#rto

My whole team has banded together and not a single one of us showed up to the office.

Go ahead and fire two dozen people who make the wheels on the bus go round because you’re mad ELT has su-ked at its job for a LONNNNNG time. How very Intel that would be.

We write the code, MFer. We know the inner workings of the tangle of databases, data flows, who to go to to remove blockers. We’re ONLY here because we can do this job in 6 hours a day. Make it more, and we’ll go work somewhere that will pay us for full output.

Some roles need to be in the office. Some people prefer the office. That’s fine, if that’s you, then go in.

But for everyone else whose jobs don’t require face-to-face interaction or physical presence, the choice should be ours or our manager's. Work where you’re most productive, and come into the office when it’s actually necessary. That’s what true balance & flexibility looks like.

I worked from home every single day for 8 years before Covid, with no issues. My productivity was high, my customers and peers were happy, and the work got done. So what exactly changed?.. Nothing, except leadership’s obsession with control.

RTO shouldn’t be forced. It should be optional. Why is this so hard for them to grasp?

I’ll never understand the mindset of people who think their job is validated by swiping into an office instead of actually producing results. Walking past a turnstile doesn’t make you valuable. Sitting in a cube doesn’t make you productive. And bragging about being “present” doesn’t make customers any happier.

The real measure of worth here is what you deliver — the problems you solve, the customers you help, the value you create. That used to be obvious. But now we’ve got folks acting like their contribution is measured in commutes and cube hours. That’s not work, that’s theater.

AT&T doesn’t survive on badge swipes. It survives on results. The sooner this company remembers that, the sooner we stop bleeding talent to competitors who already figured it out.

It’s no secret inside or outside the company: Stankey is on thin ice. The board can only cover for him so long with stock price smoke and mirrors while the foundation crumbles.

Under his watch we’ve had massive outages leaving customers furious and regulators circling, along with embarrassing data breaches exposing millions of people’s personal info and destroying trust in the brand. On top of that, his tone-deaf RTO mandate tanked morale, drove talent out the door, and turned AT&T into a poster child for corporate arrogance. And how did he respond? Not with solutions, but with ultimatums in all-hands emails.

This isn’t leadership — it’s a slow-motion collapse. Employees know it. Customers know it. Shareholders are starting to realize it too. Stankey’s “commit or quit” email didn’t motivate anyone; it broadcast desperation. And with every outage, every breach, every resignation, it’s clearer that he’s not the guy to fix this mess.

Don’t be shocked if the board makes a move. At this point, the only real question is whether they’ll act in time to save what’s left of AT&T.

There were very few people that decided to spend the first week RTO as required by Intel couldn’t even make it four days. It shows the caliber of Intel employees

the return to office push is really a quiet layoff.

during covid many companies overhired. now instead of open cuts, they pressure people back into offices under the culture excuse.

here’s the kicker...... 70%+ of companies will demand 3+ days in office by end of 2025. that’s almost three quarters making attendance a downsizing trick with no official layoffs... voila.

meanwhile remote, proven to raise retention and productivity, is being ki-led off. companies want control of bodies, not more value. it’s a squeeze, not a focus shift. this isn’t about better work. it’s about cutting headcount without hr drama.

and if you hear chatter like oh we’re an office culture, right before they talk comp, take it as a warning. if execs push for 5 days or dangle perks for facetime, stop and ask: is this really culture, or just a quiet exit plan.

look through the haze and fu-k them…

I've been back at full time office for almost 2.5 years. I saw the writing on the wall and decided to do 5 days even before that mandate came out. Loved the initial months of WFH but the days became longer and longer. I was averaging 53-55 hours per week. Now I do a straight 40 and leave. When asked about working additional hours I cite an after-work obligation I need to attend to. I continue to receive good reviews, decent bonuses and team awards. The quality of life improvement in taking back those 13-15 hours a week is amazing. I get the downside of RTO for the masses, but I'd like to know if others have recaptured the additional hours they were giving away for free before 5 days a week in-office was mandated.

Amazon's strict return-to-office policy is limiting its recruitment efforts. Amazon's AI reputation and pay structure also challenge its ability to attract talent.

NVIDIA's non-existent return-to-office policy vastly improves its recruitment efforts. NVIDIA's AI reputation and pay structure vastly improve its ability to attract talent.

Duh, there are other places!

I don’t post often, but I can’t stay quiet anymore. RTO is breaking this company, and it’s breaking the people who’ve held it together through every storm.

