#rto

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.

I see exhaustive number of complaints however I do not see anything factual where somebody was truly laid off as a result of RTO or anything else because it’s all vague and not specific. I think the intent of the site has lost its path. Instead of making a comment as my teammate was laid off maybe because they weren’t performing but be more specific as I have yet to see somebody be laid off in two years

With the new office in Plano and the enforcement of RTO without exceptions , it seems to me the next brick to topple is closing NJ Hub as this is an expensive legacy l hub, those in the know what's the word on the street

Crazy to consider things could have gotten worse. They have. High ego. High maintenance. Leads with fear and allows ELT to push that fear downward. Get even more done now! Open Enrollment better be perfect! Do even more with less! Get people back into the office! Why aren't we working on weekends? ELT is ramping up pressure across the board and the disconnects are even worse. Plus they pulled in McK and Del because, of course, we can't manage ourselves. This will be an unmitigated disaster in Q4. Disappointing to be sure, but if we were holding out hope for the new guy that did not work out. Clearly does not care for people at all. Plan and prepare accordingly.

Not sure where else to ask this, so will do it here. Curious what RTO looks like for different groups across T-Mo. I have a feeling it is not being applied consistently across different organizations. If you reply, please state days per week you are required to be in the office and what organization you are in.

hi, I am soon to be new dad. My question is once I use up the paternity days, I would like to use my PTOs which I have few weeks left for this year. Is it okay to use three half days for each week for 6 weeks. This will help me stay at home for 6 weeks more. I dont want to tell my manager or anyone about this. WIll this flag or cause an issue?

Does Sammy Sun not believe that CFS needs to “collaborate” as much as CUSA?

What happened to “One Canon”, “Transform as One”, “Lead as One”, “Grow as One”, etc….Whatever regurgitated slogans they come up with the word one in it.

This company is filled with hypocrisy and incompetency. They should make CFS come in to Burlington on Thursdays & Fridays. Simple fix.

But oh no, boo hoo, they don’t want to make them come in on Fridays. Or maybe, Wednesdays are to be designated as the big pow wow day for CFS & CUSA to get together to sing “Kumbaya, My Lord” around the campfire and do the Limbo Rock?

Whether it’s Google, office consolidations, pricing…this company botches everything.

Post your questions here so we can reference them if we actually get a Q&A session. Although I have my doubts because the stars and planets have to align first before execs even think about providing answers. Maybe just maybe the tone deaf executives will take questions from the audience. Or maybe they won’t and the questions are already screened days in advance.

How does the business justify forcing an employee to travel upwards of 100 minutes each way all week long when said employee was hired as a remote employee?

How does the business justify a microscopic raise of 1.25% when the RTO mandate has cost me $2000+ per month in commute, daycare costs and hours away from my family? Additionally how does the business justify a 30% compensation increase for the CEO when his own workers are struggling?

How do I save for retirement when I have to reduce or eliminate my contributions just to pay for this RTO lifestyle?

As a female I feel unsafe every time I step foot in town. How does the business justify making decisions behind the safety of executive security to force thousands of employees into downtown Pittsburgh when there have been two homic--es within a block or two or the headquarters. Plus rampant crime, open air dr-g use, bus stop fights, unpredictable homeless, human fe_ces along the sidewalk. Crime happens but there hasn’t been a single chirp regarding safety.

Appreciation week…sigh. What did you win? Reminds me when I was awarded - I mean earned a PNC branded ballpoint pen for my 5th anniversary. Yes I got a pen for 5 years of work.

Lastly, where is the data? The business shills this idea that RTO is to foster innovation and a more inclusive workplace. But after 2+ months I have witnessed the exact opposite. My senior developers left for better jobs. There is no innovation. Just loud obnoxious chatter because everyone is on Teams calls therefore proving everyone is remote with respect to everyone else. We will occasionally push or cancel standup because some team members are caught in traffic. We never canceled standup while we were all WFH. Our progress has slowed, our results are turning sour and our team morale is living at rock bottom.

Are there still departments out there that think their manager is gonna help them from returning to the office? The other employees that ARE coming in won’t stand for it. You’re just fighting the inevitable. We’ve all had to come back in and so should you.

These RTO, relocation, and surpluses this year have turned out to be nothingburgers in the grand scheme of things. Nothing nearly as impactful as originally advertised. Just be in the right location and right time and you are good. Now on to the next challenges.

