#rto

Since this topic continues to come up, here are some points you may find helpful that have been shared in other threads.

Disclaimer: Yes, I am aware the goal posts have changed and are likely to change. This information is based on current expectations.

1. The adherence data is delayed every single month. Every. Single. Month. If it isn't corrected by week two of a given month, there is a process you can follow in MyHR to have it corrected.

2. The current metric is the average over each rolling three-month period. January, February, and March are no longer factoring into that. Neither is April. Right now, it's May, June, and July.

3. If you've averaged more than 60% per three-month period (Jan-Mar, Feb-Apr, Mar-May, Apr-Jun, May-Jul), you're fine.

4. If you continue to average more than 60% across Jun-Aug, Jul-Sep, Aug-Oct, Sep-Nov, Oct-Dec, and so on, you will continue to be fine.

5. If your May-Jul average (or any three-month period in the future) is less than 60%, yes, you will have to work additional days in office to raise that average.

6. You can calculate in advance how many days you need to be in office each month, based on your Adjusted Working Days (Total Possible Days minus Vacation/Holiday/Sick days) to maintain the more-than-60% average across each rolling three-month period.

7. Yes, I am aware we should not have to do that.

8. The "Working in the office: In-office attendance and reporting (Global)" article FAQs in MyHR address the change that took place in April.

"Q. Am I held to the 'more than 60% in-office' expectation for Q1 2026 if the updated measurement approach didn't take effect until Q2 2026?

A. Yes, as the expectation of working three-plus days in the office was established and communicated over 12 months ago."

Reason being that three-plus Total Possible Working days in office each week in January, February, and March (not Adjusted Possible Working Days) averages at more than 60% and would have been achieved by employees following the expectation for Q1, which, again, is no longer factoring into the three-month average.

1. This isn't opinion or preference or bootlicking, just math.

Just received my notice to return into the office.

I’ve been cautious and coming in 3 days a week ever since the dashboard tracking was implemented. I have observed others are not here 3 days a week.

How? I can’t imagine this many folks have flexible work agreements?

How many people are above 60%?

Although my time was short with Discover/Crapital One, I have come to believe that it was a blessing in disguise! Not living day to day in a toxic environment where management lies and you wait for the hatchet any minute and knowing you are a hardworking, valuable employee, is a blessing. I hope the best for the good folks they "Crapped" on this week. Regarding the severance - take the money and run! They have surely already crafted your job posting for LinkedIn, and possibly interviewed your much younger, less costly, on-site, replacement! Crapital One is just that - One Cr-ppy Company that does not care about any employees...

Now has 3 month average and year to date average

I foresee a loosening of the restrictive FT RTO because of a few factors.

One being that the malcontents would’ve left.

Two they will have replaced them with newbies willing to crawl in everyday, but the drawback of the newbies is the brain drain they likely didn’t expect.

And with those factors involved the loosening of the strict adhere to 5/4 will be happening.

They might attain employees wiling to slog in but that does not equate quality or skill or professionalism.

There also might be a tremendous amount of negative blow back on the CFO too since he seemingly is the mastermind behind this tactic.

Defying years of relaxed and welcomed 1-2 days a week of wfh encouraged because a happy worker produces more and better quality.

Must restore the balance. ☯️

Behind all of this?
Seems since he took his recent post that’s when our RTO accelerated.
He’s making a name for himself to take the Abby slot
Never good when family owned CEO leaves any company.
There goes the legacy and the loyalty.
This guy to me is the reason behind all this upheaval.
Company’s with bean counters at the helm don’t bite employees as integral and valuable.
They are deficits.
Just one gals opinion. But I have seen this before in other companies way too often.

AT&T used to compete for the best talent in the country. Today, it feels like we’re competing for the best talent willing to relocate to a handful of hub cities and accept five-day RTO.

The people walking out the door aren’t just headcount. They’re decades of institutional knowledge, technical expertise, customer relationships, and experience that can’t be replaced by posting another job opening.

“Leadership” seems to think talent is interchangeable. But we know it isn’t.

You can backfill a position in a few months. It can take years for someone to become truly effective in many of these roles, and by then they may already be looking for their next opportunity.

A real market-based culture works both ways. If you expect employees to compete in the market every day, then the company has to compete for employees too. That means offering a compelling reason to stay, whether that’s compensation, flexibility, culture, career growth, or meaningful work.

