#rto

tell your RTO first day story ? Was it all you dreamed ?

The EC sends out an email today reminding everyone about the principle of "Thrive Together."

Well, let's review the principle and how it is defined on paper vs. what it means in practice.

On paper: "Our culture is built by all of us, and we lead by example. Doing the right thing matters and trust is earned. Creating an environment where everyone belongs is essential - that's how we succeed."

BNY associates are not stupid and don't appreciate being lied to or kept in the dark. That's the quickest way to erode trust, confidence in leadership and culture. In fact, these are the main reasons why people are on this site and commenting about BNY workplace and deplorable people management behavior.

Not that it matters but The People Team (or EC) would be better off to communicate early and often throughout the change process. This means acting more intentionally with greater transparency, by showing receptiveness and responding to feedback on really important people concerns, and providing clear organizational direction on people management matters. So why all the secrecy? It only leads to more fear, uncertainty and doubt.

In practice: EC wants us to thrive together by working together in office 4 days per week. The only natural consequences of this mandate are to intentionally make work-life more difficult for those not living nearby a brick-and-mortar office location, to recapture corporate control and to increase work-life inflexibility.

The EC and HR communications, micromanagement, and the lack of collaboration by 'all of us' are in direct contradiction with the written definition of how we 'Thrive Together,' do the right thing and earn trust.

Where does this leadership by example come from? Come on man!

The global IT is being outsourced hence your RTO reprieve

How come some people get warnings for not being in the office for 3 days but some managers work from Amsterdam with a Germany contract? This is illegal.

Intel "Corrupted Inside" acronym

Incompetent
Non-Talented
Engineering
Lackies
​
The Good Inside has since long gone.

​Welcome back to the office lackies!

Hilarious.

There are no places to sit. There was no thought put into this. Very disappointing

SVB invited HR to provide an "update". 4 days in office coming?

I was rushing to get to work before 7am so I can find a parking spot and desk. it’s a waste of money and time by coming in to the office

Starting January 2026. Is it across the board? Is it per Derek’s directs? Anyone know?

Does Labor Day count for an in office day or do we have to come in the remaining four this week?

Taking a nap in the car for a couple hours.

From the AT&T board
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1w2xikUC

Amazon Sits Out AI Talent War — Here’s Why

By Eugene Kim, August 28, 2025

Full story: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ai-talent-wars-internal-document-2025-8

Amazon, one of the world’s largest technology companies, has largely sat on the sidelines of the AI talent war that is reshaping Silicon Valley. While competitors such as Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft are actively pulling in high-profile researchers and engineers, Amazon has failed to make equivalent moves. A confidential internal document and testimony from current and former employees help explain why this has happened, and the picture is complex.

The internal memo identifies several major challenges. It lists location restrictions, strict compensation bands, and a reputation for lagging in AI as the central reasons Amazon is struggling. It states: "GenAI hiring faces challenges like location, compensation, and Amazon's perceived lag in the space… Competitors often provide more comprehensive and aggressive packages." These constraints, insiders argue, have placed Amazon at a significant disadvantage at precisely the moment when demand for AI expertise is surging.

Compensation has emerged as one of the most hotly debated issues inside the company. Amazon is known for its cost-conscious culture. From the earliest days, founder Jeff Bezos embraced frugality, with the company famously using doors from Home Depot as makeshift desks. This "door desk" philosophy became a symbol of Amazon’s careful spending and has continued to shape its culture decades later. In AI recruiting, however, frugality has clashed with the reality of the market. The company’s adherence to fixed salary bands and its reluctance to adjust ranges for highly specialized roles mean that many offers fall short of those from rival firms. The memo warns: "The lack of salary range increases for several key job families over the past few years does not position Amazon as an employer of choice for top tech talent." Amazon’s stock compensation model adds another challenge. Its vesting schedule is heavily backloaded, making it less appealing to new hires compared with upfront-heavy packages at competitors. Even executives receive few cash bonuses, which makes the offers less flexible.

Amazon’s workplace policies have further reduced its ability to compete. The company’s strict return-to-office mandate, combined with its "hub" policy requiring employees to relocate to specific offices, has limited its talent pool. The internal document plainly states: "Hubs constrain market availability." Recruiters note that candidates have started turning down offers, even when salaries are competitive, simply to avoid relocation or commuting. One recruiter admitted: "We are losing out on talent." This policy has made it easier for competitors to poach Amazon employees. Bloomberg reported that Oracle alone hired more than 600 Amazon staff in just two years, citing the rigidity of Amazon’s RTO rules as a key factor.

Externally, Amazon also faces a reputational challenge. SignalFire, a venture capital firm, reported that Amazon ranks low in engineering retention compared to Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Jarod Reyes of SignalFire explained: "Amazon hasn’t clearly positioned itself as a leader in the generative AI wave… Engineers are paying attention and they’re voting with their feet." In other words, even if Amazon offers competitive pay, many engineers do not see the company as the place to work on groundbreaking AI research.

