#flexibility

People will make sacrifices for a company with upside momentum. A company growing fast. A company where employees share in the upside growth.

That’s usually how the deal works, you give more, and you get more.

Maybe it’s equity. Maybe it’s stock appreciation. Maybe it’s career opportunities. Maybe it’s the feeling you’re building something special, but let’s be honest… Nobody believes AT&T is becoming the next Nvidia or SpaceX.

The stock has spent years going sideways while leadership lectures everyone about being “market-based.”… In an actual market-based environment, employees who make sacrifices are rewarded for them. They share in growth. They share in success. They see opportunity.

Here the expectation is simple… commute more, spend more, give up flexibility, absorb the cost, absorb the stress, and be grateful for the “privilege”. The company keeps demanding more while offering less. Less flexibility. Less trust. Less autonomy.

The problem isn’t that people don’t want to work. The problem is that leadership keeps asking employees to make sacrifices without offering anything meaningful in return.

The one thing this company actually had going for it was flexibility. Leadership took that away too, and now they’re surprised by the results.

What a load of sh!t this all is. You don’t care about any of us. If you did you would have respected our survey feedback last year. People want flexibility, none of the other BS does anything for anyone.

Leadership seems to need a decoder to comprehend the results, so here it is.

The negative survey results are not about healthcare perks or wellness programs no one uses, they are only about RTO and the lack of flexibility.

“I am proud to work at AT&T”


Once true. No longer. Public perception has deteriorated, and when people outside the company hear about the five-day RTO policy, the lack of any real collaboration, and the absence of assigned seating or co-located teams, the reaction is disbelief. Pride erodes when policies feel performative instead of purposeful.

“I would recommend AT&T as a great place to work”


That answer is now clearly no. A mandatory five-day RTO policy for roles that historically had been remote before COVID and can be done more effectively remotely is an immediate dealbreaker for modern workers. The policy alone makes the company undesirable and uncompetitive as an employer.

“We trust the leadership decisions”


Trust is broken. Loyalty is dead. Employees do not support the financial decisions that destroyed value, nor the RTO mandate that ignored clear employee feedback. Trust cannot survive when leadership consistently doubles down instead of course-correcting.

“The company provides opportunities to support career growth”


Opportunities are narrowly concentrated in Dallas, with limited mobility elsewhere. For a national company, that is a self-inflicted constraint that unnecessarily caps growth and retention.

“Our policies and systems support me doing my best work”


They do the opposite. The five-day RTO policy actively reduces productivity, and many internal systems remain outdated and inefficient. Physical presence does not compensate for structural friction.

“The company cares about my health and well-being”


Employees feel burned out, mentally and physically, largely due to excessive commuting and rigid mandates that add stress without any benefit to the company or the employees. Well-being is not addressed by pushing unused benefits or wellness messaging while ignoring the root cause repeatedly identified in feedback.

“Do you feel changes have been made as a result of prior surveys”


No. In fact, the opposite. Employees explicitly opposed three-day RTO in the last survey, and leadership responded by increasing it to five. Feedback was not just ignored, it was contradicted. The disappearance of the prior third-party McKinsey survey results only reinforces that perception.

Did I miss anything else?

The pattern is now set and clear. Instead of addressing the core RTO issue employees are raising, leadership deflects with ancillary benefits and BS messaging. That approach feels like gaslighting, and not listening. So why should I even bother taking this next one?

If leadership truly wants different survey results, the solution is not another email, benefit rollout, or talking point. It is addressing the one issue employees are consistently, overwhelmingly, and clearly raising.

Flexibility. Trust. Results over “presence”.

That is the message of the survey, whether leadership wants to hear it or not.

If Abby is making us go into the office every day, then, maybe that’ll let people not have to go into the office sometimes? Like if someone has to see a doctor, they can be allowed to work from home that day? Eventually, maybe they’ll realize they NEED to give remote work exceptions, like to people who are primary caretakers or have illnesses?

Just a wishful thought. Probably not gonna happen. I don’t know, man.

