#worklifebalance

Sitting in AT&T's open office today. No assigned desks. Five day mandate. "Collaboration" is the official reason.
The reality: complete silence. Cold shoulders. Headphones. Everyone either annoyed or running on fumes. The only conversations happening are between people who already knew each other before they got here.

Forced proximity is not culture. It never was.

McElfresh posted about collaboration last week and got 403 likes from 130,000 employees. The open office told the truth he won't.

And for the person who always replies "see you on the commute" congratulations. You've perfectly summarized what AT&T calls culture.

Two hours of traffic. A hot desk with no name on it. Headphones in. Eyes down. And a COO posting about collaboration from a corner office while the rest of us perform presence for a badge reader.

This is what market-based culture looks like from the inside.

It is hilarious watching all the smoke being blown about Kinetic winning all these women’s workplace awards…. Where are all these Women at in President and CEO roles? That is where it should be visible… otherwise it’s just a feel good smoke screen…

Went in-office for work today, and thankfully no one showed up so I can conduct my virtual meetings in peace. Happy Mental Health Awareness month!!!

I see people bragging that they badge in, have a coffee and leave. That is not return to office and is in violation.

If you want to work remote, that is your choice but work remote with a different company. I go in at least 3 days, some weeks I go in all 5 days.

I like to check in from time to time and see all the juicy gossip around this disgraceful company you call TransUnion. How's it feel to sit on pins and needles waiting for those layoffs? My currently doesn't have one entry on this site. As a past employee of TransUnion who put in 20 plus years of service to be axed by lay off which NO notice, not two week notice just a phone call between a director and HR that my position wasn't available but I worked from 11 pm to 2 am the night/morning previously when was my part no longer required was my only question? The company run by CC and his Neustar buddies.

Just as a reminder for those who work at TU. Quantity over quality when you work. Take your FTO as many as you can, at least 10 weeks. Take those long breaks Those two days in the office do the minimum, the 3 days WFH make sure you run errands, hit those gyms, quality time with families because CC and his teams don't care about you. You are just a W2 at the end of the day. Work those 8 hours and go home get off teams turn phone off. Unless you on-call then make sure you have phone only turned on during that time otherwise - manage your time, NOT TU TIME.

It is a good place to work. Hear me out. The senior slackers and butt kissers have taught me well.

1. It's a job with decent pay and benefits, but it's just a job.
2. Put in the 35 hours a week. Don't milk it too much. Even if you work at McDonald's, you have to put in the hours.
3. For those hot projects and rushes, put in the 40 to 45 weeks. Possibly, a weekend too. Collect the kudos, high-fives, and pats on the back; these will buy you slack when you need it. Don't forget to give some back too.
4. No matter how you really feel. Just act friendly. Put on a fake smile and say hi. Don't be anti-social. Go the extra mile and ask if they have plans for the weekend or ask them how their weekend went. Pretend to care.
5. Don't feel like going into the office for a few days. Want an extra day to recover from that long fishing weekend? Let your manager know that you've come down with something. Tell them that you don't want to come in and share it with everyone and that you'll work as much as possible from home. Even if you can, don't work those long hours at home. Put on a good act for a good show.
6. Want to go home early. Let your coworkers and manager know that you're not feeling so well. What can they say?
7. Don't be shy; give your co-workers and manager a kudo once in a while. Even if it's just a thank-you. It's an easy way to brown-nose.
8. Dress decent. Dress for success. Dress for the job. Don't be a slob.
9. Don't install the company apps on your phone. Trust no one.
10. Never do personal stuff on your company laptop or devices. Do it on your own device. Don't give them the chance to track your activities.
11. Never give bad feedback. Always pretend that all is positive.
12. Always attend your meetings; this includes the company-wide ones. Never know who's tracking attendance.

Now you know how others survive, even if they have poor skills and are clearly not performing.

It's an easy ride. Enjoy it!

Now go to work and put on a good show. I do, and you can too! Practice makes perfect!

Last week I found out that they're doing an RTO mandate for all of tech. An absolute cluster-fck of infrastructure to get 700 roles back in office. I'm sure this will make less driven employees more productive and the shoe designers who cry foul about fairness happy, but for those of us who actually cared about sh-t getting done, all it tells us is that it's time to hit the remote-first market, where there are no haves and have nots, only fair, trusting work models for competent people.

