Mgr site says it counts. Wondering what others think or have been told Btw.. no problem going into office

I just saw this on a BSL community within Viva Engage posted on 10/23:

Mandate Zip Code Questions:
• The 30-minute commute time that determines RTO eligibility was developed using peak commute time hours/days of the week by zip code.
• Currently, RTO is only impacting the audiences below in the Twin Cities and
Washington DC:
• All hybrid employees assigned to EPC (Eden Prairie Campus), HCL (Health Care
Lane) and DC (655 New York Ave)
• All telecommuters within a 30-minute commute time of EPC/HCL/DC
• Future RTO waves or mandates (other cities or populations) are still under review at this time.
• If you were not on the distribution list for RTO and did not receive a communication, then you are exempt from RTO at this time. If you are confused about whether you are impacted, please reach out to your manager.

Assuming some would quit with RTO, saving severance and unemployment.

If you are working 7 days a week, your RTO will be 7. It's a simple formula, 6 days in office for everyone exept for the folks who work all 7 days, they will be coming in 7 days, we'll call that Full-RTO.

There are so many questions about RTO and many wrong assertions. This is what I KNOW based on direct involvement with the process.

• Badge Swipes IN are tracked and reported. The reports are provided to GL 32 leaders every Monday morning. The report contains the employee, the day and the time of the swipe. It also shows through a conditional format those that are non-compliant
• In-office duration is NOT tracked. The only way to track duration would be to have exit swipes. Exit swipes will NEVER be required because they violate fire codes in the US. You can't have the doors lock people in.
• Seats ARE randomly audited but only by "uptight" managers, not as a required practice. I was called out once for not being in my assigned desk. I was actually in the office but opted to use a "huddle room" for work because I was on the phone constantly and the area they had me in was loud with dev teams that had zero to do with my job.
• People have had "swipe teams". That's groups that get together and each week someone brings everyone's badges into the office and swipes for folks. They trade off week over week. It's common in non-guarded buildings and will 100% get you terminated "with cause". It became evident in my city because the swipe report occasionally show entire groups coming in at the same time everyday for a week. The "swipers" were in other words sloppy. I've seen it.