So, if it's true work from home will soon be history, does that mean we'll AT&T will get more office space or get rid of a number of employees to make more space?
Judging by the approach taken by the company in the past several years, I'm leaning more towards the second option.
they added all kinds of drop in space in my center 3 years ago. i have seen it sit unused ever since. its just a break area for us.
@X0ihBm2-1dpu Is the company paying to move these people and are they increasing their salaries since real estate is soooo much more expensive in LA? I’m also curious if those who don’t move will get severance or just walked out the front door.
its not about telecommuting. you would never find a L5 or below who would be able to tell you with a straight face that forcing people into the office is the best way. wfh should have never been thought of as a privilege and should have been thought of as just another work location. this is about cutting big numbers quickly and gives them an easy way to segregate workers to pitt them against each other.
Elimination of WFH is only one tactic they're employing. Last Friday there was a call informing a number of employees in ATL their jobs are moving to LA. With kids in school, working spouses, etc. you know that only about 20% will end up making the trip. In some orgs the movement to LA has been going on for more than a year now, so they know full well how low the take rate for forced relo is.
Unfortunately, the employees they will get rid of is anyone who has to think deeply or participate in conference calls, these are impossible in the current open environment.
Also this unfairly targets single parents who have to tend to or shuttle children. But who cares about the next generation? We've been selling them out for years.
The Central office I work at has tons of free space. And the WFH employees that pop in once a month don't open and respond to their emails until noon ;)
The Plano Foundry building ran out of parking and runs a shuttle to a remote lot. It also ran out of IP addresses on wifi, so people could not connect and had to go home.
Was told - an office in Dallas area ran out if parking, having to shuttle people from a remote lot. Also heard network could not issue IP addresses to folks connecting, they had to go home.
@bjr- If the real intent was to reduce leased office space, why in the world would there be a massive push to bring people back in to the office? Counter intuitive, isn't it? The reality is that this is not the intent. The intent is to make folks uncomfortable under the guise of needing to return to the office to "collaborate", telling folks that were hired under a telecommute or flex worker scenario that they now need to commute to a "collaboration zone" daily knowing full well that will assist in their efforts to trim workers.
I'm pretty sure they want to reduced leased office space, and maybe sell other real estate. AT&T has way too many mini-offices.
Its becoming a shell company, a brand, we only need people to manage the outsourcing.
Sold Office buildings, which at one time were once considered an asset to raise money to pay debt
Outsource any function that can be outsourced. Employees were once considered an asset now a cost. Low wage H1B and outsourcing, that is what ATT is becoming. Its considered good business to take a lower margin if you really dont do anything. Money for nothing, but a brand.
Dont forget Randall is part of the Enron culture
The "network" is falling apart, knowledge is being lost. The real reason for moving to adds and content.
Second option- they want to outsource and offshore all except a core group of people. Not sure how they can do that until they first figure out what the company is actually going to - TV, phones, ad’s, etc.
3rd option: cram more people into the same space, call it collaboration, while still getting rid of a certain number of employees.