Amidst the firm forcing HO associates back in 4x per week and removing flexibility for hours in-office, I’m seeing a new LinkedIn marketing push today from those at Edward Jones, targeting FAs. It includes a picture saying “Flexibility + work/life balance”, and the content says the following:

“High-intensity sales roles often demand relentless travel, long hours, and constant availability. It's no surprise that many top performers are seeking more flexibility-without losing meaningful work.
Advisors transitioning from sales value having control over their schedule, fewer reactive cycles, and more time to focus on client relationships-not constant hustle.
If you're looking for a career that gives you space to breathe while still challenging you, this might be the right move.”

I get what they’re going for, but it feels like salt in the wound as a HO associate. But hey, I guess according to DC we should be grateful to have our jobs, right?

Is there any legitimacy to these rumors? I need flexibility to for my work/life balance and going into the office 5 days a week will make that extremely difficult.

I wish I knew who I could rant to but I'm way too careful about sharing my work-place political views. RTO has totally uprooted my life from cost of childcare, time wasted on commute, routine, and even my work itself. Talk about being more efficient, eh? Literally cannot get the same amount of work done if im being pulled in 12 different directions each day just to make sure im doing my work from one spot and not another i.e my home. What a super cool and awesome thing this all is. The only thing that motivates me more than getting yelled at for "non-compliance" is SPITE. You want me to quit? No thanks. However, with my flexibility now gone, there goes yours as well. Taking calls after hours? No. 110% effort? Try 50. It's been said before but dear lord what are they thinking? THOUSANDS of employees with FOUR MONTHS time to get read for the dreaded RTO yet ZERO MF GUIDELINES?

The guidelines are vague by design, because they want us to assume what the rules are. I dont want to tell others what to do but please dont make this easy on them. Most of our positions were originally based around a hybrid schedule from the get-go.

If anyone from management or HR is reading this, please don’t change our current WPE policy. BAC does not give compensation increases to majority of the workforce. Flexibility is the one thing keeping us going. If you want people to quit, it will be the wrong people. Seriously an employer who wants to continue to have a flexible 3 days in office schedule.

Anyone wonder if they are willing to provide gas assistance for flex staff, and or reduce work in the office to two days a week during this economy to help cost of living at this time?

By being 6 years into this.
Some were hired as hybrid, and yes I know a company can change their business model whenever they want, but it also breeds bad faith and discontent. Many people were hired as hybrid or having spent 6 yrs wfh have built up an at home office. This maneuver shows zero respect for employees this late in the game.
And I think if/when another situation arises it may not work so well by the powers that be making these life altering decisions.
I sure hope they are sympathetic to employees if they need to be working from home if their kids are sick, on school vacation, doctor appts that don’t lend themselves to driving in and back twice there MUST be some flexibility. Seems to me all “US” companies like the visa payroll better and we’re about to see the ugliest side of globalization we’ve ever experienced coupled with the AI job ki-ling revolution

Good times. 🥵

Working from home gave us flexibility that so many of us repaid by being available at all times. That's about to be gone. No more working after hours, no more responding to late mails, no more giving extra. If we’re back in the office, we’re working office hours. That’s it.

