#worklifebalance

Rewards are NOT learning experiences and more work... "Rewards" are actually paying employees and giving cost of living increases.

Calling it now, the ONLY people getting these "merit" increases will be leadership and sales peeps. Meanwhile the rest of us will stay stagnant and take on second and third jobs while we try and hunt for a new career in this dumpster fire of a job market.

How is Intel more efficient when I spent all 8 hours today approving entitlements for people in this AGS system. Is this efficiency?

Many employees today are feeling the pressure of rising living costs. Housing, groceries, and transportation expenses continue to climb, and commuting to work has become an increasingly heavy financial burden for many families.

For this reason, I believe Canon should seriously consider offering greater flexibility when it comes to working from home.

Across different sectors and regions of the world, many companies are already encouraging remote work where possible. This approach helps reduce unnecessary commuting, lowers fuel consumption, and eases the financial strain placed on employees.

In times when global energy markets remain volatile due to geopolitical tensions involving countries like Iran, Israel, and major powers such as the United States, reducing unnecessary travel is not only economically sensible, it is also responsible.

Allowing employees to work from home when their role permits can help reduce commuting costs, decrease fuel consumption, and improve overall work-life balance. It is a practical solution that benefits both employees and employers.

Flexibility in the workplace is no longer simply a perk; it has become an important way to support employees during a time of economic uncertainty and rising costs.

Started in January and with all the hybrid jobs I started looking. Good luck ATT you are back in the 80’s with punch card 8 hours and 5 days office your deliverables, innovation, and appl support is out the door

A TV has been installed on each floor of my garage that shows me a lot of squiggly lines that are meant to convey something or other. We're either the best garage ever, the worst, or we're somewhere in the middle - I'm not sure.
More well-spent money to keep these bean counters, who can't even convert data into an understandable format, on our payroll while gutting essentials. [insert-eye-roll-emoji-here] But, it is a great apple-to-oranges comparison of dissimilar areas that pose their own unique, incomparable challenges.

The job is so stressful, the pressure so relentless, that I can never unplug. Workdays are write-offs. I just exist until the weekend, hoping to finally decompress. And it never happens. Seriously, how is everyone else coping with this?

Not until I walk out for good. But I still do my work, still do it right. I just stopped playing the games. No more kissing up, no more pretending to love meetings, no more acting like I care about things I don't. I do my job and go home. That's enough.

When I started out, I believed that working harder meant getting ahead, so I often stayed late, skipped lunch, came in on weekends, and even covered for people who weren't there because the company wouldn't hire enough staff. Do you know what I got in return? More work, and nothing else. No promotion, no bonus, just a growing pile of responsibilities until I eventually burned out and had to take leave.

That is why my advice to anyone early in their career is simple: don't do it. Do your job well, but do it at a reasonable pace and don't sacrifice your health trying to compensate for problems the company created. If they're understaffed, that is a choice they made, and they should be the ones dealing with the consequences. Don't protect them from their own bad decisions by wearing yourself down.

And the truth is, they are not going to fire you for working normal hours, because if they did, who would be left to do the work?

Not anymore. This place has seeped into everything. I wake up dreading the day, carry it home with me, dream about it at night. It's making me hate existing. That's not an exaggeration.

Schwab people who brag about sixty hour plus weeks, I don't get it. You're not a hero. You're being used. I feel bad for you, not impressed.

They keep selling us on collaboration and team work. Here’s the reality for many of us:

1. Our teams are spread out over many locations. Some of us are now forced to work alone in a small 4x4 cube surrounded by people we dont know or work with at all.

2. Being forced to sit in a small cube constantly distracted by loud employees from other orgs is not collaboration. It's distractive and annoying

3. I waste 15 hours every week driving to a building where the quality of my work is suffering

4. More sick days. I'm constantly surrounded by sick people. I never used my sick time WFH. Now I will use them to their full availability

5. I used to work more than 40 hours WFH because it was convenient and I felt obligated due to being allowed to WFH. That ended with RTO. I'm not going the extra mile any more for a company that treats me like a child and babysitting service, while lying to me about collaboration and RTO

6. I have spoken to so many employees who already have one foot out the door. As soon as the economy switches back to a more friendly employee environment, schwab is going to lose a lot of talent

Nobody likes working for this company anymore. I dont know of a single employee who happy at schwab now. Walt and now Rick have turned this place into a soulless, stale company that only cares about the stock price where the executives get fat stock options and bonuses.

If you have not heard, webex is going away! No we are using Google meets and management said, "you must have your camera on, no exceptions". One person was driving in and dialed into the meeting and the director demanded the person pull over and turn his phone camera on. Another person did not respond to a slack message within 15 min.. (they were on a break) and the manger and and director said it was not acceptable because they had slack on their phone and should have responded, ON THEIR BREAK.... but yet customers are ignored! This is getting out of hand! Dan, OH DAN... where are you DAN...? Where is your delight the customer focus DAN? We don't see it, all we see is show your face on Google Meets and slack is your life!