Should I cancel my team volunteer event this Thursday? We are passionate about serving our communities not only with America’s best network, but showing up to color pictures and paint skateboards too. These events are central to RTO to create moments that matter. I don’t know what to do given the rumors. I’ll go ahead and order the crayons anyways.

Anyone from dfs been asked to go to Plano office starting September?

Within a year, Kroger has been in nothing but turmoil. Kroger has had an interim CEO for much longer than an interim CEO should be in said position due to still unclear circumstances of Rodney McMullen’s quick departure. They have also had incredible amounts of senior management turnover, pushed AI so far down associates throats they cannot even do their job description without someone on senior leadership telling them to have AI do it (effectively to build a repository of prompts so AI can replace jobs), and now this KCC in India that will outsource jobs from Americans all under the beginning state guise of “helping” associates.

Company wide layoffs affecting every facet of the business, RTO mandates for those who are not in power (VP’s and above are nowhere to be seen in the office), and now the fear that within a year your position will be replaced by someone overseas while the CEO gets to tout a $12 million compensation package. How are associates and shareholders supposed to be confident in the future of this business? Not to mention protestors in stores, outside offices, etc. so on top of all this you get to start and finish your day with being harassed because of Kroger senior management’s (common) approach of promising and then reversing decisions. Couldn’t imagine how associates feel.

If this company was not in such an essential industry, this management style built on lies, under delivering, and top down management sprinkled in with a psychologically unsafe work environment would almost certainly land it in financial turmoil. But I guess this all kicked off because of Publix stepping on Kroger’s heels… this response is going down the exact opposite direction.

And I bet Kroger will still market themselves as “your friendly neighborhood Kroger”, with all of the marking materials created by someone thousands of miles away. So disappointed in this company.

So, a position that was once totally remote, now requires us to go on site multiple times a week. We reallyr had no choice. The clinics are as far as three hours away. We were just told this is what we will have to do now. Has this happened to anyone else? This began happening a few weeks before the vsp announcement but now it is a requirement.

If Stinky’s goal was to convince younger employees to stay, publicly taking shots at Gen Z over wanting flexibility wasn’t exactly the way to do it. His comments came across as dismissive, disrespectful and completely out of touch.

Here’s what this pre-computer dinosaur fails to understand. We grew up online, made friends online, had relationships online. We learned online, collaborated online, and even went to school and got degrees online. We don’t need a five-day RTO mandate to know how to be connected and productive.

Nobody is asking to never come into an office. People are asking for flexibility. Instead of trying to understand that, leadership keeps acting like it’s a work ethic problem.

Then they wonder why younger employees don’t stick around.

Maybe stop blaming the workforce and start asking why the workforce isn’t buying what your so called “leadership” is selling.

Mandatory 5 Days (6 hours minimum) in the office starting after Labor Day 2026.

I work in the US. Remember when we were told RTO is to collaborate with colleagues? Well two of my colleagues were discussing an issue in hindi. I’m guess that’s what it was or maybe it was one of the 20 other Indian languages. It was only a matter of time.

I joined USAA as an intern few months back, hoping to build my career here. After hearing too many good thinks on the web. Unfortunately, the experience was disappointing enough that I decided to leave for another bank last week.

The biggest issue was the constant organizational changes. Teams and priorities kept shifting, making it difficult to focus on meaningful work or feel any sense of stability. On top of that, budget constraints seemed to impact every decision, resulting in limited resources and frequent compromises.

The work culture was heavily driven by micromanagement. Every story and task required excessive oversight from the product manager, leaving very little room for engineers to make decisions or take ownership. Instead of being trusted to deliver, it often felt like every small detail had to be monitored and approved.

The return-to-office policy made things even worse. Employees were expected to be in the office four days a week regardless of personal circumstances. It didn't matter if you had been on an overnight production call and barely slept—you were still expected to show up in the office the next morning. There was little flexibility or consideration for employee well-being. The work life balance is zero here. Its strange that USAA is still claiming themselves as best companies to work for and misled the future employees

To sum it up, the environment felt rigid, exhausting, and not conducive to learning or growth, especially for someone early in their career. I eventually decided to move on and accepted an opportunity at another bank that offers a healthier work environment, better trust in employees, and a much more sustainable work-life balance. Felt like a titanic to me and only course of action was to jump off before it sinks.