We’ve already endured layoffs, outsourcing, constant reorganizations, and a revolving door of “strategic visions.” Through it all, employees adapted. We stayed. We worked harder with less. We found ways to keep this place running even when leadership gave us little in return.

And then came RTO.
• Long commutes rob us of hours that could be spent with our families or serving customers.
• Overcrowded offices are unsafe, stressful, and do nothing to improve collaboration… we’re still on Teams all day with coworkers in other states and countries.
• Morale has collapsed. The message is clear: loyalty doesn’t matter, results don’t matter … only badge swipes.
• And the best “younger” people? They’re leaving. They’ve found remote jobs at companies that trust them and respect their time. AT&T is bleeding talent it will never get back.

Please, stop this before it’s too late. Remote and hybrid work worked. Customers were happy. Productivity was high. Employees had balance. The only thing RTO has delivered is frustration, attrition, and despair.

AT&T doesn’t need to be the company that dies on this hill. End the forced RTO. Trust the people who’ve carried you this far. Give us the flexibility we’ve already proven works.

Because if this continues, there won’t be anyone left to carry it at all.

So the company is going to can all remote only positions and won’t hire for any in future? Even if you are not anywhere near an office? Or is RTO only for hybrid workers and remote being removed for them?

For those who don't currently work at Ford, you may think the posts about having a chair taken, restrooms in disrepair, parking lots on overflow, and people camped out in cafeterias that were not made for working are all an overstatement. As a current employee I'm here to tell you they are absolutely true and being reported by our coworkers on an increasingly frequent basis. I have personally witnessed each of those things in my building in Dearborn.

Current employees, I encourage you to join the viva engage channels where folks are sharing their experiences from around the world. You can share your experience, you are not alone.

In Mexico, they are commuting 1-2 hours each way due to the traffic congestion around the location where the Ford campus is located. In Dunton, a 20 mile drive can take 1-2 hours with traffic.

These are not employees looking to complain for the sake of complaining. These are employees who have done what was asked and showed up to their assigned location, only to be continually failed by leadership and Ford Land.

Someone posted about occupancy limits and fire code violations. They are cramming so many people into spaces that were not meant for people to be sitting at. Cords are draped across tables and the floor since there are no power outlets on tables that were meant to eat lunch at.

It doesn't have to be this way and it shouldn't be this way. Please speak up. Use the onsite feedback site that I'm sure has been shared in your channels. This is not healthy, it is not productive, and for those of us who truly want to see the company succeed, it is accomplishing nothing but tearing us apart.

The wider we share our experiences, the more chances we have to put some real social pressure on those who made these decisions.

To all of those showing up, hang in there and know you're not alone. And also, I'm sorry, we used to be so much better than this.

Email received today:

Need to Know:

• An in-office day is considered 8 hours in the office
• New reporting will show how long employees are in the office each day
• Employees are expected to be in the office 3 "full' days a week

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/09/04/paramount-5-day-a-week-mandate.html

Any truth to the Compliance department being told they need to be in the office 4 days a week starting Jan 1st?

Has anyone heard anything credible about the bank forcing people back to the office 4 days per week starting in 2026?

We never see the guy in the parking garages - not in Ross, not in DalPark. We never see the guy roaming the headquarters either. The guy lives in Bluffview, TX - one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of all of Dallas. He gets driven 15 min to the HQ in his Range Rover and parks in private parking. Then proceeds to take his private elevator that lights up straight to floor 4.

Yet, I have to commute from McKinney - a middle class city to downtown and sit in bumper to bumper traffic. I am waitlisted from DalPark so pay 50 bucks per month to park in Ross. But that requires taking a crumby shuttle past the homeless to global HQ. So, I decide to pay double for parking and pay the daily parking fee at Ervay St and then walk over 5 min to headquarters. I pass several suspicious, crazy, and homeless people and realize I don’t have any pepper spray on me. Once I get in HQ, I see impressive led screens then take the elevator to floor 8 where the monitors, keyboards, and mouse haven’t been refreshed since 2010. Just 2 floors above Stankey where the floor was recently redone.

1 company. 2 different people. 2 very different lives. Rules for thee but not me.

Just curious, how your teams and coworkers reacted? For sites that aren't core hubs - did they share more details what will happen?
Are there enough spaces on sites to manage the required capacity?

John Stanley has we-ponized the 5-day RTO and turned AT&T into a corporate Hunger Games.
🚗 Long commute = the opening obstacle course.
🪑 No desk = fight for survival.
🅿️ No parking = bonus round.
🏢 Sh---y buildings = final boss.
🏴‍☠️ Low morale = the prize.

