Everyone in my ATO .org were ordered to report to the office they are assigned to in webphone. People now reserve drop in space or if no desk sit and work sitting on the floor! Are you working like that? Are they trying to get us to quit so they don’t have to lay off and pay severance? Thoughts? Bathrooms are also frequently out of service. Too many people for the space!
28 replies (most recent on top)
That's pretty funny that folks are being told to report into the office listed in webphone...so many people show Dallas in web-phone but are nowhere near Texas and some working VO......
"@Z4ipT0L-1wbm Yours is the 3rd post about ergonomics requirements. It’s apparent these are just exaggerations being posted."
My wife is a Physical Therapist and everytime she saw one of the offices I worked in she was amazed at how bad the ergonomics was. She went to the workers at the medical company she works for and did 'assessments' to change the way they sit. But she didn't think AT&T had any PT's that work for the company since she would visit the very large headquarters to visit me, out here in California, and she didn't see 1 cube that was set up properly. I'm not at AT&T anymore so I'm not writing this with sourgrapes at all, but PT's would say that the average cube is set up totally wrong for ergonomics. I never complained about it and don't really know anyone that did. My wife told them what they needed but when you have to buy your own pens and paper it is tough to get a company to buy a $500 chair.
AT&T doesn't maintain its buildings well enough to require everyone to report to them. All it's going to take is for someone to get sick ( think Asthma, COPD, compromised immune system, etc ) due to minimal cleaning budgets to save a $ and OSHA will come down on AT&T like the wrath of GOD.
The amount of money they will be FORCED ( OSHA doesn't play games, they'll just shut the f*g building down if you argue with them ) to pour into getting their buildings back up to code to allow workers onsite will absolutely dwarf the amount of money they are saving today by minimizing the cleaning of said facilities today.
To the non believers, I assure you that CRE is doing its best to plan workspace for every employee, but we’ve been caught off guard by the shift from WFH to FTO especially since we closed many telco offices and left leased spaces. The ticketing system may be slow due to the volume of requests and cutbacks in our own staffing, but it’s the best way to get tasks resolved. With the elimination of many admins and local office managers, we rely heavily on your tickets to dispatch resources. If you don’t have a seat in your assigned office, open a ticket and forward to your supervisor for escalation.
@Z4ipT0L-2yqq It's all BS exaggerations until these whiners link to legit photos.
No one wants to rock the boat by complaining. Or you will be next on the chopping block. They want us to quit so they don’t have to pay severance pay!!!
Someone needs to file an OSHA complaint. You should not be working on the floor nor not have working bathrooms.
Good call on the ergonomics issues. seems like ergo training was a required course every year along with cobc but it seems to be downplayed a lot now . maybe a few lawsuits for carpal tunnel from working on this funky bean bag chair in the break room can end this open office c-ap
@Z4ipT0L-1wbm Yours is the 3rd post about ergonomics requirements. It’s apparent these are just exaggerations being posted.
Post ID: @Z4ipT0L-ttd got it right. ATT is required to provide, on premise, an ergonomically compliant workspace including fully articulating keyboards, adjustable chair, phone headset & eye-level monitor/screen. If you develop neck, back wrist, elbow or eye problems trying to work in shared space or in a substandard cube then report it get medical treatment and do an osha claim. If you choose to work from home you need to provide yourself the basics to avoid injury.
I try to see the good thing here. I dont get sh-- done.. yet i still get paid full. My coworkers are noisy and they all talk around me and include me of course. We get to laugh and share stories about work, their dogs, their love life, their next meal.. etc..etc.. we're highly collaborative. We work in different departments so we dont really talk about what we do. Heck yeah! Just a lil inconvenience of coming to work, but hey thats what they want. Im not gonna be rude to my coworkers if they wanna chit chat.
Request an empty milk crate for a chair and a portapott for your break. Budget cuts are affecting you.
We have been told to go into new engagement zone built in a large city (not going to name city). Unfortunately, this city is known for miserable traffic and new building is in a large-trafficked area near a huge mall. There are buildings spread throughout this sprawling city but we are told to go to the EZ. Everyone is miserable. Numerous people have over 2+ hour commute each way. We are not allowed to commute to EZs closer to us. I get probably 20% less work done by going through this miserable exercise due to commute time (mine is about 3 hours round-trip) and probably another 15% loss due to not able to concentrate in this engaging 'fish bowl' quality of the office: no assigned personal space, constant fighting to get a desk. no phones, have to use computer, have people on the phone all day long, many personal calls and done through PC - which means everyone gets to hear the conversation. absolutely miserable, miserable, miserable environment
We were told it would be a COBC violation if we didn’t go to office! They are tracking lan vs vpn usage! Tracker software for websites and keystrokes!! If you WFH and not supposed how can you be fired. If you are WORKING??? Makes no sense. They don’t trust you. Protect yourselves
I ignored the directive and continued to work from home.
It’s a management issue. Who cares where you work if you are getting your work done and achieving results. now everyone gets punished. Many probably don’t know what it’s like to work in the c-appier company offices. Broken chairs windowless environments . Lucky you if you have windows an assigned desk and a working chair. On my team some in another city from me have to reserve drop in space daily. Some use corporate WiFi from their cars to work. How nuts is that. Of COURSE they are trying to get you to quit
I go to an office where the majority of the day I am the only one here. 100% of my collaboration is done via phone Q and email. It has been that way for 5 years-same job. But now I must come to an office. Why? So I can collaborate. With nobody. There is no one from my team closer than 3 hours away. I’m not about to rock the boat because I’m trying to survive a couple more years here.
All I see are empty desks everywhere.
Policy must be working then. If you are in the office half a day, then that's half a day more work you are doing than before.
"work sitting on the floor!"
Lol. Unlikely. It's an office space ergonomics violation you can report to the proper corporate group.
"Bathrooms are also frequently out of service."
Are you putting in tickets to have corporate real estate fix them?
If you live close by go in for a few hours or a half a day. My lunch hour is my commute home. I see a ton of people doing this.
I work from home, have for past 10 years, why should I change now. Rules are made to be broken. Rebel until the end.
my building has a freshly remodeled drop in space, tons of cubes, a great break area. no one ever uses any of it, i rarely see anyone there.
I agree with OP! This is an unhealthy, noisy & toxic way to work. Everyone is miserable & morale is the lowest ever. The excuse of collaboration was a lie. Why did all of a sudden Management decide this....it was a huge mistake.
Ways Employers like AT&T Make Employees Quit?, you can fight back.don't waste energy fighting this beast, if planning to leave don't tell anyone,call sick and get to your interviews, use FMLA, you even may have an accident at work, so use Work-Comp, and use every resource at your disposal to make sure others do the work, at the end it will not matter. and move to a career oriented company
Report it to OSHA and any other regulatory agency over the workplace,
As of a town hall 3 or so weeks ago hosted by my ATO AVP - unless you have an approved reason (medical was the only long term example given) or have a delivery / maint person coming to the house everyone is to be in the office 5 days a week. At least it cleared it up for us. He also said there may be people sitting next to you who regularly work from home and that is because the WFH policy is implemented differently for each group.
My problem with it is that our SVP said the WFH policy has not changed. Because we are all suddenly having to come into the office one might say the policy has changed - but I suppose she could argue the policy has not changed and say how it is enforced has changed and who is permitted to has changed. For example several with and FOW status were changed to FTO.
As for overcrowding, not the case at my location.
Hmmmm I don’t see that at my locations people sitting on the floor