With Nov 2 fast approaching, what’s the news on folks deciding to return (or not)? I heard the exception of having few colleagues in the office is sketchy, comments?
35 replies (most recent on top)
@394 It appears the Dems and their gas cronies kept the prices high until mid terms so now what's your excuse?
See Geoff was right! RTO started and the stock price went up!!
RTO start today?
With these gas prices, RTO is id--tic.
Some of the new seating arrangements at OHQ are wild. There's simply not enough room. People assigned to small desks grouped in pods hemmed in by cabinet towers. Looks like a call center. Some are on their second or third desk reassignment since RTO began. How's that for efficient? Can't wait for the "collaboration" that comes with being overpacked in a loud, distracting environment.
Exactly - "What do you mean ‘work’? What does ‘working’ mean? The MN employees (those not designated as remote) were sent home in 2020 for the scamdemic. For 4 years they got the job done, from their non-ergonomic dining table, while simulateously dealing with kids kept out of school and likely a partner also sent home. Now, they are told to RTO for “collaboration” which is code for lose productive time by chatting with colleagues in the hall or anywhere you get interrupted, after having to waste time commuting. So tell me, what does RTO ‘working’ do for productivity?"
Not only that, but the reality of RTO means "workplace affairs" - either emotional or physical. Every large corporate office I've been to usually has "affairs" hit the grapevine. Given a large cohort of workers is on RTO at a large, dense multi-floor facility, the surge in infidelity will come along with it. Couples beware!!! I've been binge watching the entire series of "ER" from 1994-2009. The infidelity shown in many of those scenes can also happen in a corporation: Doug and Carol, Carter and Lucy, Abby and Moretti, Neela and whoever, Jessica and Archie (making out after a fierce argument over clinical treatment). Affairs like that can happen in the large corporate office. I wonder if they thought of that reality? Probably not.
Brace for the office romance and infidelity coming your way. I hope those people involved realize that nowadays they can get doxed with smart phones which can post videos in real time. It's not like the 90s when it was a rumor at the coffee pot or lunch area.
Rule for thee, not for me
@15v Exactly. And, what’s the point in sending out the demand for return when a sub-population of Directors, Managers, others get the free pass to NOT return. They make a show of it for a few weeks then you don’t see them again except for AEM. All this while those who worry about losing their jobs show up every day. THIS should tell YOU something.
@15d I’d be surprised if that would happen, there’s too many VPs and Directors within Surgical that are remote and not near an office.
Starting Nov 2 all Medtronic employees are required to RTO including senior leaders and executives.
@140 There was the big RTO last Nov 2025. All MN employees not designated as remote had to return. Also, other sites as well. Employees had to commute back into office so they could sit in cube and get on zoom calls with colleagues.
The Nov 2026 RTO is (I believe) for designated remote workers that ARE designated remote and live within 25 miles of the office.
IMO, it’s a free employee reduction mechanism for leadership.
@g4 What do you mean ‘work’? What does ‘working’ mean? The MN employees (those not designated as remote) were sent home in 2020 for the scamdemic. For 4 years they got the job done, from their non-ergonomic dining table, while simulateously dealing with kids kept out of school and likely a partner also sent home. Now, they are told to RTO for “collaboration” which is code for lose productive time by chatting with colleagues in the hall or anywhere you get interrupted, after having to waste time commuting. So tell me, what does RTO ‘working’ do for productivity?
Just now there's an RTO for MN? Wtf!?!?! In Boston and NoHa there's been a 4 day RTO since January! What's changing for this round of RTO?
Every employee needs to be accountable for RTO or it ain’t going to work. Total BS if only select regions and teams.
@eh
Same, 5 days a week critical to business. I enjoy reading the RTO hater posts. I actually hated WFH, too bored just waiting for an OK to return to office. Weird MN has become the focus and Boston for RTO enforcement
@eh What is your source for the danger zone increasing to 50 miles?
