Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

I am a manager of managers and the description provided by the prior poster is accurate.

Hours in office aren’t being used in the reporting.

Manager here. I have a small team of individual contributors and have received two reports thus far. My own info was included in the second report which was useful. I’m in Corporate Risk and our data is provided to execs two levels below DF. Deputies of those execs then parse the info out for distribution to their DR managers who do the same, with that process continuing down to the lowest-level managers. Reports cover the past four week period and have two metrics: average days per week in office with PTO/holidays counted as in-office, and average days with PTO/holidays excluded. The first metric is the key one. We’ve been given guidance to talk with folks averaging two or fewer days in-office per week.

An explainer provided with these reports states that “in-office behavior” is calculated from a combination of badge swipes at a WF location(s) or connection to WF network via landline or WF wifi. I know that going to a WF location other than your assigned one is a non-issue, and for us, hours spent in the office also don’t seem to factor in.

@1ayw+1m5talAc

I think the reason for this may be because it’s done by each LOB separately and is not necessarily tracked same way. They’re using the same data at a basic level (badge swipes and network connections), but the actual reports each uses might not necessarily be generated via the identical logic. So we hear different things here because things are in fact different LoB to LoB.

I wish we could get a credible definitive answer as to how RTO is being tracked. I've heard many different methods from many different people and don't know what to believe.

Anyone? Anyone?

@1lkd+1m5talAc

Sure but even with the cheapo option it’s still an expense the bank is passing on to it’s employees. Say your used Chromebook crashes. Now suddenly you’ve gotta either go out and drop $100-200 you weren’t expecting, or go into the office 40+ hours per week when you maybe have kids or other responsibilities that rely on your hybrid schedule and the flexibility of being able to finish your work at home even on the days you go in. Also, I know in theory the VDI should be completely siloed off from what’s on the personal computer in general, but it seems to me that hackers always come up with a workaround for whatever security enhancements corporations throw at them. Eventually after some hack happens because some id--t connected to the VDI on the same laptop he downloads p*rn on, we’ll get some directive that only personal devices that are WFC approved brands/models that have never been used of anything other than VDI can connect, and then we’re left having to go spend $500+ of our hard earned cash on a brand new machine we’re not allowed to do anything with other than work if we want to still have the option to work remote. This would be an added bonus to execs on the RTO train who’d love to make remote work as painful as possible while still having the plausible deniability that the company offers a hybrid schedule.

My company laptop is an old POS anyway. Won't miss it. Raspberry Pi / Chromebook / phone FTW. I'm guessing it'll take several years tho, nothing like this ever goes smoothly at WF.

Wi-Fi scanning, lol, you do realize that not every office/floor has Wi-Fi? Do an ipconfig at home, now do one at work. It's a culmination of both swipes, not all offices have WF badge swipes, and vpn monitoring.

@1oto hogwash. I will be using my personal desktop to WFH.

My personal laptop is reserved for travel.

Even then I may access my work VDI from an Azure VM in a M$ data center (~$35/mo) so no matter where I am it looks like I'm working from the US. A full-time WFH employee like me could easily move to a cheap cost-of-living country and live like a king.

Everyone will be without laptops in the office by end of 2024. VDI has started rolling out and you have to use your personal laptop if you WFH.

Exactly. Ego, enforcing their will, and getting people to quit is all these POS think about. They have no actual ideas to grow this company. They'll leave WF soon and won't be missed.

Good thing the company is focusing time and resources on our highest priorities like tracking, monitoring, and analyzing badge swipes; and not getting distracted by asset caps, customer satisfaction, or getting actual work done. C-levels need to give themselves even more pats on the back. The millions they make is not enough for the value their laser focus on what really matters brings to this company.

I heard it’s a rolling average from the past 5 weeks.

As a former employee that sat in corporate risk two down from Charlie, I can share they track with badges and login. All WF sites obviously have internal
Servers. Once you leave and login for a remote location it’s captured.

Does volunteering count as day in the office?

@pou I get that's satire, but you've perfectly highlighted the reasons I don't want to go back to the office, ever.

Those who can afford to live close to the office and brag about it like that are either very highly compensated or live in some midwest pit toilet like Des Moines.

They are also the type of people who look for what they can get for free. Every toxic person I've known has had that trait. Always seeing what they can get out of other people without giving anything in return.

WF is full of them but my geographically dispersed team is actually devoid of them.

Do you only show on the report if it’s less than 3 or does it show everyone?

It’s based on an average badge swipes for the week.

@evr+1m5talAc
Everybody?
I don't think so. 15 years remote here before the drive to RTO

I don't know what you guys are talking about. I'm only about a mile from the office, and it's super efficient to go in. I can S and use company TP, I can fill up my water bottle and drink company water, I can charge all my devices on company power, I can cook with company electricity, I can drop off my recycling and trash, and I get free HVAC. Most importantly, I have an ironclad get out of jail free card for not actually being productive for long periods of time. "I was collaborating". If you don't produce at home they assume you're goofing off. If you don't produce in the office you're "living company values".

It’s not. No one really gives af but managers are being forced to just to keep their slave wages also.

@evr+1m5talAc

You need to reevaluate your definition of "everyone". I was WFH for years before COVID came along and I'm far from alone. Going to a random building serves no purpose other than wasting money/time and reducing the amount of time I'm actually available for work. Pointing out stupidity and inefficiency isn't "whining".

@evr+1m5talAc
I am going back to the office. I'm not complaining about RTO. I don't mind it at all. I enjoy it actually. I have screaming kids at the house all day. I just want it to be counted when I go.

On the days that you are in-office without your laptop, I’d communicate this via email to your manager (or teams and then save the conversation). This way there’s some documented evidence explaining why their tracking may only show a badge swipe and not the laptop-to-LAN connection they may also be looking for. Then if you come up as less than three again your manager can show them those emails. This is also probably how one should document if they don’t go into office due to illness that they’re going to wfh during. My manager has told me that if you come up on the report, he needs to have a valid explanation that was already communicated to him that he can show. If that’s the case then it shouldn’t be an issue, but it’s when there’s no valid explanation that it starts to become a problem.

Not sure why @pvy was downvoted because that is 100% the case. If you are a top performer, semi-compliance is swept under the rug. The catch is that if performance falls off, your manager (or their manager) has a good case for letting you go if cuts need to be made.

Here’s how it’s tracked. If they like you and you have hard to find skills then don’t worry. If they want to get rid of you then do 8 hours on 3/2. If you are in the middle, swipe in and stay at least 5 hours.

I hear it’s a combo of badging in and connecting to the network. So if you are using your iPad or VPN on days you go in, it may not count. You will need to take your laptop and actually login.

Most likely WiFi scanning on work laptop when you're in office.