Who else pivoted from being terrified of layoffs to hoping to be laid off just to get out of this mess in the last couple of months or so?

•••
On behalf of the great T, she welcomes your accolades. At present, Dolce and Cabana’s “Who cares about my workers’ collection is debuting. The great T purchased another form fitting belt for $18k, to honor Women’s month. HR is currently explaining 3 days a week is actually not 4 days a quarter. Where is our CEO??

And it's hard to live with the awareness that you can be out of a job anytime. I know I'm not saying anything new, but it's really depressing. It doesn't matter anymore how good you are, or how much you've invested in being even better. The way people are being discarded these days is unlike anything I've ever experienced, and it seems to be getting worse. A job occupies too much space in our lives to be such a negative, stressful experience. It directly affects your confidence and sense of self-worth. And what's the point of a system set up to make both us and our clients deeply unsatisfied and fearful?

I need to pay the bills. But I'm not going to bust my a-s for a paycheck. Everything else is an insult to our intelligence. Forget promotions or a decent raise. They work you as hard as they can get away with, and then kick you to the curb. So, as far as I'm concerned - no overtime, no hard work, and I couldn't care less about outcomes. Passable coasting is all I'm willing to do until a better opportunity comes along.

I wonder how many people were RIF’d today. :( we can’t keep living like this. It’s too stressful.

Nothing has changed except headcount.
A little lower, still much more headroom to cut. Applications causing slowness in employee work (see AGS). Many office employees provide little to no value. Same old RTO complaints now have evolved to badging in and going home shortly after with no HR ability to counter. No corporate AI strategy as of March 2026, No PQ strategy as of March 2026 how is that possible? People that are not capable of keeping up with any communication methods yet they remain employed here. This place is a zoo at this moment in time.

When was this 1975? Of course you did because there wasn’t the technology. Why would we go back to this?? Boomer

I do my job and I do it well, just not on nights and weekends. My manager clearly wishes I'd give more of my personal time but here I am, still employed. Guess setting boundaries isn't the career ki-ler they want you to believe.

I had been extremely worried about the five day return to office due to my medical conditions. My manager told me I had to go through ERIC, so a couple weeks ago I reached out to them. I was sent a form that I had to have my doctor complete. Once the completed form was received, I was contacted to have a meeting with an human resources representative. After that conversation, they schedule a meeting with your manager to discuss a modified schedule.

I must tell you that this process has been very easy so far. The reason I am posting this is because if you have a medical condition supported by your doctor and you need to limit your days in the office, it’s very much worth your time to contact ERIC and put in the request. If you’re someone that just wants to work from home because you don’t want to come in, that is not going to be a valid reason based on the form that your doctor has to complete.

I have been worried sick about this whole situation and I was really put at ease during this process. I just wanted to put this positive information out for others who are employees that may be concerned. I hope this information helps someone.

EH YOU ARE KI-LING US WITH DRIVING TO THE OFFICE FOR CR-PPY FOOD AND ANNOYING &LOSER LEADERS. WANT TO BOOST ENERGY, LET US WFH UNTIL GAS IS UNDER $3

For the past year I’ve done such a little amount of work it’s comical. Maybe an hour or two per day. I call into meetings and then play on my phone. I ignore pretty much everything exec management tells us and then cash the paycheck. I’ll continue this until I get canned and if not, I’ll quit once I can’t do this anymore. Two things they’ll not get from me anymore are effort productivity. I’ll quit before I have to do any actual work that would benefit the company. I figure I’ve clawed back about 90k of free money so far from Oracle. Take care of yourself.

Insomnia?

Three hours round trip, every day. I need this job, so I put up with everything RTO has brought. It's pointless, costly, and drains my time and energy. But with so few alternatives, I don't have much choice. Not once did I expect leadership to reconsider. They know most of us are cornered, and they're counting on it.

Heard from a reliable source a supervisor at NS told me that upper managment says next step NS/UP wants is to have all Carmen and Loco dept work 12hr shifts 5 day a week at all locations, some location are already starting to switch to over to this, they will be looking to fired about 20% of each department for minor offenses even if it they know people could fight to get there job back, they will try and delay each arbitration for 9 month to 1.5 years, thinking most of the people will find a different jobs and not return even if arbitration does win there claim.

Oregon's average private-sector workweek recently dropped below 33 hours. This marks the shortest workweek in the state since 2010. Economists view this as a sign of slack in the labor market. Recent layoffs and policy changes contributed to the reduction in hours. State forecasters will monitor these trends for future economic updates.

https://hoodline.com/2026/03/oregon-workweek-hits-lowest-level-since-2010-as-hours-shrink/

Three meetings so far today. Every single one, people staring at screens or out the window. Nobody wants to be there. Nobody is paying attention but looks like nobody cares either. What's the point??

https://www.thehill.com/opinion/technology/5775420-remote-first-productivity-growth/

I've started making a list of jobs I'd rather do than stay here. Stocking shelves overnight. Washing dishes at a diner. Answering complaints for a utility company. All of them sound amazing compared to one more shift in this place. That's where I'm at right now.

