#rto

Nothing and I mean nothing scares ppl investing with any bank more than turmoil and unrest.
They are really pushing for massive layoffs done by silent workers being threatened long insane hours and excessive workloads.
They WANT this to happen. Jump ship get the he-l out let them sink like State Street did.
They deserve their misery gaslighting employees. Reneging on five years of hybrid.
Abby is cooked she’s lost her way they’re going for the big sell out why taking about 25% in the wake.
She wants insane type A hyped up employees or the massively linear Indian and African workers willing to do this workload for Pennie’s on the dollar to escape genocide or sepsis in the streets.
This is tectonic.

Heard there are changes coming to WPE . What is it, 4 days a week or non consecutive days in the office?

It’s amazing to me how dismissive the ELT has been with our RTO mandate. We know from other companies that this initiative is often a huge failure and unfair burden on employees. Women are almost always impacted more than their male counterparts. My experience in HR has been one of the worst I’ve seen in my career. The communications are incredibly poor and borderline disrespectful. Since the initial announcement, I have not seen Suzan answer a question directly, but rather punt the heat and responsibility to her leadership team. She’s also stopped doing Q&A altogether in meetings she’s led. We are less than a week away with almost no questions answered, and our human capital division meeting today was so poor that it actually raised more questions than answers. Rather than discussing direct concerns with Monday looming, we spent time celebrating an arrogant partner’s records from 25 years ago and discussing employee discounts. We still have no word on assigned floors or desks. We still have no solutions for parking. Unbelievable.

Hope they relax the RTO policies soon !!!

Why is it that more than half the employees on my floor come in for 2 hours then leave? Do you think Executives don’t know you’re trying to manipulate the data they are collecting for RTO? I’d be careful. It’s not worth it to lose your job over it, is it? Of course, the choice is yours. I need my job.

That seemed to be the only qualification for people who were promoted. Not really anything other than their manager liked them and they were in the office.

That’s all.

Virtual here asked to relocate, But what’s with the layoff talk in June and July, when asked to relocate by October? Why will they layoff when they want you to relocate?

In the office alone again — just me, my badge, and the hum of lights that definitely don’t need to be on.
If I miss a day, I get put on “a list,” so I’m hanging on like a badge clip that’s one tug from snapping.

Meanwhile, the remote “leader” who is well within the RTO distance — but somehow got reclassified as remote — will probably need to set up a Teams meeting to talk to me about the importance of in‑office collaboration.
Peak corporate irony.

And the highlight of the month: after six months of coming in four days a week, I finally had my first in‑person meeting.
Pretty sure someone got forced to schedule it.

At this point, I’m basically the last survivor wandering an empty office park, trying not to end up on a list. But don’t worry leadership is listening, if we are lucky maybe some are thinking as well. 🙏

Have a great weekend and remember the holiday doesn’t count as a swipe next week.

I need to get back to work since I was asked to hire more remote workers for my team, who will never come in this office.

just had an all hands. VP announced that all leaders now must RTO 4 days/wk. hasn't trickled down to ICs yet but we all know it's a matter of time. and if you have been remote and don't live anywhere near an office? tough luck, I guess that means you can no longer serve your job requirements and will be let go.

this makes no sense because it's not like our entire team will be in the same office anyway even if we went full RTO. we'll all just be in different offices across the country.

Supposed to be daily drop ins - first come first served. Well. People are decorating and putting up their plaques.

What happened? Not fair to everyone.

Does the power structure in this company understand that forcing people into the office on Thursday next week after having Memorial Day off feels like a punishment for having the audacity to acknowledge a federal holiday?

I know they don't care but really? Waste our money and time and the company's utility bills because we've just GOT to have 3 days in the office?

Zero benefit, only inconvenience and annoyance. I suggest everyone just chit chat all day and use the bathrooms as often as possible.

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?

Come on guys!! I know gas has doubled now but we gotta keep the collaboration going and our great culture!! We gotta keep making Rick and the EC millions!!!

is the 5 day RTO expected for the durham office? There's barely any space!

I hear from multiple sources an announcement will be made end of May, effective after Labor Day. Four days a week in the office if you have an assigned seat. You will have to attest to compliance with the policy. Three non-consecutive days in the office if you reserve your space. True? I guess time will tell. Just passing along some rumors hoping to compare notes with what others are hearing.

If they want to continue to treat us like children what’s stopping us from acting like children?

You know RTO5 is absolutely coming soon. They will start monitoring how long you’re working somehow.