A sad day today. Fellow coworkers I’ve known for years are calling it quits today because of poor leadership, terrible pay, extremely sub-par raises and a crushing economy. But the real nail in the coffin, an expensive and pointless RTO5 policy. Three months ago you waved your executive power wand and declared RTO5 starts May 4. However the remaining people I will interact with on May 4 are still remote to me. We are separated by hundreds of miles, multiple states and time zones. And ya know what, we make it work. We’ve been able to accomplish so much because of the tools and technology the bank has implemented over the years. Pretty sure that is called moving with the times and adopting the digital world. We can reach each other quicker than we could take an elevator to the floor above us. But your boomer self is pushing an order that treats us like kids, ki-ls our production, adds lengthy commutes, increases our carbon footprint, eats our income and eliminates the work-life balance you touted for years. Why in the actual f*ck in the year 2026 are you forcing RTO5 when there is a perfectly viable option of remote work that has proven time and time again that it works. Let us not forget it not only works very well but it saved the company during the most unsettling unnerving unpredictable time of this century. You and all of your reports know a vast majority of these roles can be 100% remote. Plus 11 million customers can prove it too. Record profits ring a bell? Consistent dividend increases mean what? Bank acquisitions are just pointless side quests? ATH stock price is just a silly number?! So why are we going backwards? Are you trying to protect the real estate investment? Were you coerced by city mayors to bring employees into towns? Some of those towns being a dr-g and crime-ridden hellhole. Is there another double digit comp increase in the works if X-amount of employees swipe their badge? Did you over-hire during covid and now need to protect the bottom line so you subliminally utilize the consequences of not following an outrageous policy as your reasoning? Were you swindled into believing that a manager’s error was blamed on his/her team’s lack of collaboration? Did one person do wrong and you took the elementary school approach and punished everyone? Are you and the boomer executives unable to fathom the digital era? What is it? You’ve created a lose-lose-lose scenario. Talent is going out the door. Potential talent is applying elsewhere. People who try to grind it out are stuck holding the bag and getting reamed by the cost of commuting. Instead of trying to standout and provide a flexible workplace, you ruin it with a generic order full of buzzwords, no follow up, no guidance to management, no recorded message, no recorded video.........crickets. Just a pure power move because your friends in New York are doing it.

Nearly 21 years here and this is the first time I truly felt sorry for the people I recommended to this place for employment. I’m sorry we are facing this situation. To the younger folks a few years out of college, good luck this is brutal. Exiting folks that have other options lined-up, good for you. Now excuse me while I fill my tank for $130 because I got a lengthy commute Monday morning. Hopefully I am not late for standup.

P.S. Real professional hearing the upper management pi$s on us during the recent hands on meeting.

No wonder clients are so dissatisfied. They are sold a bill of goods, then discover that their systems are creaking, their processes inflexible, they do nothing to make their client's lives easier and their client's face extended hold times for service. Problems are not anticipated. They seem to be a complete surprise. When the facts are obvious to everyone else, FIS leadership has to scramble to solve problems. It's exhausting for those who have to pick up the pieces, taking arrows in the chest the whole time.

Sure, AI has it's place, but it's not a solution for everything. Employees are raising real, valid concerns: rising costs, the need for more flexible work arrangements, job security, and clarity around salaries and bonuses. Redirecting those concerns to AI is just proving, yet again, employee input isn't being heard or valued.

This entire thing will fall apart before it even begins on the 4th if we don't start getting some sort of direction. For example, I have to get my kids on/off the bus in the morn/afternoon. Is 9-2 or 10-3 acceptable in-office time? Who knows! What I do know, is I won't be in the office 8 hours a day for 5 days a week and my job will still be done well and on time.

Last week I formally sent an offer to HR and copied it to my L3. My offer is this, I will accept a 50% reduction in pay in exchange for permanent WFM. This is due to multiple family and personal issues. Should have an answer by Tuesday.

Are people really in the office 5 days a week or is there flexibility/WFH allowed?

At this point I would just rather they say in office 5 days, remove all “tracking” and leave us alone! (That will never happen I know). But pre-COVID when all we knew was in office, and flex to be at home as needed or we worked 4 hours office and the rest at home but because they gave us the autonomy, we often gave more than they asked. I want those days back.

Will be done by 2p today and have 8.5 hours at work. I will be deducting that 1/2 hour from my Friday work day to reduce my average weekly hours to right around 40. Awesome way to start the weekend!

Hello all! I am waiting for my manager to return from PTO so thought I would ask her till then as I am freaking out. My current assigned pulse point and where I live is Indy. However, my husband matched for a residency program in Galveston, TX. That is very near Houston tx which is why my husband applied there but that pulse point suddenly closed. Do you think the company will understand and let me be fully remote?

Oil is spiking with the Iran situation and gas is climbing. For anyone commuting 50 miles each way, that’s 500 miles a week. At 20 MPG, that’s about 25 gallons every week just driving in circles to get to the office.

When gas pushes toward $5, that’s $125 a week, or over $6,000 a year out of pocket just for fuel.