Stankey wants a market based culture, but it’s a 2 way street and we need to give them the same. Just so the bare minimum to get paid and save any effort and energy you have for when you move on to your next company.

They just implemented a plan for full time return to office 5 days a week for EVERY employee (including hybrid or remote)....or take the package and gone by Oct 31st...with more layoffs to come in November.

In the gilded towers of BNY a bold new vision has emerged—one that promises to revolutionize banking by replacing logic with leveraged cost ratios, and employees with AI bots. The mission? A 25% displacement goal so ambitious it makes someone with an unusually large head look like a walking Super Dome.

This is not just a transformation. It’s a crusade. A cost-efficient, culture-energizing, AI-powered march toward oblivion.

RTO: Return to Office or Return to Obsolescence
The EC’s flagship initiative, Return to Office (RTO), is less a policy and more a spiritual awakening—one that beckons employees back to the fluorescent-lit temples of productivity. Not because collaboration improves, mind you, but because empty buildings are bad for optics and worse for lease negotiations.
Employees are given two choices:

1. Return to the office and pretend the vending machine is a coworker.
2. Voluntarily resign, thereby forfeiting severance and preserving the sacred cost-to-income ratio.
   It’s a masterclass in corporate jiu-jitsu: force attrition without triggering WARN notices, all while claiming “voluntary turnover.” HR calls it “strategic realignment.” Employees call it “gaslighting with a badge swipe.”

Leveraged Cost Ratios: The New Religion
The EC’s obsession with leveraged cost ratios has reached theological proportions. Every decision—from layoffs to latte restrictions—is filtered through the holy spreadsheet. If the ratio improves, it’s divine intervention. If it worsens, blame middle management or the interns.
To meet the sacred 25% displacement goal, the EC has deployed a three-pronged strategy:
• Radical Offshoring: Because nothing says “client intimacy” like a 13-hour time difference.
• Real Estate Consolidation: Turn five buildings into one, then fill it with crowded parking lots and free ice cream.
• Geographic Darwinism: Employees must relocate to “low-cost hubs” like Pittsburgh, Lake Mary or “somewhere near a functioning airport in Poland.”
Those unwilling to uproot their lives are gently nudged toward “career transitions,” which is EC-speak for “LinkedIn Premium trial.”

Offshoring: The Great American Job Evaporation Act
In a move that would make Machiavelli blush, the EC has embraced offshoring with the fervor of a startup chasing Series A funding. High-paying U.S. roles are being shipped to India and Poland faster than you can say “knowledge transfer.” Now tell that to your son or daughter with a new Comp Sci degree and a huge student loan!
The rationale? “Global talent optimization.” The reality? A 3 a.m. Teams call with someone who just inherited your Jira board and thinks “Agile” is a yoga pose.
Meanwhile, U.S. employees are asked to train their replacements with a smile, a script, and a non-disparagement clause. It’s like being asked to decorate your own guillotine.

Real Estate: Consolidate, Congest, Confuse
BNY’s real estate strategy is modeled after a game of corporate musical chairs—except the music is a fire alarm test and the chairs are pulled with barely a WARN notice
Entire floors are shuttered, cubicles are repurposed as “collaboration pods,” and thermostats are set to “Arctic Ambiguity.” Employees who once had offices now share hot desks with the ghost of productivity past.
The EC touts this as “space efficiency.” Employees call it “a dystopian WeWork with free Starbucks coffee.”

AI: The Messiah of Mediocrity & Risk
To distract from the mass exodus and morale collapse, the EC has unveiled its pièce de résistance: artificial intelligence. Not the kind that solves problems, but the kind that generates code fixes and sends and endless stream of calendar meeting invites.
AI is heralded as the “game-changing solution” to banking’s future. Never mind that it can’t distinguish between a compliance breach and a cat meme. It’s here, it’s expensive, and it’s definitely not replacing the EC anytime soon.
Investors are told that AI will “energize culture.” Employees wonder if that means replacing the annual bonus with Eliza-generated haikus.

Investor Relations: Fiction Meets Finance
In quarterly earnings calls, the EC paints a picture of a vibrant, energized workforce—one that’s “leaner, more agile, and deeply committed to innovation.” This is technically true, if by “leaner” you mean “unemployed,” and by “agile” you mean “dodging layoffs.”
Analysts and interns nod approvingly, spreadsheets and dashboards sparkle, and stock prices flutter upward like a paper airplane in a hurricane. Meanwhile, the actual workforce is Googling “how to fake enthusiasm in Teams meetings.”