Amazon has responded publicly by insisting it remains competitive. A spokesperson initially emphasized that the company is adapting its compensation and work arrangements. Hours later, the response was updated to call the story’s premise "wrong." The spokesperson also insisted: "Our compensation is competitive, but we also want missionaries… there’s no better place in the world to build." Despite this, the internal documents and accounts from employees suggest that the issues are systemic and not easily fixed.

Amazon is not entirely absent from the AI landscape. It recently brought in Adept’s CEO David Luan as part of a licensing deal, placing him in charge of Amazon’s AI agents lab. It also continues to build AI capabilities through AWS Bedrock, its cloud-based generative AI platform. Still, the company has seen key departures, including senior leaders such as chip designer Rami Sinno and Bedrock vice president Vasi Philomin. These departures reinforce the perception that Amazon is not keeping pace with rivals.

Plans are underway to address the challenges. The internal memo describes upcoming strategies such as refining compensation and location approaches, hosting events to showcase generative AI capabilities, and creating specialized AI recruiting teams within business units like AWS. However, multiple insiders told Business Insider that no formal changes have been implemented yet. One manager noted the company’s reluctance to abandon long-standing systems: "Based on how we run our business… there are more risks than potential benefits from changing an approach that has been so successful for our shareholders over the past several decades."

This caution reflects Amazon’s broader identity. The company has long prioritized efficiency, frugality, and consistency. These traits have delivered strong results in e-commerce and cloud computing, but in AI, where talent is scarce and competition is fueled by high spending, they may become liabilities. Amazon risks being left behind while rivals make bold bets on generative AI.

The consequences of missing out on AI talent could be significant. The pool of world-class researchers and engineers is limited. Without them, companies struggle to push the boundaries of large language models, computer vision, and multimodal systems. Amazon has yet to deliver a breakthrough product to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude. Instead, it is relying on incremental progress through AWS services. Investors are noticing. On a recent earnings call, a Morgan Stanley analyst pressed CEO Andy Jassy about fears that AWS is falling behind in AI. His answers did little to reassure the market, and Amazon’s stock slipped.

Some argue that the AI hiring frenzy may itself be overblown, driven by hype and investor pressure. Indeed, a few of the high-profile AI hires made by Meta have already left. Yet the risk for Amazon is clear: if generative AI fulfills its promise, the companies with the strongest teams will be positioned to lead. For now, Amazon appears to be struggling to convince both talent and investors that it belongs in that group.

In summary, Amazon’s cautious culture, rigid pay structures, and strict return-to-office policies are limiting its ability to compete in the generative AI talent race. While the company insists it is adapting and remains a strong player, insiders and analysts point to clear signs of weakness. Whether Amazon can overcome these barriers and reassert itself as a leader in AI will depend on how willing it is to adapt the very cultural and structural elements that have defined it for decades.

Source: Eugene Kim, Business Insider, August 28, 2025

at the FN1 building will there be badging out macjines. As of right now they do not. Just curious if the will be implementing them due to the fact that people will leave

No more flexibility with my mornings. No more working through lunch. No more working weekends and certainly no more hopping on my computer in the evenings. You’ll see me from 8-5 4x a week not a minute more. I used to give Ford more time than I should have because I was a team player and they afforded me flexibility. No longer.

Good luck!

4 day RTO to turn the company around!

Don't forget, if a holiday falls on one of your three office days, you're required to make that day up on another day during the week. They're watching (per my manager).

Last week many were told they could work from home.

Now I'm facing going back in to the office knowing several teammates are gone and I've been demoted.

My new team knows I was demoted. None of them were even impacted, so it feels like they cannot relate. I don't want a pity party, but it's very embarrassing for me.

How are you all coping with this?

I am certainly and dont want to drive every day to a place I dont like and people I dont like

When will hours in office start being tracked?

Company: Starbucks

Locations: Seattle, Washington

Departments affected: Corporate roles only

Number laid off: 612 in Seattle filings, within a broader 1,100 corporate reduction

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington

What happened: Starbucks eliminated 1,100 corporate positions to create smaller, more nimble teams, with Washington WARN records showing 612 Seattle based roles affected. Retail store, roasting and distribution jobs were not part of the cut. Leadership paired the move with an updated in office policy for senior roles.  

Sources:

https://www.geekwire.com/2025/starbucks-to-lay-off-1100-corporate-workers-updates-remote-work-policy/

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/starbucks-corporate-lays-off-over-600-seattle-employees/CJY2CFKRVVHJ5HBMOLLAU2BRGY/

I just need to vent. I still have to go into the office four times a week, while some people moved out of state and never even show up. I know there are many in other groups who honestly wouldn’t make a difference if they got laid off, but no one seems to care. It’s so frustrating. At first, I didn’t really care and even felt sympathetic toward them because they had no choice but to risk being laid off, but now management is just enforcing stricter rules on those of us who actually come into the office, and I have no words.

Why no reminders from hr?