That’s not insignificant… That’s a real ongoing hit to employees for work we’ve already proven can be done from home.

Even energy agencies have said remote work is one of the easiest ways to reduce demand during spikes like this. Instead, we’re doing the opposite and forcing more consumption and more cost onto employees for absolutely no reason.

At minimum, this should trigger a shift back to hybrid or temporary flexibility until prices stabilize. Forcing five days through this just doesn’t make sense. If they want pointless 5 days they should pay for our gas.

WFH and hybrid aren’t perks anymore. They’re the standard. Across industries, companies figured out that flexibility drives better output, better retention, and better talent. The only places still clinging to strict five-day mandates are the ones falling behind.

Forcing people back five days a week doesn’t create culture. It doesn’t create collaboration. It creates resentment. And when you measure badge swipes instead of results, you get exactly what you’re asking for — people doing the minimum required to check the box.

Pair that with a compensation model where effort barely moves the needle, and the incentive is obvious. Stop pushing. Stop caring. Just show up.

That’s how you lose your best people without even realizing it. They don’t argue. They just leave.

You don’t build the future of a company by ignoring the market, ignoring your workforce, and doubling down on a model everyone else has already moved past.

Anyone else hear that once we get that anticipated email from HR that band 3 and above need to be in office everyday as BAU. For now us band 4-6 or higher will need to be in office with flexibility and limits on that flexibility. I see the future where we are all back to 5 days and have some flexibility as long as it’s not a consistent thing

Many employees today are feeling the pressure of rising living costs. Housing, groceries, and transportation expenses continue to climb, and commuting to work has become an increasingly heavy financial burden for many families.

For this reason, I believe Canon should seriously consider offering greater flexibility when it comes to working from home.

Across different sectors and regions of the world, many companies are already encouraging remote work where possible. This approach helps reduce unnecessary commuting, lowers fuel consumption, and eases the financial strain placed on employees.

In times when global energy markets remain volatile due to geopolitical tensions involving countries like Iran, Israel, and major powers such as the United States, reducing unnecessary travel is not only economically sensible, it is also responsible.

Allowing employees to work from home when their role permits can help reduce commuting costs, decrease fuel consumption, and improve overall work-life balance. It is a practical solution that benefits both employees and employers.

Flexibility in the workplace is no longer simply a perk; it has become an important way to support employees during a time of economic uncertainty and rising costs.

Wait being a inflexible employer doesn't get you productivity gains?

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5775420-remote-first-productivity-growth/

" The Flex Index finds that fully flexible companies grew revenues 1.7 times faster than mandate-driven firms from 2019 to 2024, even after adjusting for industry and size. "

The one advantage this company always had was flexibility. Even before COVID people weren’t chained to a desk five days a week. That trust made the job sustainable and made people willing to go the extra mile.

Now that flexibility is gone. And with it, the one thing that actually differentiated this place.

Instead of motivating people, a strict five-day RTO mandate has created the exact opposite effect. High performers stop going above and beyond, while mediocre performers can hide behind a badge swipe and eight hours of “presence.” When attendance becomes the metric, you get attendance.

At the same time, compensation here isn’t truly market based. Raises and bonuses are largely blanket treatments, so individual effort barely changes the outcome. When results aren’t meaningfully rewarded and flexibility is taken away, the incentive becomes obvious: do the minimum and check the box.

Meanwhile the industry has already moved on. WFH and hybrid are now the standard across tech, telecom, finance, and most corporate roles. Only a handful of companies are still trying to force strict five-day office mandates. Fighting that reality doesn’t make this place competitive. It just makes it an outlier.

Ignore the market and ignore your own employees long enough and the result is predictable: the best people leave, and the only ones left are the ones with fewer options.

Today is Employee Appreciation Day. Based on the survey results, I think most of us would actually feel appreciated if we were allowed to work from home today instead of being handed a snack that doesn’t even equal the cost of many people’s daily commute.

