A. Collaboration (stated reason per Pete's 2025 objectives)
B. Productivity
Many people do not even work in the same office with their colleagues, so it can't be A. COVID proved that it isn't B. So what is the real reason?
So, the answer is D. Forcing remote employees out / RIF.
They need to take role - they actually don’t know how many people are actually employed by them.
AIG instituted the ability to work remotely for only one reason, business continuity in the event of an emergency. The program proved its usefulness during Covid. Two unintended benefits of working remotely were employee retention and improved morale. Turnover has always been a problem here. However most folks embraced the ability to work from home as a tradeoff for the less than pleasant work environment and the almost nonexistent annual pay raises. Senior management now "believes" that productivity has been significantly reduced because of remote work. Given this, the new B.S. "objective" for in person collaboration was mandated. This means RTO four days a week for most of us Anyone who doesn't want to comply, will face the possibility of termination without the opportunity for a severance package. Keep in mind that full time employees are one of the company's largest operational expenses and under this scenario it's the perfect opportunity to reduce expenses further. The company knows it can continue operations with less full time staff by utilizing TPAs and overseas labor for far less. This also helps to eliminate the expenses associated with employee benefits. So, this year you can expect increased workloads (already happening in claims) due to the ongoing efforts to reduce full time staff in conjunction with the employees already gone due to VERP. Customer complaints associated with the degradation in services because of reduced staff will be held against the employee via reprimand and reflected in the employee annual performance review along with reductions in the paltry STI bonuses. For anyone hired as a remote worker, this too will end. The company retains the right to modify the parameters of our employment. So if there is a change in the business model that necessitates the need for an employee to be in the office, we will have to comply or seek employment elsewhere. In case you aren't aware, there is still no concern for employee retention or morale.
@3as+1jhry427n right, because AIG is the only company in the whole world mandating RTO... Get your head out of your worn off @$$.
Thanks for posting the article - it's 2 years old, does not mention AIG, and only posits a theory. No confirmation whatsoever. Even if it was true - why lie that RTO is for "collaboration" and not just tell employees that the company gets a tax break?
Link to Bloomberg article that is one of many found on the web. "RTO is basic economics"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-02-21/tax-breaks-threaten-work-from-home-as-ceo-s-get-return-to-office-incentives
RTW has been at 3 days which is 60 percent.
60 is greater than 50 last I checked.
Could be true but doesn't explain the push to 80 percent.
I don't buy the bit about govt tax credits for unoccupied buildings. Do you have a link to support that claim? Should be readily available if true
Its not about you. The return to work is a result of state and federal tax credits that the corporation will lose if they don't have their commercial offices staffed to a minimum of 50% of the time - its a very simple explanation that has nothing to do with people or individual business rather it comes down to tax implications for your company and that means lost revenue if you are not occupying the commercial buildings that your company is receiving tax benefits from.
Maybe power and control? Not hearing much about HR or Managment talk about worklife balance anymore. Let's say the average commute is 1 hr each way. 2 hrs commuting and lunch now spent at the office. People just lost 2.5 to 3 hrs a day.
Probably have been using this site to slowly get news out.
I know many AIG leaders who need riffing. The problem really isn’t the cost side anymore, it’s the revenue side. IT has been cut to the point where most daily stuff is handled by offshore Indians. I’m sure we will hire yet another consulting firm to tell us what to do, because Accenture is wonderful!
There is a double clause to the RTW. All remote contracts will be reviewed with aim at elimination and anybody on a 50+ miles away on an office contract either comes to the office or finds new opportunities. The 50+ miles is fair enough,but there is a significant workforce of hard working people where this is clearly unfair.
The fear of 4-5 days RTO has resulted in a few of my colleagues leaving voluntarily… his strategy has succeeded
It’s hilarious to see all the whining about RTO. 5 years ago the vast majority were 9-5 in the office 5 days a week. Did folks really think the wfh / hybrid thing would last forever?
The issue I have is timing - many have set up childcare / visiting elderly parents around wfh, others joined knowing it was hybrid 2-3 days office. If AIG had simply given notice of RTO back in mid 2024 whilst many would have grumbled they could at least have time to make change or look for other roles.
AIG are not the worst in this - I heard JPM bank gave notice of 5 days a week just before Christmas.
In my opinion, they want people visible to managers and think it will improve productivity (it will in some areas because some people are taking the p1ss) but I do think it will be used to weed out under-performers through natural attrition which is cheaper than RIFing
It's hilarius, I see that open positions are harder and harder to fill and yet they want to reduce the head count further? Lately a lot of executives and underwriters fled from my branch, they are replaced by the dropouts from other companies or brokers... Quality is dropping very fast and the results show.
I'm looking around but I'm still not so desperate to take the first job I can land, I will gladly milk Cow AIG for some more time...
RIFS. Our return on equity is horrendous, we sold every business unit possible and we are still not profitable so next step RTO to get rid of employees.