All of your most driven employees are now in the process of self-selecting their way out of the company. Velocity is going to sink as the people with the most initiative start using downtime to send applications instead of make up for their colleagues' deficits.

Just remember this the next time holiday readiness falls apart or you're dealing with unmaintainable copy paste AI slop. You are asking your best to leave, and a lot of us were perfectly content with your sub-par compensation schemes and nonexistent promotions before this because we didn't have to put up with 699 other guys trying to take Zoom calls from an open office with no privacy or hour long traffic slogs.

But at least it's fair now, and you can backfill those roles in ITC, and AI/ML will print infinite money for you any day now, right?

She is 64. Will she retire soon? Maybe things will get better then? 🤞

Oh my goodness, just starting out with this one way bs, and now we don't request holiday or time off. We bid for absence! Ffs
We are so fortunate to have jobs aren't we?!
It's nice to be treated like a human

I will never be available outside office hours again.

I always love how the day starts out great. But then my boss gets into her email and starts firing away all sorts of directives and asks. I probably have a few more hours before this nonsense starts. Often wanting a response “ASAP”. Almost all isn’t urgent yet treated that way.

I’m on the clock at all times Monday thru Friday and basically get a Saturday off. This isn’t sustainable.

Anybody else’s boss “lead” in this glorious 2010 fashion? At least we sponsored the NBA Dunk contest, right “see you on the commute guy?? That changes everything.

Seriously one very top level executive is into triathlons. That is heavy commitment. I know since am in that space. It is virtually impossible unless you are almost full-time. This is a shame that CEO is ignoring this.

I keep hearing the spotify model is dead. Nobody talks about what we are moving to, just what we are running away from. Please tell me not back to waterfall.

Are you being scheduled:

Excessively early morning or late evening shifts?

Back to back closing and opening shifts ?

More than 5 day stretches?

Longer than 8 hour workdays?

Split shifts ?

Having hours cut suddenly to zero or almost no hours?

Asked to work while your on a vacation? (Salary)

Asked to go without a meal break?

Asked to take a two hour meal break to save payroll hours?

Asked to come in excessively on a scheduled day off?

Cutting certain associates hours, and giving those hours to a “favorite “ ??

Single parent here. I have to send my kids to live with their grandparents this summer, over 120 miles away because I cannot afford summer camps or day cares.
I'll get see them 2 days a week on weekends, whenever I'm NOT on-call.

I started realizing somethng - - maybe i just needed to get better. so i did. i practiced speaking, interviews, technical systems, and problem solving. i practiced in front of a monitor with a random picture up, like i was talking to a real person. i built projects every day, pushed code to github, learned new tools, and forced myself to adapt to ai even though i was still releuctant about it…

at first, i really thought the problem was me. but after getting better and doing stronger interveiws, i started realizing something else. this market is broken!! i know that sounds like an excuse, but i can take criticism. i was a marine corps infantryman. i know what hard things feel like, and i know what it means to improve…

but i also know i’m not the only one. i know 10 to 15 people, some with 10+ years of real experience, who still haven’t found work after months of searching. companies say they want thoughtful engineers, but right now a lot of them just want speed above everything else???

one company gave me a 3-hour full-stack assessment. they said it should be 50% manual coding and 50% ai-assisted. i followed every requirement, built the feature, deployed it live, and even went beyond the spec. they rejected me and said i “didn’t do enough.” then they showed me another candidate’s submission, and it was basically the same thing, except they had thrown in 30 more ai-generated features!!

that’s when it clicked. companies say they want engineers, but many of them want someone who leans fully into ai, ships fast, stays available, fixes whatever breaks, and does not slow down to think too much about security or long-term quality. i’ve asked multiple companies about security in this ai-heavy market, and the answer has basically been the same: features first, move fast, worry later…

that is a dangerous mindset, and it will probably backfire eventually. so if you’re a software engineer going through this, give yourself some grace. you may not be a bad engineer. you may not be a bad coder. you may just be trying to survive a market that is demanding unicorns???

take breaks. go outside. spend time with family, your dog, your cat, or whatever keeps you grounded. don’t let this job market destroy your health. you are skilled, and the market is just ugly right now!!

maybe one day this bubble pops, and we all get paid to fix the mess it created. until then, take care of yourself…

Wells Fargo has made it clear moms have no place working here. Which is fine - we’ll just find jobs that allow us to be the primary parent and pick our kids up before dark. I can’t wait to get out.