When the feedback from employees overwhelmingly centers on flexibility and RTO, it’s hard not to notice the disconnect. Appreciation isn’t pizza, cookies, or swag. It’s listening to what your employees have been consistently asking for.

RTO is absolute insanity. I have 10 people on my team. None of us are in the same state outside of two people in Texas who aren't in the same city. We have to go back to the office, surrounded by employees we dont work with or collaborate with in any way, so we can join the same remote teams meetings we would while home. Now I find out from someone in cyber security that they are monitoring our key strokes, web searches and Microsoft apps.

RTO was about the executives leveraging their control over one of the few bright spots we had working here, flexibility.

Great and about time for those that already are forced to go into the office but what about us already remote? Where is our Reward? Let me guess we keep our paychecks

Leadership seems to need a decoder to comprehend the results, so here it is. The negative survey results are not about healthcare perks or wellness programs no one uses, they are only about RTO and the lack of flexibility.

“I am proud to work at AT&T”
Once true. No longer. Public perception has deteriorated, and when people outside the company hear about the five-day RTO policy, the lack of any real collaboration, and the absence of assigned seating or co-located teams, the reaction is disbelief. Pride erodes when policies feel performative instead of purposeful.

“I would recommend AT&T as a great place to work”
That answer is now clearly no. A mandatory five-day RTO policy for roles that historically had been remote before COVID and can be done more effectively remotely is an immediate dealbreaker for modern workers. The policy alone makes the company undesirable and uncompetitive as an employer.

“We trust the leadership decisions”
Trust is broken. Employees do not support the financial decisions that destroyed value, nor the RTO mandate that ignored clear employee feedback. Trust cannot survive when leadership consistently doubles down instead of course-correcting.

“The company provides opportunities to support career growth”
Opportunities are narrowly concentrated in Dallas, with limited mobility elsewhere. For a national company, that is a self-inflicted constraint that unnecessarily caps growth and retention.

“Our policies and systems support me doing my best work”
They do the opposite. The five-day RTO policy actively reduces productivity, and many internal systems remain outdated and inefficient. Physical presence does not compensate for structural friction.

“The company cares about my health and well-being”
Employees feel burned out, mentally and physically, largely due to excessive commuting and rigid mandates that add stress without any benefit to the company or the employees. Well-being is not addressed by pushing unused benefits or wellness messaging while ignoring the root cause repeatedly identified in feedback.

“Do you feel changes have been made as a result of prior surveys”
No. In fact, the opposite. Employees explicitly opposed three-day RTO in the last survey, and leadership responded by increasing it to five. Feedback was not just ignored, it was contradicted. The disappearance of the prior third-party McKinsey survey results only reinforces that perception.

Did I miss anything else?

The pattern is now set and clear. Instead of addressing the core RTO issue employees are raising, leadership deflects with ancillary benefits and BS messaging. That approach feels like gaslighting, and not listening. So why should I even bother taking the next one?

If leadership truly wants different survey results, the solution is not another email, benefit rollout, book club, or talking point. It is addressing the one issue employees are consistently, overwhelmingly, and clearly raising.

Flexibility. Trust. Results over “presence”.

That is the message of the survey, whether leadership wants to hear it or not.

Who's going to confess to being the joker who asked if we can have a MORE flexible 60/40 policy....

Or better still the one who asked if they should include their commute on their timesheet.

How long does one need to be in the office for it to count as a “day in office”?

I’m not talking hours. I’m talking actual days. My LOB mandates 3 days per week and today is day 4 - I’m trying to get ahead.

Would me showing up at the office for 3 hours on a Friday show today as a “day in office” ?