Corporate Absurdities That Deserve Their Own HR Memo
To truly appreciate the EC’s strategic genius, one must examine the absurdities baked into the day-to-day experience of surviving their vision:
• Buzzword Bingo: “Let’s circle back after we socialize this idea.” Translation: We have no idea what we’re doing, but we’ll pretend to have a plan once enough people nod.
• Perks That Feel Like Punishment: Free kombucha on tap—but new high priced benefits premiums and no dental coverage and no payment for unused vacation.
• Performance Reviews by Ouija Board: “You exceeded expectations, but we’re giving you a ‘Meets’ to keep your raise under budget.” “Your leadership score dropped because you didn’t smile enough in Teams meetings.”
• Office Space Shenanigans: Hot-desking in a building with no available desks. Hot seating means stall #3 on the 11th floor. “Collaboration zones” are of course next to the expensive coffee makers because by design this is where innovation happens. Open floor plans are designed by someone who’s never worked in one.
• AI Adoption Theater: “We’re using AI to streamline operations.” Translation: We bought a chatbot that can’t answer basic questions. “We’re training AI on our internal data.” Including the EC’s lunch order history and passive-aggressive “word salad” emails.
• Layoffs Framed as “Strategic Realignment”: “We’re right-sizing the organization.” By removing everyone who knows how the systems work. “This is a growth opportunity.” For the remaining employees to do three jobs.
• Relocation Roulette: “You can keep your job if you move to Lake Mary.” With 10 days’ notice and no relocation support. “Remote work is no longer aligned with our values.” But offshoring is.

Culture: The Energized Mirage
The EC insists that culture is thriving. There are town halls, virtual scavenger hunts, and mandatory quarterly mindfulness fireside chats led by designated talking heads, but when it comes to answering questions about people issues and layoff concerns…. Guess what, sorry folks we’re out of time!
But beneath the surface lies a culture of fear, fatigue, and forced optimism. Employees speak in hushed tones, Teams channels resemble support groups, and “career development” means surviving until Q4.
Still, the EC remains undeterred. After all, nothing energizes culture like a 25% headcount reduction and a chatbot named “SynergyBot.”

Conclusion: The Cost of Cost-Cutting
BNY’s EC team has achieved something truly remarkable: a strategic plan so aggressive it makes a hostile takeover look like a bake sale. Through RTO mandates, offshoring, real estate consolidation, and AI evangelism, they’ve redefined what it means to “optimize.”
But in their quest for cost efficiency, they’ve forgotten one thing: people. The ones who built the systems, served the clients, and made the spreadsheets sing.
So here’s to the displaced, the disillusioned, and the deskless. May your severance be generous, your next job be remote, and your AI overlords be slightly less passive-aggressive.

I feel like there's been a lot of rumors going on here and within the office about what is going on right now. Although this is a failure on HR, lets look at the facts:

Year 1: HR flagged people who were coming in less than one day a week (swipe only)
Year 2: HR flagged people who were coming in less than two days a week (swipe only)

We are on Year 3. This report seems to be coming out yearly. These people got warnings from their managers, nothing more nothing less and next strike would've been HR. So lets dive into the two main questions:

1) Is it possible to track where someone is working from? Yes, but HCSC is usually slow to implement and I doubt HR is too technically savvy (so they'd need consultants/IT). This is possible, but there is no confirmation this is happening yet. Wouldn't be surprised though if they are looking into this/have a plan to implement but again just speculation at this point.

2) Do you need to come in 3 days a week or else HR will flag you right away? This one I am more skeptical on. Don't get me wrong they could bump it up on next years report to 3 days to flag, but as mentioned on here, PTO, people getting sick, etc. You really think HR/Executives aren't working from home when they're sick or are making up days in office? Also they'd be calling in so many people if they were looking at this weekly. They'd call people in for long PTOS (I Just took 2 weeks so there's no way I could make it up in one month anyways). My best guess if anything they'd bump it to 2.5 days next report, but who knows maybe they actually do 3 and half the company gets a warning (which would be id--tic).

Don't get me wrong, they do seem to be getting stricter. but countless rumors do not help with people's anxiety about the situation. Also if anyone in HR is looking at this, please do better :) Why not have a townhall specifically on this topic and we can finally put this behind us. Let the people speak directly and ask questions, we can collaborate and make this work for all of us.

They have started the next round of layoffs without having to pay severance. They are cherry picking which employees are allowed to remain remote and those that need to report to either Lake Mary or Pittsburgh. Failure to relocate is considered voluntary termination / resignation by the Work Together policy. It doesn't matter if you were previously approved to work in remote location... The worst is inconsistent enforcement. Many people on team remote - only certain individuals given mandate to relocate. It should be illegal to consider it voluntary termination. If you are going to layoff someone do so.

