#returntooffice

The office is about to be the most depressing place. More depressing than it already is.

Upcoming company policy will dictate that SVP and above must be tied to, and regularly go into talent center offices. I.e Jacksonville, London etc. Policy is part of the Return to Office mandate company wide. If you own high end property in JAX now is the time to sell!

How is this going to be enforced? It appears that only certain departments complied to the 3:2.

.... if RTO == "Really Tempting Offer" to work somewhere else! XD

For those that have a RTO order and continued to WFH, have you faced any consequences?

Anyone know?

Genuine question - Does anyone even find themselves productive in the office? Not here to rant - actually just genuinely curious. My in office days are filled with trying to tune out an outrageous amount of noise and side chatter about sports, etc. (people playing mini golf in the aisles, solving puzzles). How is that collaborative when it comes to a work environment? I have to struggle to tune out the insane amount of noise and random people coming up to my desk to talk in order to actually get my job done properly. I get ten times the amount of work done at home. So frustrating.

We are far removed from the days of the Great Resignation. Anyone trying to change jobs these days can tell you endless horror stories about the current job market. If attrition is slowing and Shart thinks he can juice the stats with this 8 hours a day thing, I think he's in for a rude awakening. There are diminishing returns on making your employees' lives miserable, eventually you're just beating on a long dead mule for no reason. Sooner or later the C-suite is going to have to man up and get with the voluntary buyouts or mass layoffs

How does the hour tracking even work? In Minneapolis there’s a “site leader event” outside so does that mean if we attend then we need to stay longer since we are leaving the building ?? Or is it just based on your last active timestamp? This RTO tracking is becoming ridiculous. We are not children!

Increase of days? Same schedule?

How many hours is that exactly? 6,7,8,8.5? Are they trying to keep this vague on purpose?

Hey, forcing people back to push attrition. Using policies that will disproportionately affect older workers and primary caregivers. All while pi----g off in demand people that can leave if they have a chance. What could go wrong? 8 is great.

So far my manager has not set an 8 hour requirement . I am in the office 6 hours but who knows when that will change….

Article from WSJ/Linkedin https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/return-to-office-workers-fail-3d966807
Possible things would turn around w.r.t RTO.

Are RTO just corporate offices they are looking at or any sales agency/clinic location?

In regards to return to office, if TIAA truly valued their employees, they would be willing to work with them to come up with solutions for remote/flex/return to office profiles rather than sticking everyone in the same box and saying one way works for everyone. About 25 years ago Google pretty much invented the unique office model with free snacks, flex work spaces like pods with bean bag chairs, phone booths, and foosball and billiard tables and for some reason TIAA thinks this is some cool unique idea that will draw people back to the office. As usual, TIAA is about 30 years behind the rest of the world and they will continue to bleed good talent as a result

Things I’ve heard and seen posted on their sites. I’ve definitely heard about the remote workers being laid off if they don’t relocate, and the multiple support center layoffs. I’ve also heard about 2-3 days back to the office, not 5, but I guess we’ll see.

• Removal of FTO
• If you aren’t at Walgreens when bonuses (if we even get them) are paid out in November, you won’t get one.
• Switching to Business Casual, no jeans or sneakers.
• 10/20: Remote Employee town hall informing them to relocate or they will lose their job.
• 10/21: 10% support center workforce reduction
• January: 30% support center workforce reduction
• January: 2-3 days in office but also heard it may go to 5 days in office

Day 1 of 5 tomorrow. 8 hrs per day, 40 hrs per week. M-F. Don't FORGET ABOUT IT! See you in the office, slackers.

To whom it concerns.. You know who you are.

Please stop making this about remote work. It really makes me want to swear when I hear some little smug punk say "ten toes down" as if to imply that people who have concerns over the new RTO mandate are simply unmotivated or, dare I say, LAZY. It is such an insult to people who aren't career employees, who aren't interested in being in the club, or who aren't in our vendor's pockets.

Remember that famous, yet misquoted statement from Marie Antoinette? "Let them eat cake".. Now, she didn't actually say that but the spirit is there. If you don't have any water, stop complaining and just drink wine. If you want to work at AT&T, stop complaining and come into the office 5x9. So, some people complained about RTO. Instead of asking why, leadership has made resistance a terminatable offense. But, do you ask why we are resisting? While you sit on the executive floors, many have to fight for spaces. We have to fight for parking. We have to endure inane conversations, i mean 'collaboration' about how bad Dallas is playing or how terrible/great presence tracking and RTO are. What have you done to make RTO something we can get behind?

We are a company drowning in debt. We are in negative growth. Our employees hate the company. Our culture is dead, and, oh yeah, we have to come into an office in an environment where we are forced to fend for ourselves like a bunch of lemurs looking for a little patch of grass only so we can pop up our collective heads every time someone new enters the jungle. You call that progress and you label these jungles, "collaboration zones". They are not. You are the bosses living in the penthouse, completely blind to the struggles of the people in steerage. Did it ever occur to you that this is the part of RTO that makes us uneasy? Give me a cube with a docking station, a couple monitors, my own keyboard and mouse, a phone, maybe pictures of my family and some cute little desk tchotchkes that make me feel like I'm a person with freedom and the respect of my leaders instead of being in a prison cafeteria. You think you get it but you don't. I don't mind driving an hour to get to work but it would sure be nice to know that my company gave a darn about my experience once I get there.

If you're still reading, here's a thought. There's this huge building with AT&T plastered all over the place. Its got a ton of space that's mostly used on weekends so it probably sits empty m-f. I think there may be people who work their but I think its fairly well understood that they are pretty terrible at their jobs. Clearly RTO doesn't equate to job performance. Anyway, maybe y'all can think about selling that eyesore to someone else and maybe we can use that money to, oh, I don't know, improve the working conditions for your people who are actually trying to be successful?