In a January post (https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1kezt9p2t), a couple of folks mentioned enhanced IOE reporting that is coming. “Enhanced” means cross-referencing badge swipes with the laptop connection to the Truist wifi. One of my colleagues who is close to HR confirmed that there is a team dedicated to this activity, but he did not know when it was going to be rolled out to managers. If you’re on the team – or close to someone who is - please let us know when the reporting is scheduled to go live. Reason I’m interested is that my managers are going to be all over this when it happens. They are already hassling people who aren’t hitting the 5-day target. If you miss one day in a given week, you’re getting an email. “You didn’t get manager approval!” So much for flexibility and treating experienced adults like adults

Hearing from various high level people that soon all LOBs will force employees to make sure their 8 hours in the office are during core business hours such as 8 to 4 or 9 to 5. If you come in 6 and work until 2, they won’t allow it going forward. They want to align all LOBs and make sure everyone is working same hours for better collaboration and synergies

Leadership seems to need a decoder to comprehend the results, so here it is. The negative survey results are not about healthcare perks or wellness programs no one uses, they are only about RTO and the lack of flexibility.

“I am proud to work at AT&T”
Once true. No longer. Public perception has deteriorated, and when people outside the company hear about the five-day RTO policy, the lack of any real collaboration, and the absence of assigned seating or co-located teams, the reaction is disbelief. Pride erodes when policies feel performative instead of purposeful.

“I would recommend AT&T as a great place to work”
That answer is now clearly no. A mandatory five-day RTO policy for roles that historically had been remote before COVID and can be done more effectively remotely is an immediate dealbreaker for modern workers. The policy alone makes the company undesirable and uncompetitive as an employer.

“We trust the leadership decisions”
Trust is broken. Employees do not support the financial decisions that destroyed value, nor the RTO mandate that ignored clear employee feedback. Trust cannot survive when leadership consistently doubles down instead of course-correcting.

“The company provides opportunities to support career growth”
Opportunities are narrowly concentrated in Dallas, with limited mobility elsewhere. For a national company, that is a self-inflicted constraint that unnecessarily caps growth and retention.

“Our policies and systems support me doing my best work”
They do the opposite. The five-day RTO policy actively reduces productivity, and many internal systems remain outdated and inefficient. Physical presence does not compensate for structural friction.

“The company cares about my health and well-being”
Employees feel burned out, mentally and physically, largely due to excessive commuting and rigid mandates that add stress without any benefit to the company or the employees. Well-being is not addressed by pushing unused benefits or wellness messaging while ignoring the root cause repeatedly identified in feedback.

“Do you feel changes have been made as a result of prior surveys”
No. In fact, the opposite. Employees explicitly opposed three-day RTO in the last survey, and leadership responded by increasing it to five. Feedback was not just ignored, it was contradicted. The disappearance of the prior third-party McKinsey survey results only reinforces that perception.

Did I miss anything else?

The pattern is now set and clear. Instead of addressing the core RTO issue employees are raising, leadership deflects with ancillary benefits and BS messaging. That approach feels like gaslighting, and not listening. So why should I even bother taking the next one?

If leadership truly wants different survey results, the solution is not another email, benefit rollout, or talking point. It is addressing the one issue employees are consistently, overwhelmingly, and clearly raising.

Flexibility. Trust. Results over “presence”.

That is the message of the survey, whether leadership wants to hear it or not.

Any news on additional flexibility regarding RTO as mentioned by M.?

Many companies across our industry are moving toward greater flexibility for their employees, citing benefits around productivity, engagement, and talent retention. Chevron, however, appears to be trending in the opposite direction. I’m genuinely curious about the thinking behind this shift .. what problem is it intended to solve, and how does leadership see it supporting long-term performance, morale, and competitiveness?

https://www.inc.com/leila-sheridan/kevin-oleary-loves-why-his-companies-will-never-force-a-return-to-the-office/91291726

Kevin O’Leary — a real investor with actual companies laid out why forcing people into offices is a losing strategy:
“If you’re trying to say to people, ‘Oh, you got to work in an office,’ you’ll just get the bottom quartile of people who have no choice.”

He points out that in his portfolio of 50 companies, 40% of employees stayed remote after the pandemic and that’s true across the economy.

That’s pure talent economics. If you force everyone back full time, you literally shrink the talent pool to people who can’t choose otherwise. Meanwhile the companies embracing flexibility get the best performers and stay competitive.

This is about facts not feelings. It’s about results, real hiring markets, and the fact that companies that mandate RTO are choosing the bottom quartile instead of competing for top talent. Investors and workers alike see through it.