I joined FDC back in 2016 in Omaha and took a low ball salary because it was nowhere and I had to stay in there for family. FDC got my super prof service at a low price comparing to other locations in Atlanta, or NYC, etc. In 2020 during Pandemic I moved to another state in MW and was able to work remotely. However, right after Covid, Mr Frank ordered RTO and I said goodbye to this company and quickly landed another remote work with a 40% pay increase offer - I didn't even bargain. I guess many people leaving FISV were in the same situation. I didn't specifically shop for other jobs as my family didn't need that much of my salary - I was just keeping myself busy. but thanks Mr Frank you made me make the right move. Now I landed another hybrid job in yet another state and got another 20% raise. lol. Fisv may never figure out why their stock su-ks so much. BTW, I sold all my employee stock at around $100 when I parted.

Are most Centene employees working from home right now, or in the office?

If you had to transition back to the office after a period of remote work, how was that adjustment?

Jeff doesn’t want you to make friends, he wants you to sit in your cube 5 days a week. Upper management have special privileges. Go ahead and leave, don’t stick around.

While Starlink is pushing the industry forward and Wall Street is raising concerns about what that could mean for AT&T, we’re still consumed by RTO, presence reports, and building a new headquarters. That’s the only focus here and it feels completely backwards.

Instead of talking about how we’re going to compete with Starlink, people are talking about badge swipes and making sure they sit in a chair for eight hours before heading home. Time that many employees once spent working extra is now spent commuting. The result is 8&skate culture where people check the box, do their eight hours, and leave. That’s not how you build an innovative company, but that’s the culture Stink has created with RTO, FTW, and Presence monitoring.

At the same time, we’re spending billions on a new headquarters nobody wants while facing one of the biggest competitive threats the company has ever seen. Shouldn’t the priority be improving our competitive position, controlling costs, and attracting and retaining the talent needed to compete?

The conversation should be about how we beat new competitors, not how many days people are in what office. If leadership wants this company to be successful, the priorities have to change. Right now, it feels like we’re looking inward while the competition is looking forward.

Time is running out, and if things don’t shift soon there won’t be an AT&T left for these egos to lord over.

There has been no mention about RTO for mortgage. In fact, in NJ, PA and parts of NY, the closest hub is NYC which is way outside of the 30 miles everyone is talking about. Any word on this?

It’s been almost a month since we were required to return to the office in the name of "collaboration," and all I have seen is people including leaders finding different ways to minimize their time in the office.
Leaders have families to take care of too, so many leave after just a few hours because they need to pick up their kids from camp or school. It’s a reminder that everyone is balancing work with personal responsibilities.
Meanwhile, I haven’t seen any meaningful increase in collaboration. What I have seen is hours lost commuting, searching for parking, walking to and from the office, and dealing with all the extra logistics. It feels like a significant waste of time and energy that could have been spent doing actual work.

I’m a remote tm in properties and I’m curious if there’s been any RTO coming that would impact me

JVB demoted because she couldn’t meet target in MM sales. Now Shelly Goodman ‘retiring’ because she couldn’t unravel the destruction JVB left behind. For those of you outside of sales that complain about RTO, sales has the most valid reason to complain. Sales is forced to office 5x just like everyone else. Think of the time on the road we could be in front of customers. Instead, we have to come to office daily to meet an in office badge swipe quota while sales attainments circle the drain. We can go into the field to meet customers and try to sale fiber and mobility but the hours we lose daily by commuting instead of acquiring revenue is astounding. Yes, we are in the field but the hours commuting eats up some of that time and we see it in quarter after quarter revenue decline. When sales is set up to fail, we all will.

Is that officially happening?

After the JR staff meeting today, I am more worried for my job than ever. It’s not about just RTO anymore or that they’re outsourcing a lot of positions. I got the strong impression that RMC ( and other business lines likely) will have designated hubs. If you’re not in one of those hubs, you are in danger. As someone in a very small hub with minimal RMC presence, this is hugely concerning!

JR didn’t say this directly but reading between the lines of what she did say, this is not a stretch. Clearly leadership wants to move away from geographically distributed teams entirely ( unless it’s collaborating with your co-workers in India or Poland, then it’s totally ok).

If you’re remote or in a hub where your business line doesn’t have much presence, it feels like you will be on the chopping block first.

It sounds like their main goal ( even though it’s so outdated and ridiculous) is to move everyone to the hubs they want them in.

She even mentioned how other banks only have a couple hubs not 22 and we all know that US Bank is now a follower so that’s the direction they will move in.

Current policy for the location is 2 day WFH. Berkeley Heights location is currently parking infrastructure limited to house all ppl in the office everyday.