Right now, it feels like the strategy is to shrink the talent pool through geography, push experienced people out, and hope everything works out.

Hope isn’t a strategy and neither is assuming talent is infinitely replaceable.

We have a release every other Saturday and it takes most of the day in validating etc. they dont pay us extra and it is said its part of your job. Why should we support this since that would mean extra hours put in every other weekend with no compensation.

Another item for your reading pleasure. Doubtful that Stinkey has read this one.

https://enhancv.com/blog/rto-stealth-layoffs/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Ya don't say!!! For your reading pleasure. Wonder if Stinkey has read this.

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5992056-office-attendance-backlash/

Anyone have any insight into if Product will be required for RTO? Me and a few team members are remote and I’m wondering if I should be worried.

One of my friends in merch told me there is a team who is being required to be there from 8 to 5 on RTO days. That was never a requirement before the pandemic and I’m wondering if that true for all of merch. I anticipate everyone will be on 3-4 days RTO soon, but I think specific mandated hours are insane. Schedules shift day to day for families. Is this true? Do I need to look for a new company?

Haha. I knew it was coming.

They just said anticipate 5 days a week in the home office connect when someone asked if they are gonna go back to two days at home. They said “nope. Actually we anticipate five days a week…”

TOLD YA SOOOOOOOO.

HBAs are gonna be gone next, regular and medical.

BET!

Why does nobody address the condition of the offices and the health hazards they may impose. Conditions are extremely unsanitary, and I believe as an organization we can do better…how do we gain some momentum in this regard as going into the office is required, but there is no care around, cleaning areas, and air quality is very questionable. Where do we start so we can improve?

I spend at least 8 hours in the office on my in person days. Is that necessary?

Anyone know if they are expanding RTO still? Has anyone been able to get an exception?

Supposedly, Fidelity is all of a sudden firing a lot of call center workers for call/job avoidance at numerous sites. This was announced last week and is now being communicated to phone reps. The memo states that Fidelity can deem pretty much whatever they want as call/job avoidance, such as system restarts (which you often have to do because of the non-stop tech issues at this company).

If an employee is not legitimately doing their job, sure, they deserve to be fired. But... what a big coincidence that this is happening at scale for the first time, as far as I've ever heard, right before fulltime RTO and during their other quiet layoff methods such as cutting bonuses, benefits, etc. If they fire a lot of reps, then it won't count as a layoff.

The quiet layoffs will continue until morale improves.

Or over the weekend?

Has anyone’s manager said anything to them about being in the office less than 4 days per week?

Giving my notice this week. What happens if I stop coming to the office during my notice period?

I’m not within the merch org that was called for RTO back in April but wondering if there’s another planned RTO for all remaining remote workers at some point. Has anyone heard anything?

I have pretty much walked all floors in both buildings in my location and know the parking situation (straight to the 4th floor if you arrive after 7:30) and they are 80% occupied. So, HR communicating about other regions full time RTO schedule coming later in the year is pure BS. Don't shoot the messenger, I am just reporting what I see on the ground.

I don't think there are so many phones per region (60% of total strength) that they'll be able to fit all of us. I don't see any construction or acquisition possible where we are located. So, just a lot of puffery tbh. Anyway, latest all hands for one of the BU's said the schedule is coming next week. So, I might be proven wrong in 2 days.

Enjoy your weekend.

Summarizing all the recent RTO announcements I've seen:

• Merch/PIM/Sourcing: 4 days a week (RTO for remote)
• TES: 2 days a week
• Store Ops: 2 days a week

Any other teams? Please no negativity just posting for visibility.

I get an interview for another bank.
So I go look at their board.
RTO complaints... desktop tracking... complaints about the Phillipines and India...

lmao, its the same everywhere people.

Does anyone actually know people who have left specifically because of RTO?
Are they waiting to put their notice in?

Everyone says they’re going to but I haven’t seen it. I’d be interested to know.

Where have people gone who have left the company?

AT&T stock gains 5% today due to increased RTO and confidence in CEO Stankey's leadership going forward

Anyone else hearing rumblings of RTO five days a week?

If true, 3M is returning to the Stone Age and this is BB attempt at getting more people to quit. What a joke.