If you look, you can see what’s going on. Management not really enforcing 5 day RTO. Snacks/eggs not being restocked. Soda/coffee/water machines taking days to refill.
The company is feeling the cost squeeze of offering those things now that they have to save for the new .
So they look away on you coming in 2-3 days, and you look away on all these amenities they lured you back with.

Story by agoh@businessinsider.com

(1) Skims cofounder Emma Grede says the downsides of working from home don't get enough attention.

(2) She said it's "so crazy" not to draw a link between remote work and growing social issues such as loneliness.

(3) "The key to a long and happy life is your close relationships," she said.

Emma Grede, a founding partner of Skims, says the real cost of working from home isn't being talked about enough.

Speaking on the "Leaders with Francine Lacqua" podcast episode released on Monday, Grede, 43, said that remote work could have broader social consequences that people are overlooking.

"Working from home is career su----e. And we only talk about the upside of working from home," Grede told podcast host Francine Lacqua.

The downsides aren't what people want to hear, but Grede says she believes the effects are already visible in everyday life.

"Think about what's happening in the world. Declining birth rates, declining marriage rates, and the loneliness epidemic. And we think that none of that is linked to the number of people that like, don't see people because they're doing Zoom calls from the living room?" Grede said.

Grede, who is also the CEO of Good American and the first Black female investor to appear on "Shark Tank," said that it's "so crazy" not to make that correlation.

"The key to a long and happy life is your close relationships," she added.

For Grede, being in the room matters from the very start of a career.

"Listen, I did a lot of unpaid internships and I did it while being somebody that didn't have a lot of money. And that was a real struggle for me," Grede said.

Despite that, she said she saw the value of those opportunities.

"It was a huge unlock for me, the ability to go into an organization and get under the hood without having any qualifications or right to really be there. I think that there have to be certain protections on it, but I'd like to lift the lid because there's so much to be learned," she said.

It's not the first time Grede has taken a hard line on workplace expectations. In May 2025, she said she considers it a red flag when job candidates ask about work-life balance during the interview process.

"Work-life balance is your problem. It isn't your employer's responsibility," Grede said.

In an April interview with The Wall Street Journal, Grede also sparked an online debate after describing herself as a "max three-hour mum" on weekends focused on creating "high-impact, core memories" with her kids.

Grede is part of a growing number of CEOs pushing back on remote work.

In May 2023, Elon Musk said he views remote work as "morally wrong," saying it's unfair for some workers to stay home while others must be physically present to do their jobs.

"It's like, really, you're going to work from home and you're going to make everyone else who made your car come work in the factory?" Musk said.

In March, JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon said that working from home simply "doesn't work" for many younger employees, who will benefit from in-person guidance from their colleagues.

"They learn by going on a sales call with you," Dimon said. "They learn by seeing you make a mistake. They learn by how you deal with the mistake."

Since mid-2025, several major companies, including JPMorgan, Amazon, and Google, have implemented return-to-office policies.

I have a dream that one day we will be judged not by a badge swipe, not by a line in a presence report, but by the work we actually do.

I have a dream that we stop pretending five days in an office equals productivity, when we’ve already proven that great work happens from anywhere. That we stop forcing people into seats just to be seen, and start trusting them to deliver.

I have a dream that effort, integrity, and contribution matter more than location. That someone doing exceptional work from home is valued more than someone simply occupying a desk.

I have a dream that we end the illusion that RTO creates culture. Because culture isn’t built by commuting, by sitting in traffic, or by joining video calls from a cubicle. Culture is built by trust, respect, and giving people the flexibility to do their best work.

I have a dream that we recognize what’s actually happening. That people are burned out, that morale is down, and that forcing five days in-office isn’t fixing it, it’s causing it.

I have a dream that we stop measuring presence and start measuring performance. That we reward results, not routines.

I have a dream that the best people aren’t pushed out because they want flexibility, and that we stop pretending five-day RTO is normal when most of the world has already moved on.

Because right now, we’re clinging to a model that’s outdated, expensive, and ineffective.

So I have a dream that we move forward. That we embrace hybrid, embrace remote work, and build a company around outcomes, not optics.

Because work isn’t a place.

And the sooner we accept that, the better off everyone will be.

Buckle up!