Do you guys think the RTO office will be enforced on berkeley heights as well?

I was hired during pandemic and never been to office. Whats the dress code here? Business Casual or Strictly business formal??

RTO is working!! Way to go, John. You’re an absolute genius!! TDPs and real talent leaving at the most alarming clip in history, and all that’s left are the soon to be retirees. My, what great policy you have! Who wouldn’t want to work at a concentration camp like this?

Just retire already, you su-k, worthless POS.

I know of no one that has ever been written up or chastised for not coming to the office though. If you are an individual contributor you did your job fine during COVID and there is virtually no reason for you to come into the office anymore. I mean the office is louder, more chaotic, food is as expensive as anywhere else. People are more likely to stand around and socialize than do actual work. The commute time of the individual gets baked into the work day more often than not because they only have so many hours before they need to take care of the household. It is abhorrently inefficient. To top it all off very few teams are fully located in one office. So you are effectively coming in to simply jump on conference calls with teams from all over the world literally. I can understand a once a week requirement just because we are social animals and there is genuine need for socialization with one another. Outside of once a week though it is strictly suboptimal working conditions. Also just imagine the savings if VZ truly sold off all its offices and cancelled all leases.

Perfectly stated, @jb+1kv47wr3d.

For me, the biggest issue is that RTO is basically a pay cut in disguise. Between gas and all the other extra expenses, it adds up fast. If they gave us a pay raise that covered those costs, I honestly wouldn't mind it nearly as much as I do now.

I quit a few years ago because of RTO. All of my colleagues were around the world and it did not make sense for me to have to go into an office. I fought it, they wouldn't budge, and I lost all respect for this company. Thankfully I found a better job pretty quickly. All of those same colleagues are also not with TR any longer, because of RTO and lack of pay raises. Now I see that they're trying to fill my old role as remote, after not being able to fill it as hybrid for years (yes I've been keeping an eye on it). It's satisfying to see, but I'm still irked that they dug their heels in this long. Maybe it's a good thing that they're finally wavering but I wouldn't trust this company to make any common sense decisions ever again.

Taking all PTO together this year but it’s not enough for my needs. I need an extra week or two - manager says they can permit remote work if it’s a short duration but with RTO 5x from Sep 1, I’m worried 😟 This is for North America.

Will HR & Global Mobility need to get involved? Any recent success stories of folks who have navigated this?

Feeling grateful to be part of such a successful company! Maybe the RTO policy has effectively separated the wheat from the chaff.

Is there going to be a change with the full time 5 days in office policy or not what is with the constant decision making delay and teasing about changes. Absurd policy.

Mine was wrong by 1 day. Who knows why

Since it hasn’t been asked yet this month and we’re already 1/2 day into July, when will the tracking report data be available for May. :)

Why four days? Simply put, four is twice as many as two.

As a result, employees should expect approximately twice the collaboration, twice the innovation, and, where practical, twice the culture.

While these projections have not yet been validated, they remain directionally encouraging.

The Value of Presence

Research consistently demonstrates that employees working in close physical proximity are more likely to:

• Ask if anyone has seen the conference room adapter.
- Spend fifteen minutes determining whose turn it is to reboot the meeting-room computer.
- Participate in spontaneous conversations that begin with, "Quick question..." and conclude forty-three minutes later.

These are the kinds of high-value interactions that cannot be replicated through purpose-built collaboration software specifically designed to replicate them.

Visibility Matters

Although employee evaluations will continue to be based entirely on performance and results, it is important that those results occur where they can be observed.

This allows leadership to appreciate the effort that accompanies the work, such as walking briskly between conference rooms while carrying a laptop.

Building Culture

Many employees have indicated that they already feel connected to their teams.
This is encouraging, but incomplete.

Organizational culture is strengthened through shared experiences, including:

• Searching multiple floors for an available meeting room.
- Listening to someone else's conference call while attending your own.
- Discovering at 11:58 a.m. that everyone had the same idea for lunch.

These experiences build institutional knowledge that is difficult to quantify, which is fortunate.

Addressing Productivity

Some employees have expressed concern that additional commuting time may reduce the number of hours available for focused work.

Leadership recognizes this possibility.

To offset the impact, employees are encouraged to become more efficient.

Frequently Asked Question
Q: If my team is distributed across three states and we still meet on video calls, why am I commuting?
A: While your meetings may still occur virtually, it is important that they occur virtually from the office.

This reinforces our shared commitment to flexibility