Will we be fired for not going in enough? I know they are tracking badge scans. 31s and above are mandatory back to office including telecommuters. I am sure it is only a matter of time where everyone else goes back at this point.

Yep. A $25M office renovation in round rock. Totally unnecessary while they’re laying off thousands of people.

https://www.statesman.com/business/technology/article/dell-technologies-round-rock-hq-expansion-25m-21026546.php

But they want you back in they get tax breaks because of it. POS company.

So we've got the infamous rto spreadsheet tracker, we've got the big brother spying on employees and we've got the 80% job elimination project...

Does all of this represent one "plan"?

the return to office push is a quiet layoff.
during covid many companies massively overhired. now instead of cutting loose the talent, they’re quietly pressuring people back into offices under the guise of restoring culture.

here’s the real kicker. 73% of companies will require employees to be back in the office three or more days a week by the end of 2025. that’s nearly three quarters of businesses turning attendance into a subtle form of downsizing with no official layoffs... voila!

meanwhile employees are reminded that remote, which by the way consistently drives up retention and productivity, is on its way out. companies are reclaiming control of bodies, not necessarily delivering value… it’s a strategic squeeze, not a refocus. this isn’t about boosting performance instead it’s about trimming staff without triggering an hr mess.

and if you’re hearing more chatter about oh we want we’re an in office culture, then talking about your compensation, that my friend could be your warning. so if the execs insists you’re back 5 days a week or they’re dangling incentives for facetime, pause and ask urself: is this a culture reboot or just a quiet exit strategy.

Just look through the haze and fu-k them…

I left Ford many years ago. I can’t believe these RTO stories. Not enough desks, working in cafeteria, people stealing chairs?? Absolute insanity. Which buildings are like this?

FN1 and FN2 were at max capacity today and then some. The (small) cafeteria was full of workers using the tables as their desk for the day, folks were working at corners of desks and had to sit away from their teams. This was at 8:45 AM, not 10 AM. It's so hard to focus during endless Teams class while folks are wandering around trying to locate a desk or spot to camp out. Someone likened it to the Spirit Airlines of office places.

I’m starting to decline these. Including Lunch and learn, aka bring your own lunch, but the deep dives are catered for select clowns in the Ford Big Top Circus. This place is really getting to me and productivity is now worse with RTO and people are super agitated.

Every single one with each person sitting at their desk bored out of their minds. Can we admit RTO only makes sense if everyone moved to Westlake?

Just wondering, if anyone has been affected by not complying to full RTO. Heard management has been more strict now, probably since we are heading towards year end. I know it will eventually result in termination. But do they give a warning and then PIP? or just lay you off randomly. I just think its ridiculous for this 3 day office requirement..

With the never ending WFR,low moral,ever increasing sales quota,low pay by industry standard,full return to office,ever increasing KPI's,0 career progression,0 industry standard training,ever changing end goals and zero motivation from all involved.Has Dell completley lost any ability to attract or keep real talent going forward?
Seems to me like they have focused on the short term for far too long and this will be the downfall of the company.

My usual routine is just badge-in in the morning and walk out of the building. It seems Broadcom doesn’t track when you’re leaving the office. That’s how we’re taking advantage of the attendance system.

Are you guys pathetically staying in the office the entire day?

Do we actually have to hit 32 hours each week in addition to 4 days in the office?

See you in a month for the RA’s. So pathetically predictable. Debanding next. Then five days in office. Garbage human beings.

I really dislike the tone of the RTO discussion in the AM Town Hall this morning.

Doesn't Nielsen management know that Nielsen will lose high-performing employees to companies that allow working from home? I think it is already happening.

Commuting every day is such a waste of time for many tech workers, and working from home is a perk a company can offer that boosts worker's quality of life and costs the company less than nothing.

I know I will probably leave if RTO comes to my location.

Maybe they should have had all elevators functional before mandating 4 days in office...The Executive Committee ought to be replaced with AI. Would save the shareholders tens of millions with 16 lay offs and not miss common sense issues like have the building ready for RTO

After 5 long years, RTO starts today! What a great thing. Alarms going off, people actually showering, getting dressed and heading out to work!

No more get the kids ready, do laundry, go out get coffee, walk kids to bus stop then.....maybe start work.

This is why they pay you folks! It is called work!

Woot woot!

My team has 12 people and only 7 showed up at the office today. A lot of people are hoping that they will just get away with it.