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2026/04/29/fidelity-to-bring-employees-back-to-the-office-5-days-a-week/

Ok folks who complain about THREE day requirement- TIAA continues to be the outlier here. For those who threaten to leave over this requirement - not only is the job market difficult, your options to work from home also seem to be dwindling. So maybe switch career paths as the industry is almost exclusively in office or appreciate what TIAA offers its employees?

If you care at all lift the hybrid requirement right now. No one can afford gas. And the further the war goes on the more expensive it’s getting. Your people are struggling.

Since my ISU got a big cut, I’ve officially entered my "Linux Villain Era." I finally installed Ubuntu 26.04 and banned my work laptop from the house in the evening and weekends—mostly because I prefer my OS without a side of corporate heavy eavesdropping. If the budget is gone, my "extra mile" just hit a dead end.

Welcome to S&T, where a work life balance doesn’t exist. It’s unrealistic to expect teams to take on more work than is manageable, work extended hours, handle last-minute tasks, and meet high-pressure deadlines while also downsizing. It’s getting ridiculous. No way this is normal? S&T is going to lose their best workers.

Not a whine post, just keeping it informational. I just had an org activation touch base where it was communicated that everyone in GT will be expected to work in either PHK or ITC at the current Nike guidance of 4 days per week.

Back in 2023 at an FI all hands in SMT, one of the heads of the BU said “Vanguard makes you come in 3 times a day, we’re MUCH better than them”. Roger Stiles also said in the end of 2022 that the approach for one week in office was fair.

I wonder if those gents remember when they said that lol.

To all the negative people over here.. just ask yourself: Is Hans better than Dan?
Answer is obviously No..
Atleast we are not hiring random people for DEI.. I saw former cooks/ gym instructors getting hired under some program. There was mafia in GTS ( some people are still here) .
I liked Hans for keeping everyone comfortable on a sinking ship without doing anything to help the ship..
I would rather be uncomfortable but save the ship.

People are complaining today as if any of this is new, but it isn’t. These same patterns have played out in every generation. Different names, different systems, same cycles. Jobs change, economies shift, uncertainty comes and goes. It happens throughout the lives of every generation. What changes is not the pattern itself, but how aware people are of it, and how they respond when it shows up again.

Follow the narrow path that leads to life.

Anyone know?

I ask out of place of genuine curiosity. It seems lots of people on my team are chronically out on leave. It's a revolving door of people getting pregnant, mailing it in 9 months before pregnancy, using your PTO, being out for 6 months on maternity leave, mailing it in the year after your baby, and repeating the cycle. Then others are FMLA/medical leave and seemingly work like 60% of year. There's no way 1/3 of my colleagues are getting surgeries or getting cancer diagnoses. Is there something I'm missing? Is the strategy to work yourself to a bloody pulp and go on mental health leave for weeks at a time?

I feel like this place is a state-supported jobs program for Minnesotan women.

Thanks to shares and bonus, my Box 5 comp went up over 50% last year. Yet, I still want to escape. wtf is wrong with me? Am I a spoiled little sh-t or what?

My CL says the job market is bad right now. I've been at Fidelity a long time and feel anxiety about my comfort zone being so narrow. Especially in light of the pending org changes. I don't have a graduate degree. I am young-ish and nearly saved $1mm nw thanks to this place. I am spending exorbitant time outside working hours to secure my financial future but the pressure is about to make me crack.

I feel like i would be totally lost if I quit or got layoff. But some days, I feel tempted to say phuket and make a scene at the office....

Let’s all boycott FLIK - why are we coming here more to line their pockets! Pack a lunch. Let’s all get on board.

Assigned city X to relocate. Asked for city Y. Accepted relo. Now regretting decision due to horror stories of commute and bad work life balance. I don’t think I can sustain city Y. What to do?

Going forward...

• 8 hours a day. max
• uninstalling BYOD
• if asked to travel the answer is No
• save your pizza parties and team building. if i'm not working, i'm going home

not good enough? bring on the PIP. Will gladly take it and the package when laid off. Not everyone will leave on their own without for free

I have survived so, so many layoff rounds now, and the pattern is always the same. As soon as the last person from the previous round clears out their desk, someone in leadership starts floating the idea of another round. Can we actually have some time to do some work without having to simultaneously worry about our jobs, please?

Every year we hire a bunch of people. Every year we fire a bunch of people. Can we just pick a plan and stick with it for once.