@eh I heard smug weirdos who enjoy going to the office are next on the RIF list.
This initial wave is MN only. I hear that the Boston area is on the agenda. I assume all sites are on the agenda at some point. Within 25 miles now and I hear that's increasing to 50 in a while. I get why management is doing it. Seems like a rotten apple scenario. Too many people doing their own daycare and having side jobs and taking naps and doing chores while they're supposed to be working. Folks who are impossible to get ahold of when they're at home. I've seen it for years. Some people work better from home without the constant distractions of the office but I guess that didn't balance out the negatives. I've also heard that RIFs have been slanted towards those who aren't showing up to the office. Just anecdotal though. Also heard that there is a push to get teams co-located again instead of everyone being spread out. Probably makes sense in some areas but not in others. In any case, I expect to have a bunch of annoyed, grumpy people show up on 2-Nov. I've been in 4 days a week since I got un-banished after the shamdemic so this is kind of just noise to me.
@cp Boston has been required to be in office 4 days/week for several months now.
I’m not aware of any new policies for Boston, but I was never designated as remote so I may not have received policy updates in that realm. We also of course just had mass layoffs, so the dust is definitely still settling around here.
We should be working more from home with these gas prices.
Is this new policy for Boston office?
@bm of course they can change your terms of employment. It’s that, or they’ll lay you off. It’s not like we have a union. At will employment is the contract.
@c8 they’ve already started laying people off who were not within 25 miles. Unless you’re in sales, they’re requiring people to work in the office.
As a software engineer, I can develop anywhere, but I do work in the office. Because of that, I’m constantly distracted by needless meetings, training my coworkers in India, and on going regulatory requirements. I fully support work from home when applicable.
Wish I could work from home, but considering the intellectual property i work with, I must be onsite. I won’t accept a work from home salary working on site either, which is currently my situation. Granted, my pay is low because I don’t have a degree, but my work is world class. My work will be finished in India (where I’m at now). The man I’m training is eager, nice, and wants to succeed. Sorry to say, he doesn’t have the talent. The project will fail.
I’m quitting, I have an offer with Lockheed for FPGA development, working in the office, but it pays 2x higher, than my underpaid Medtronic job. My price for office work has increased. Those of you that know me, please don’t say anything about me posting here.
250 mile radius starting in December
@bk I hear you. While I guess a company can change terms of employment, it’s hard to understand the logic of: within 25 miles requires return (regardless of hiring status) but 26 miles does not.
Just seems clear they are trying to get people to leave, saving $.
If you were new to MDT and hired remote, it is not RTO since you never were at an office to begin with. When I was hired I signed an agreement for a remote job. I’m not sure how they can change the signed agreement.
@ad how is simply stating the policy bootlicking?
I don’t give two hoots if you all want to badge in, send one email, and go work from home the rest of the day. I think that’s great as RTO is meaningless. But if you don’t come in the required number of days you’ll lose your job. It is what it is, babe.
how will you manage that, with the corporate boot halfway down your esophagus?
@aj+
Maybe people like "you and the like" are the reason why RTO was made mandatory as of NOV 2nd. I'll be there to shake hands and welcome people back in the office.
Nope, let them find someone else. I’m not paid enough for a 2 hour one way commute, car expenses, child care, and 4 hours of unproductive time. Medtronic is going to lose A LOT of people.
Nov 2nd is MN RTOs day ... WooHoo .... Let the good times roll .....
I'm not coming in and I'm prepared to let the chips fall where they may...
@a7 well, of course, but nobody on here has any idea what that number will be. If you do not have an exception to wfh, which are incredibly hard to get, the expectation is return to the office. Refusing to do so is considered resignation. It’s stupid, but that’s the policy.
@a2 not necessarily. Some are seeking jobs elsewhere, others are going to simply decline to return.
I don’t understand what you’re asking, OP. People are returning to office on November 2 if they are required to do so.