Just something to think about..

I took a look at the layoff boards for other banks. They've been complaining about the same things we do about RTO. It's not just us.

If we all band together and collectively don’t follow the 8 hours in office, it’ll create so much extra work for mangers, hr, etc. The documented discussions, write ups, pips, involving HR.

They are already extremely tired of hearing and talking about RTO.

I’m not saying don’t go in at all or coffee badge. Get your 3/4 days in and stay 4-6 hours. But don’t do anymore. Show them that we are willing to go in and put our time in but not for 8 hours.

First.... employee RTO mandates looming at Big Green while outsourcing many positions to contact labor that won't be subjected to RTO like employees. 🤔🤷🏻‍♀️

Second....
https://www.inc.com/joe-procopio/return-to-office-mandates-are-about-to-backfire/91244646

_

So the guidance is that you need to work a full 8 hours but should still feel free to pick up your kids or attend medical appointments etc? I literally asked what happens if it’s snowing and I need to leave a little early to pick my kid up before school closes or my kid is sick and I need to get them and the answers was find a way to be here 8 hours/ find another day to come 8 hours or you risk being ‘noncompliant’ which may impact your performance LOL so the real answer is that the RTO guide that was sent to managers is straight up BS and there is zero flexibility for unexpected events. Feeling so tired of this company which I’ve foolishly worked hard for all these years. We are truly unappreciated and disposable.

Has anyone ran into the issue of the rigid RTO and ADA accommodations for a condition where remote work is warranted?

When did it start? And how does the reporting actually look?

At the risk of sharing too much and outing myself, I feel like it’s important for employees to know that there have been internal discussions for several weeks about preparing for a full return-to-office (RTO) with a target date of 12/01.

This shift will not affect designated telecommuters. However, leadership is considering changes that could indirectly impact them, such as reducing merit increases by a percentage, withholding them entirely, or halving API targets for remote employees. These adjustments are being framed as a way to “counterbalance” the RTO mandate. Announcements are expected around the start of the new year, once PTO balances reset.

The intent behind these measures is to drive natural attrition among both remote and in-office staff, minimizing or eliminating the need for another large-scale reduction in force. Notice the timing right before the holidays.

At the same time, corporate leadership is optimistic that AI and automation can replace many roles vacated through attrition. The long-term plan includes maintaining the hiring freeze indefinitely; at a minimum, next year’s budget will not allow for backfilling positions unless they are deemed business critical.

I worry there is significant risk. From what I’ve seen, the company is years behind in AI adoption. Betting heavily on it now could backfire, potentially resulting in millions in fines and penalties by 2026–2027.

Like if I’m going to be out for two weeks do those extra days work for the week right before? How does it work for when it’s the end of the month? I don’t see this published anywhere

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0923/1534732-return-to-the-office-mandates-emoployer-employee-control-power-productivity-innovation/

Narcissistic behavior? Surely not

So d-mb

Effective immediately? What a sh-t show.
Tracking our mouse movements or clicks.
I assume Q1 is the announcement of 4 days a week or back to 5.

I guess this is one way of saying, I’m only doing my 8 hours and shutting down.. see ya again at 7am.

anyone know what happens if you continue to not adhere to the 4 day mandate even after the final warning?

A lot of people it should theoretically apply to, including me, still haven’t. All it’s done so far is create a ton of confusion.

During a couple of these department specific office hours talks, apparently some of the department heads are pushing back a bit on the 5 day RTO (among other things).
Anyone think this is going to lead to anything?

Has anyone heard the rumblings that HCSC is considering upping their in-office requirement to 4 or 5 days a week? My boss eluded to it the other day and framed it as the company wanting us to either get onboard or get out.

I've been on a medical exemption for the last 4 months - a legit one - and the last 1x1 I had RTO was never even brought up. I was asked how I was doing but that was it. I report to a director so, a step up from a sr. manager and is one who would have more insight into all of that - I think anyways...

I'm almost wondering if this was a sneaky scare tactic Dell/JC made. Enforce a mandatory 5 days/week RTO that gets tracked and enforce it for a quarter; then back off and/or totally stop tracking/caring but don't tell anybody.

Think about it... If you/managers/directors don't know if they are still tracking it, people will continue to go in, right? The moment people find out that they AREN'T tracking it anymore... Nobody will go in.

I suppose the only test would be to NOT go in and see if your manager/director says anything about it... But I have a sneaky suspicioun that they aren't really tracking that anymore. If they are, it's likely just wanting a few days/week.

Any one else hearing about the office closures and consolidations outside of the west coast?

Is your location impacted or is it just limited to San Diego, San Francisco and Long Beach? Seems strange when we are trying to bring people back to the office to collaborate and share.

Has anyone gotten flagged before and how many days until they actually notice.

Got a message from my manager saying full office hours are expected if you are in office :(

I honestly don’t see myself ever going back to the office. What happens if I just dont show up—would they actually fire me? Do they even track badge swipes? Is HR planning to enforce this policy ?

So, either our leadership is in denial or they are completely inept.

I was told by one of the good managers (there are not many, so I am going to leave it there not to out them) that there are a ton of resignations and retirements because of the hard line return to office requirements.

Even people who meet the requirements for an exemption are not being granted.

I am so baffled as to how they didn't see this coming.

How?

They are pushing the date out hoping to convince those leaving to stay.

Spoiler alert, they won't stay

Boeing is doomed unless we can get people in leadership that actually understand human behavior vs understanding that they make the decisions.