Because we’re not a-s kissers like that other guy.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

ANONYMOUS, Employee of Teradata (TDC) Corporation

RTO really boils down to two drivers: control, and the financial interests that CxOs hold in commercial real estate companies. The more employees are physically in the office, the more those properties stay profitable. It has little to do with productivity and everything to do with money and power.

On a personal level, RTO has increased my monthly costs by about 25% compared to working from home. Between gas, parking, meals, and other daily expenses, the difference adds up quickly. On top of that, I’m losing about 90 minutes a day to commuting - time that could have gone into either more focused work or simply maintaining some balance at home.

So while companies frame RTO as being about culture or collaboration, for workers it often just means higher costs, less time, and no real improvement in output.

I’ll never understand the people on these threads who equate working from home with not working. It’s frustrating that even the ELT has started to adopt that attitude. We’re three rounds of layoffs in after three years, and it’s not because people were slacking off just because they weren’t physically on site. In my group we were almost entirely WFH, regularly putting in 50-hour weeks.

Ironically, WFH actually makes it easier to work longer hours, since the project is always right there in the next room, waiting to be picked up again in the evening. Now, to drive attrition, the ELT wants me to give up an hour and a half of my day to commute. I’ll still end up bringing work home, but I won’t be able to put in the same evening hours or keep up with household responsibilities once the commute is added on.

The facility managers or people who think they own the office are monitoring reservations and checking attendance.

Quick question for folks across departments—curious about your current RTO setup.
Our team has known for a while that starting in September, we’ll be required to be in the office for a full 8-hour stretch each day. As it gets closer, though, I’ve been hearing that other departments may still have more flexibility—like being able to finish the day remotely if they’ve spent most of it in the office.

Just trying to get a clearer picture:
Is your team expected to be in the office for a full 8 hours straight, or do you have a hybrid option that helps with traffic and overall balance?

Appreciate any insight—just hoping to understand how consistent this is across the org.

I just got a job offer in bank, but I’m a little hesitant after reading here and a couple other sites. What’s the culture like in the bank? The recruiter really stressed the need to be in office minimum of 4 days a week and expect for it to shift to 5 days soon. (My current company has a very relaxed 3 days). It seems like the bonuses here are potentially good as a lead? He said to expect 20-25%? Any thoughts?

Ford Land RTO is coming next week yay and already the tone amongst employees is becoming heated. Order your magnetic desk name plate, be sure to take it with you daily because of the center of gravity nonsense. One of my co-workers in Mexico told me that he is not allowed to park at the office and a large group is being forced to park at a mall nearly 1 hour and must take a shuttle. So add 2 hours a day to your daily commute and work schedule, great idea!! Some shuttles stop at 5 PM, so you have a 6 PM meeting with Asia, too bad for you, call an Uber. Who is the Einstein that is running this circus!

I wake up at 2 AM shaking and sweating, dreading the day ahead! The two days WFH are a blessing compared to dragging my ar-e in for that two-hour commute to He-l Town. And that damn Teams! Every morning, that red dot! What's wrong now?

Hearing rumors that leadership may revert back to making it mandatory that people be in the office 3 days a week. Anyone else hear this?

If so, I wish they would make up their minds and stick with it, rather than change the policy every 6-12 months.

RTO is slated to start from next Monday, has anyone actually been mandated to be present in the office by their direct manager or has it died a quick death as usual?

I don’t get why we’re being told to come back to the office. It doesn’t feel like it’s about the work. We already proved we can do our jobs at home. It just feels like productivity theater.

They say attendance is going to be part of reviews now. But the bonus is laughable and the RSUs don’t mean much. Doesn’t seem worth it.

What gets me is the execs still working remote. Some of them barely show up at all. Feels pretty hypocritical.

And honestly they can’t fire everyone. The company needs us more than they admit. These rules only matter if we all go along with them.

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1k3j1v4k8

The working theory is that our “leaker” was caught and no longer with us.

I hope that someone will step up and take their place.

Real news on RIFs
This site used to have good information related to coming layoffs. Now all it seems to have is people complaining about upper management and/RTO. Sadly, the site is becoming more irrelevant as time passes.
So I will try one more time. Does anyone have any REAL intell on coming layoffs?

Comments in the main thread:

• "All they could say for remote workers (like me) was that we 'might be expected to relocate.'" (Anonymous, Post ID: @q8+1k3eddae2)
• "There will come a time where Kroger will have to let go of the whole RTO business if they want to be competitive again." (Anonymous, Post ID: @q7+1k3eddae2)
• "Heard all fully remote buyers are gone" (Anonymous, Post ID: @n8+1k3eddae2)
• "remote got laid off so vague and cold - pre-recorded." (Kranger0826, Post ID: @pf+1k3eddae2)
• "not all remote associates were let go. source: me, a remote associate on a fully remote team." (Anonymous, Post ID: @pc+1k3eddae2)

If only HCSC cracked down on nepotism and favoritism the way they are cracking down on RTO and the ridiculous 3 days average in the office.