It looks like they are going to bring down the hammer on RTO soon. Let’s share some funny, in a sad way, stories about RTO and how much it makes things so much worse. I’ll start.
Was RTO in an office I was assigned to that I had never been to. Went to use the bathroom and it was closed for cleaning. Spent 15 minutes looking for another bathroom since I have no idea where anything is and the floor plans were useless. Was late to a meeting and missed the first 10 minutes.
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Since they are forcing us to RTO I use this time to catch up on all my personal stuff and shopping online. No managers in Charlotte as they all work from home so no one around. I take 2 hour lunches to shop. Lots of stores to hit around the Charlotte hub. I leave at 3 to get home early. I don’t ask off PTO anymore as I don’t have to. RTO is PTO!!! Got it all figured out. If I have to leave my home and my remote job I now have plenty of time to shop.
I'm in a very similar situation OP. I have a hard time believing that executives are THIS blind to reality, which suggests that the long running theory here, that RTO is intentionally designed to crush morale and motivate people like us to resign w/o severance, is the likely true. A secondary benefit, in their eyes, is the purging of long time employees. I believe the executives consider anyone that's been here longer than Charlie to be 'tainted' by scandal, and overly expensive to downsize, so they want to get rid of us as a result. The indignities will likely continue to be heaped upon us until they reach whatever arbitrary numbers they are looking for.
After 12 years of WFH (their decision, not mine), I'm not forced back into the office. I'm in the central time zone, and I'm a manager with many direct reports around the country, only one of them is in my time zone. For this reason, I've always worked a 6:30am-6:30pm schedule to cover all my time zones for which I have responsibility. This has worked well for me. I'm a very engaged manager and my teammates respect and have great relationships with me.
After 1 week of PTO, where I go to a building where nobody knows my name, everyone is on their headphones all day, I get to my cube around 8:30 (after an hour commute), I do my job in my cubicle (usually in Teams meetings) until lunch, get out of that building for an hour for lunch, go back into my cubicle for a few more hours of Teams meetiings, leave at 4pm so that I can make the hour commute home to spend the last hour at home tending to my west coast responsibilities until 6:30pm (no way I"m staying in the office until 6:30pm every day).
This is the most unproductive, experience I've ever seen. The id--ts who somehow think that I'm doing my job better because of this waste of time and resources absolutely have no clue as to what it's like being a worker in this company.
After 1 week, I've become the most unproductive and unmotivated that I've been in my 20+ year career at this company.
I was was thriving. I was the most productive I've ever been. I was ki-ling it..
Now, it's ki-ling me.
Thanks id--ts.
Love RTI so far. At home I worked. Here in the office no managers anywhere so we get to do what we want which is nothing. I am catching up on all my tv shows and relaxing. Life is good!
Processor here in Charlotte. Got to work at 10. Checked email Ate breakfast. Shopped online. Went to lunch at 1 for 2 hours. Came back at 3. Checked email. Went home at 3 30. Wow tiring day at the office. Never saw a manager. I saw another processor at a cube watching tv. I will try that on my next office visit.
Before COVID we had assigned seats where your monitors were always there, along with cords and docking station. Also able to leave notebook, pens, Kleenex, and lotion in my desk drawer. Now it’s all a crapshoot as to what is available with respect to seating, technology, and even restrooms. Not to mention the need to pack a small suitcase….not the same AT ALL.
I’ve discovered the joys of collaborating with folks on what job opportunities are out there and making connections with other firms, so I guess that in person collaboration has been great for me!
Wish me luck on this exit strategy!
Also: as someone else posted, I enjoy getting lost in YouTube shorts, doing my daily meditation and listening to NSFW music in my AirPods. Good stuff here.
In uptown Charlotte, one can go shopping at CVS or Whole foods and with a short walk, Target, Best Buy, Trader Joe's and some home furniture/furnishings shops.
On the days I go in to "work" from the office, I invariably end up at one of there to ki-l some hours and during my trips to these stores I see at least two people out shopping who I've seen before.
I don't know if it's funny or just awkward but when we make eye contact, the "where do I know you?" face changes to "ha ha, there's the same RTO guy"
I was supposed to RTO in one of the buildings on my campus, and out of nowhere they closed that building for renovations. I was told the day of and couldn’t get my personal items that I left in the drawers.
I have no kids and I was WFH for many years before COVID. Also, you have it backwards. RTO, not WFH, has encouraged me to run errands during biz hours. I'm forced to be out and about anyway, might as well stop by various places since I'm in the neighborhood. That wasn't a "thing" until RTO taught me that the company wants us to waste time and be inefficient.
I don’t mind RTO
That’s cool. Don’t show up. That makes it easier for them to cut you and save my job. Please stay home and complain about how you need to run all of your personal errands and take care of your kids during work hours.
Just like someone else said, you went to an office before Covid and now you should be going back. And you also know that they are looking for easiest ways to cut staff. Maybe if they cut all of you that are protesting then consolidate, they’ll leave the rest of us alone for a while.
Here’s what is funny. Not one processing manager in Charlotte they are supposed to be back in the office but they are all
On their butts at home doing nothing. So why should we have to go back? It goes all the way up. None of the processing senior management goes in. We are all on strike until they go in. No one supervising anyone.
@ryt no, I wasn't. No, I'm not.
FRTO
Stop whining. You were in the office full time before COVID. You are going back full time after COVID. Get another job if you don’t like it. There are plenty of people that were laid off that will gladly take you job
I was suppose to meet a team to collaborate face to face but everyone came up with a reason they had to wfh that day. So I drove in to sit in a cubicle and have a Teams meeting. Sat down at a cubicle and there was no connection cord for my laptop. Had to walk around and find another cubicle. Hey, I’m here. Ready to collaborate! Went to get a coffee at the cafe and it was closed due to unforeseen circumstances and the cafeteria wasn’t open yet. So no coffee on my great collaboration. So let’s do the math- drove 45 minutes to talk on the phone and spent 20 minutes looking for an not getting a coffee. At wfh- 5 min from bedroom to home office, 1 minute for a coffee. Love it!
For about 4 months, I was the only one on my floor- I guess I collaborated better with myself in the office. The lights were motion activated, so I would fling my arms up when I walked onto the floor and pretend like I was MAGIC and all the lights would come on. It made my day a little more fun. There are a few people on my floor now. They’re not in my group, and we don’t work together. They just look at me weird when I fling my arms up in the air when I walk in. I tell them ‘you just don’t get it.’
Just kidding- I don’t really do that, but I think about it.
It's not funny, but every day of RTO is a joke. No reports, no directs, and no managers in my area at my assigned location. I go, I badge in, I waste some time, I get distracted, and then I go home to do actual work. In 14 months of doing this "excuse me" and "good morning" is the sum total of collaboration that has occured while on site. I despise the id--ts in NYC that are doing this to us and ruining a great job. It's ok though, I'll outlast those losers and their short sighted plans. They'll move on to another victim company soon enough.
wasn't aware we no longer had waste baskets in cubes! AND now we are required to use special credentials to print? isn't the office where we can color print?
LOL (not entirely kidding )
- Showed up, no workstations set up with monitors.
- Showed up, no open stalls, had to grab someone elses, 1/2 hour goes by and he shows up, so I went home.
- Showed up, same issue with bathrooms as OP.
- Was asked to go to another location to "collaborate" with part of the larger org (that I don't work with) for the day and I declined.
- Showed up and no place to park, went home.
- Showed up, new monitors weren't installed, was told to set them up, went home.