RTO has specific sites. Employees in range of the office, can no longer be remote.
3 days minimum a week. 4 for managers.
badge tracking has started reporting.
Enforcers assigned.
Lack of attendance is a reason for bad performance review, not yet condition of employment.
No consideration for loss of productivity or any other unproductive outcomes.
They want people to decide if they really want to work here anymore.
BM Consulting "Managers" are first on the hook for billable hours, and people management is an add on for which as far as I can see there are no career benefits. Many of us care about the people that we have in our chain as they build their careers at IBM. This RTO policy is asinine for a billable consulting "people manger" whose people are in other offices, and for whom their billable client does not require on-site travel. Who will they collaborate with at the office during the 8 hours that they are 100% billable to their client? It is a remote possibility that there will be any other consultants on that client at the IBM locations. Way to motivate the individuals that actually create revenue for the corporation and result in nice healthy bonuses for the execs.
The same reasoning could be used in reverse How much does WFH save IBM is sooo many ways? They deserve a raise! But instead policy places during Covid will be used as a we-pon once again. BTW anyone see Rob Thomas in the office 3 days a week? The hypocrisy is unconscionable!
While this is extremely narrow minded and silly it’s just the way of the world…today it was implied perhaps people working from home should have a 20% pay reduction since a cherry picked non scientific study claims productivity is down 20% …which is BS. Couple this threat with the quote that WFH people maybe really don’t want to work and last spring’s statement that if you WFH you won’t advance in your career and you can see the threats planted are real even though couched in plausibly deniable phrasing
Be careful about the Raspberry Pi trick...assuming that IBM is serious about device monitoring, they'll keep track of what kinds of devices are active on the network (MAC prefix/OUI) along with everything else. They can immediately block that Pi from the network if they suspect anything.
It's sad to see IBM descend to this type of behavior. Workplace enforcement of this kind is what d*** companies do...the kind of companies where professionals don't work. That they feel they must do this reflects very badly on IBM's management and their corporate reputation as a whole.
Going to set up my Raspberry Pi to log in to IBM wifi every morning at 8AM and log out at 6PM. Dropping it off at the office tomorrow. Succkaaaas.
See you in office Rob Thomas BTW double fingers rockets follow you from everyone one you pass You nozzle
Wifi? What if you are on ethernet? What if you leave your device on wifi? And perhaps a script to make it look like it is active?
Not badge tracking. Wifi tracking is being used. More accurate on time in office and catches those that badge in then leave shortly after.
@1uwi+1oCkE10T Wow, nice job using your bot farm to reinforce the official narrative. Everything about this company is dystopian.
@1uwi+1oCkE10T: that’s great if your team is not geographically dispersed, but that simply isn’t realistic in many cases. Many of us will be returning to the office to work and talk to the same coworkers and customers via webex that we were talking to from our home office. This isn’t about collaboration. It’s about control. I’m sure you’ll understand this (unless you’re director level or higher). Also, anyone who actually believes IBM is doing this for “the benefit of the team” has been drinking the blue kool aid far too long.
There's nothing wrong with wanting teams to work together, but IBM runs a geographically dispersed worldwide matrix organization. Collaboration for many (perhaps most) folks takes place through a screen, not by sitting next to each other. This has been the case for many years, and especially in the business that IBM happens to be in. When the Austin (RTP, Poughkeepsie, Armonk, etc.) managers have to babysit their "remote" employees (excuse me, "team members") working in various offices who knows where because of that RTO requirement, you'll see plenty of screaming...hah!
So tired of the whining and complaining about RTO policies and decisions. I’d rather have leadership tell me to come to the office 3X per week than tell me that I no longer have a job and don’t need to come to the office at all anymore. WFH is not a right, it is a privilege. While you can be even more productive in a remote setting, it’s much better done with people in-person. And this is coming from someone who is not a social butterfly by any means.
IBM wanting us to RTO has nothing to do with the weeding out certain employees vs. others. They simply want teams to be together, work together, and drive business outcomes together. That’s it, why is this continuing to be such a discussion point.
This decision has nothing to do with productivity, or sustainability. Instead, it ki-ls two birds with one stone. Firstly, it helps to force out excess, redundant talent, reducing personnel cost without the inconvenience of formal layoffs. Secondly, it helps by defending the valuations of one of IBM's biggest assets: Commercial Real Estate, which is affected by its utilization rates.
RE: Envizi. They just acquired it in Jan 2022! Another purchased "innovation" goes armonk...er...amuck.
It's 3 days for employees, 4 for managers, 5 for executives. Fully expect it to become 5 for everyone come January.
This is the company who owns and is desperately trying to sell their ESG scam product called “Envizi” whose purpose is to help companies track their emissions and lower their so-called carbon footprint. IBMs own emissions report showed the huge reduction after Covid forced things to change. Now they want employees to all commute to work in their internal combustion engines. Many of us don’t even have a teammate in the same office thus no reason whatsoever to go into the office. I’ve also heard from my coworkers in Sales that Boy-Wonder RT wants more client travel just to get out and get “face time” despite two years of proof that in most cases, webex meetings do just fine. This is all ridiculous. Why is this happening? Because it’s all for show and is all about is control. Nothing more. It does make me wonder though how long it will take for IBM to abandon Envizi, since they don’t actually believe in or adhere to the ideology behind it. Comical, yet pathetic.
AK has been warning directly and indirectly. Now he's dropping the hammer and you will all obey the Tyrant AK!
Visitor badges are logged and tracked just like any employee badge. In every workplace these days that I've ever seen, visitors are required to submit ID (driver's license, passport, etc.) for verification and tracking purposes before they get any badge.
Concerns about "privacy issues" go out the window once you're on employer property. In fact, once workplace violence became an issue people tracking became a sort of legal requirement (don't do it and you'll eventually get sued for unsafe working conditions).
Tracking badges becomes a privacy issue. If they ask you why you didn’t badge in - say you forgot badge at home and got a visitors badge - good luck tracking that.