I am a fool. I underestimated Dallas commute, Parking and the 8 hour requirement. What a mess. Door to door is 11 hours for 5 days a week. What the he-l? How are my fellow 50 year olds taking it?

Last year, all of the remote employees in my department were told they need to move to OH or MN , if they decide not to relocate, they were given severance.

They also were not given option to move to hub that were close to home such as in AZ or TX.

We replaced all the remote employees by hiring in OH and MN.

Also recently, I talked to people in another department and they were told remote was no longer available, move to hub or get severance.

So GK was right when she said remote was grandfathered, meaning you aren’t getting fired.

What she didn’t tell you was, to keep your job, you need to move to a hub.
Being in office is not good enough, must be in one of the hub

Sick of all the complaining about RTO as though it's somehow outrageous for a company to ask employees to work the way they were originally hired to work.

Companies are generally entitled to make reasonable changes to how work is performed. They can reasonably change your responsibilities, raise performance expectations, require compliance with workplace policies, and require employees to work from the office if that's what they believe is best for the business.

You don't have to agree with that philosophy, and it's perfectly reasonable to prefer remote work. But framing every RTO decision as the product of greedy executives or some malicious agenda ignores the fact that businesses make these decisions for a variety of reasons. Most companies would rather adopt policies that are popular with employees. When they see that a particular arrangement isn't delivering the results they expected -or isn't worth the cost- they change course.

In MN's case, employees are relatively expensive compared with many other locations. One of the main reasons those roles were based in MN was proximity to the company's headquarters and leadership. If employees are rarely in the office, that advantage is essentially gone. At that point, it's fair to ask why the company should continue paying MN labor costs instead of hiring elsewhere.

You may disagree with the decision, but it's not irrational. It's a business judgment about cost, collaboration, and the purpose of maintaining a headquarters workforce.

If in-office work is a condition of employment, your choices are to accept it, negotiate, or find another job. You'll be happier than complaining on here constantly.

That's not cruelty-it's how employment works.

Rumors that they are tracking that an employee is in office not only 3 days a week but a minimum of 8 hours in the building each of those days at CHQ? Does anyone know when that starts and how they’re tracking that? We currently don’t have the badge out system yet?

While the bank is seemingly pursuing a direction where employees must return to an office for 60%+ of their time, during today's All Company Townhall CEO Gunjan Kedia announced that remote employees are "grandfathered in". It is unclear the extent of this decision from the leader of the 5th largest bank in the country, and whether employees who were remote but have since been forced into an office in conflict with their own wishes will have the option to return to remote work.

Many employees have been speculating that groups within the company will begin forcing remote employees to pick a home hub location or face termination with cause by end of this year. Will this new direction from the CEO help assuage these fears? Kedia very clearly outlined that remote roles are no longer being hired for with the exception of Customer Service representatives, which apparently is cost effective enough for the bank that the Managing Committee couldn't be bothered to upset these employees lives for the sake of their own commercial real estate investments.

Kedia was also proud to note that the bank is continuing to honor remote employees who have a legitimate medical accommodation, but did not note that this is a legal requirement under the ADA.

https://www.reddit.com/r/USbank/comments/1v4lw50/us_bank_ceo_gunjan_kedia_announced_remote/

Assigned to go to Bothell through RTO email. Requested Atlanta and management and HR approved it. However HR isn't willing to send an email future location will be Atlanta. Did anyone face this?

All of you gloating over the 2% increase in stock price today, just keep in mind that the stock is still 33% lower than it was 15 years ago and pays out only 70% of the dividend. The stock has grown $1.50 since Stank became CEO and dividend has gone down. Certainly nothing to crow about. RTO destroyed a once great American company.

What is the purpose of the 3rd office day? He-l, hardly anybody does it and lots of other teams barely come in for the required 2 days & are still employed. They come in for a few hours, swipe badge and are out.

Anyone hear what's going on with the RTO for remote people?

Why are we measuring workplace engagement with physical badge swipes? Is this how effective leaders measure employee engagement in 2026 when tech enables top talent to collaboration from anywhere? Policies like this make employees less engaged. What are we doing here? Who is signing off on these policies? Were there literally no better ideas?! We are going to become a case study: The Collapse of the Edward Jones Culture - How Not To Lead.