Wayfair states that it offers a great work-life balance. Sooooo not true. Their training is inadequate. Overseas employees are non-compliant. Shift bids are BS. No matter what you choose, they will give you the schedule pertaining to company needs. So you can forget about being a parent, kids will have to raise themselves! You cannot just use your PTO when needed. You will accrue attendance points for using it for emergencies or same day illness. Metrics change in the middle of the quarter. Employees know how to wrap to manipulate their metrics so it doesn’t pay to do honest work. Religious accommodations are only given to non-American employees. There are plenty of other places to work that will definitely appreciate your dedication and work ethic. Do not give more than your pay grade, they will say thank you and expect for you to keep doing it w/o being paid for it!

I despise coming in 4 days a week. I get to wake up 1.5 hours early and drive for an hour, for what? I get to fake social interaction with distant department members who don't want to be here just like me. I get to spend $20 on parking. I get to spend immeasurable amounts of money maintaining a sh---y professional wardrobe that doesn't get used outside of work.
What benefit does anyone gain from this besides BNY having an excuse to lay some people off?

Before the shill bots come out of the woodwork, prior to COVID, my team was 2 days a week. There's no RTO, it's just increased. I'm not returning to anything.

3 days a week wasn't bad, I'd at least have Friday at home to look forward to, but now to get that I have to ruin my evening on Sunday by dreading going in on Monday. My life has been remarkably more miserable since 4 days started.

WFA days would be a brief reprieve when it got particularly bad on occasion, but they ruined those too.

I don't really know the purpose of this post besides to vent.

@@@This isn't Ivan or Lowell, Dan will hire 3rd party before u @$$ hits the door on 8/1.

Smarten up!!!

For those of you who have been mandated to return to the office 4 days a week are you complying? Has anyone heard of what consequences we face if we don't comply?

Hi everyone. I'm currently experiencing soft pressure from leadership to not take my full 16 weeks of parental leave. My wife will begin cancer treatment shortly after birth and I already have a special needs boy to go along with this newborn.

I've been told "well, how will we promote you at the mid-year if you're on leave?"

I could definitely use the pay increase, but everything from leadership has made me distrust them. I know the right answer is to take my full leave and probably look for a new job while on leave (not at a core site).

I guess I'm just looking for some pep talks around not feeling guilty about leaving my already short-staffed team even more short staffed.

How are your reviews going? Have you been told that you need to increase your productivity? With less people. With no one to make decisions. With product owners not working with the team to guide decisions, not attending meetings, or responding to questions. With a loose roadmap that changes as often as the leadership changes.

And the recommendation by management is to work more hours including nights and weekends. Assume that AI will be the solution to all your problems. Do more in less time with less resources. That is not a request. That is a command. And no, you will not be incentivized to do more.

Don't forget, we expect this from you with no real support from us. We (mgt) are too busy trying to save ourselves with the new executives on the merry-go-round. Our theory is if we can last a year, we are likely to outlive their terms here at Teradata given their work histories.

So hang on. Work like you are fighting for your life, because you are. Do not sleep. Do not have a family. Just do what we tell you, until we change our minds. And if you do all that, you may - or may not- still have a job tomorrow.

title says all

If leadership insists that work is most productive within office walls, I’m happy to lean into that philosophy. Moving forward, my office hours are my only hours. The 'after-hours' emails and evening catch-up sessions from the couch are over. If the goal is a strict office environment, then the work stays at the desk. Naturally, my output will reflect the loss of those extra 'home hours'—my metrics are already showing the dip compared to last year—but I’m simply following the new standard set for us.

The one advantage this company always had was flexibility. Even before COVID people weren’t chained to a desk five days a week. That trust made the job sustainable and made people willing to go the extra mile.

Now that flexibility is gone. And with it, the one thing that actually differentiated this place.

Instead of motivating people, a strict five-day RTO mandate has created the exact opposite effect. High performers stop going above and beyond, while mediocre performers can hide behind a badge swipe and eight hours of “presence.” When attendance becomes the metric, you get attendance.

At the same time, compensation here isn’t truly market based. Raises and bonuses are largely blanket treatments, so individual effort barely changes the outcome. When results aren’t meaningfully rewarded and flexibility is taken away, the incentive becomes obvious: do the minimum and check the box.

Meanwhile the industry has already moved on. WFH and hybrid are now the standard across tech, telecom, finance, and most corporate roles. Only a handful of companies are still trying to force strict five-day office mandates. Fighting that reality doesn’t make this place competitive. It just makes it an outlier.

Ignore the market and ignore your own employees long enough and the result is predictable: the best people leave, and the only ones left are the ones with fewer options.