I was curious what everyone thinks of this. Heard some people talking the other day in office that apparently WFH might come back later this year or next year. The issue that is happening (at least on the tech side) is that recruiting for those roles that are open is very hard, a lot of candidates are saying they want to be remote. So to help with recruiting they might bring back WFH at least for some positions. What does everyone think the possibility is of this happening? (I'm sure it's just hopeful rumors)
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@5ydd+1r2eaCG7
What do you think would happen to ppl in very downsized locations? There aren't nearly the number of desks to accommodate my location (may be enough desks to accommodate up to a quarter).
MD here and I can tell you they are going to decline all of the full-time WTH employees in May when they have to reapply
Schwab doesn't care one bit about employee work life balance or their happiness or even their engagement. The only thing that matters right now is that these Executive council members, almost all of them retiring within 5-7 years build up their stock options and bank statements as much as they can before they leave. If you believe the BS about culture and engagement and teamwork you haven't been paying attention to what this place has turned into
Why not just make the hard to fill open positions full time Remote while keeping all other jobs hybrid?
It’s more likely to go to 5 days a week in office than it is to go to fully remote again.
I have no insight other than random observations, but here they are:
- from a friend at another non financial corporation who was hired as remote during the pandemic. In 2023, that friend and his coworkers were asked to RTO 3 days a week. He also believes that they will be 4 days a week by summer.
- there are 0 job listings at closed/downsized locations- so we know as of now the opportunities follow the RTO. Not great or sustainable in my opinion since great candidates are already working from Schwab remotely and the hiring pool is better if remote is factored in.
- likewise, there clearly aren't productivity issues- there are major trust (dare I say, LEADERSHIP issues at Schwab. Schwab does not know how to fix this) . They may determine that they can't fix the trust in leadership issues better in office when teams are still dispersed.
- ultimately, they may determine that they can incentivize WFH. But that relies on lower level people performing well, getting terrible leaders approval and making said leaders look better.
Pretty terrible for the company overall, but it forces leadership behaviors from the bottom which makes up for the lack of talent at the top.
What do you think? These are my observations, totally debatable.
I’m sure it will come back when the next fake pandemic is unleashed on the population and everyone turns into fear-driven no-IQ bots … what are calling the next one, “disease X” or something.
Nothing said yet. I’m guessing it will be a review item or something done en masse following an audit and bonus payments. Why make more waves when folks are out the door.
What I am surprised by is the lack of an everyone is back and here are the made up reasons it’s so wonderful. Unless I missed one nothing has come out crowing about compliance or examples of wonderfulness. The only thing I saw was a Walt comment on LinkedIn showing six of us on a video conference. Three were at home. Three in the office. And there was only one person in the background of the in office participants. Laughed my a-s off.
I hate the Sh-t Coffee and Snacks. Me and couple of Senior Devs in my team are leaving without any notice after bonus pay. We are using all our PTOs at the moment. We have accepted other remote jobs.
For those who haven’t RTOed, how is it? Anything being said to you?
1600 in Worstlake feels high. But there’s a lot who aren’t doing RTO.
"Would love a little more flexibility and Mondays in office gone."
The only good thing about Monday being an in-office day is that a lot of holidays fall on a Monday. I'm using PTO for as many 3-day weekends going forward as I can (I banked a bunch of PTO not knowing about layoff).
I was hoping that after the last conversion in May and subsequent (likely) layoffs that maybe they would add some flexibility over the summer months. But, heard from a PL that 1600 from Westlake alone are not coming in. Walt was going to mention this at the corporate update, but was told not to, plus too early. If that is true and continues (though I want to see the actual data before I believe it), I foresee full-time RTO soon. That just seems too high of a number for me to believe unless they are highly exaggerating to justify full RTO.
They will not reverse course as they will still need to do another major round of layoffs. Walt will again blame the feds saying they didn’t lower rates fast enough. Then, he will get another raise and stock options
I hope so, but I doubt it. I think it will go the other way; an increase in required office days.
LOL. No. They’ve shown that they will play favorites and that is at all levels of leadership. So it will continue that those who are favored will get wfh privileges while most will not. Look, the RTO and leadership’s actions are simply because they feel they can, want to force attrition without paying out severance and also they need to increase tax breaks and any payments from non occupancy of office space.
They don’t give a damn about people and have completely shot their credibility by grossly violating their own quote about trust being lost in an instant.
I have seen the cognitive dissonance of someone remaining Schwabbies who justify what the EC says. Good for them. It’s their only coping mechanism to stay sane. For everyone else, we know the EC and leadership don’t care. And that filters to all levels of leadership. And Schwab will also be maybe too big to fail but will never truly be the best by any measure due to this culture. End of story.
Tiny Tim will admit he's a failure long before that happens.
It won't happen. If anything, those with remote agreements will be told to come back in and we will go to five days. After that we may see some special circumstance approvals.
Remember that the EC wants to decrease headcount cheaply and is rent seeking. If they can get another 10% reduction through RTO, small bonuses and lousy work it is a win.
Doubt it. That would make people happy.
get a medical ADA accom problem solved
Not surprising to be honest about Schwab having a hard time filling roles. If they only open it back up to certain roles I could see a major backlash happening.
Would love a little more flexibility and Mondays in office gone.