Have a long commute? You better be working while driving. If not you better work as soon as you wake up and as soon as you get home to make up for the commute you didn’t ask for.

This site was once a community and source of knowledge. It’s in a tailspin of conspiracy theories.

• When someone makes a reference to an exec from 3 years ago, and is no longer here. Ignore them.

• When someone makes an outrageous claim like “30% of us will be laid off” - do the math. That would be the largest layoff in USAA history times 3. That’d be nearly 11,000 employees to be laid off this year. They have no details. No sources. Just vague fear and round numbers. Ignore them.

• When someone is posting about a single person every week. Ignore them. That’s an unhinged person.

• We need to collectively stfu about RTO. There’s quite literally nothing we can do about it. The company has moved on. Society has moved on. Every other company has moved on.

After more strict changes for RTO (Thrive Together initiative) It seems remote people are being targeted more than office people in RTP and NANE locales, anyone else seeing that?

Are there any changes to 5 days?

The Covid hired managers (not talking about race, just those who can’t keep up and were obnoxious while they had the Covid protections) have been so stressed in the office.

It’s been too long for them to still be stressed from the RTO announcement. Anyone know what management has going on?

Stop telling me what you watched on Netflix last night.

I don't care what you watched on Netflix last night. I don't care that you're behind on Severance. I don't care that you're rewatching The Wire. I don't care that your wife made you watch The Bear and now you both have opinions about it.

I am at my hot desk. I have headphones on the desk in front of me and on my head. My calendar has a red block on it that says "deep work." My Slack status is the little do-not-disturb moon icon.

This is not subtle.

I worked from home for four years. I had three real conversations a day, all of them with people on my team about work things. I have been back in the office for nine weeks and last week alone I was told about a podcast, a documentary, two restaurants in the financial district that "everyone is talking about," and a guys daughter's recital. I do not know this guy's daughter. I do not know this guy.

Stop coming up to my desk. Stop hovering near my desk. Stop sliding into the hot desk next to me when there are eleven open ones on the other side of the floor.

The office is for the people who don't have anything to do. I have things to do.

Company has joined other major corporations in implementing a mandatory 5-day return-to-office (RTO) policy, which some view as a strategy to encourage voluntary attrition essentially a "soft layoff”.

Recent reports suggest that the number of employees choosing to leave following this mandate has been lower than expected, leading the company to evaluate additional measures for workforce reduction. These potential "other options" may include involuntary separations, employee engagement responses, or "hard layoffs." While the company continues to monitor office attendance as part of performance reviews, there are currently no specific details on which business units will be impacted or the exact timing of further restructuring.

#RTO #Workplace #Career #CorporateLife #MandatoryRTO #CompanyCulture #QuietFiring #SoftLayoffs #EmployeeEngagement #WorkLifeBalance

Many of us who have been around for a minute remember how universally Tipsord wasn’t liked. Dude had the bedside manner of Dr House.

But many us held out hope that Farney would take us back to the old State Farm. The one Ed led. Farney is trying to make some legacy of AI and bad faith. With RICO charges pending in Oklahoma, a Congressional DOJ investigation led by Senator Hawley, and the botched California handling - how is our company worth what it is? You can’t get promoted unless you drink the kool-aid and now they expect if you live within 180 miles of the HUBs you can commute. The new hybrid is trash but dang imagine living in Tucson AZ and having to commute to Phoenix

This isn’t working. RTO isn’t working.

The conversation internally is still focused only on badge swipes, presence reports, five-day mandates and 10% sweeping layoffs while the stock slides, morale stays low, and leadership takes new debt and pushes expensive long-term office bets nobody wants.

Markets don’t care about the unnecessary and expensive RTO facade. It just destroys value by forcing out top talent and plummeting productivity.

They don’t care about micromanaging badge data.
They don’t care about forced commutes that reduce available working hours.
They don’t care who sat in a chair 5 days this week while watching Netflix at their desk.

They care about execution. Growth. Costs. Talent retention. Confidence in leadership. All the things we aren’t focused on right now.

At some point the board has to ask hard questions and decide to make some real changes to turn things around.

Because the falling stock price, disengaged employees, and doubling down on unpopular policies isn’t a strategy. It’s self inflicted destruction.

My top 10

It increases commute time & stress. Period...
It raises costs for emplyees...
It can reduce worklife balance.
It limits access to wider talent pools.
It hurts productivity for focused work.
It creates unnecessary office overhead.
It can lower employee satisfaction.
It makes caregiving harder.
It can increase burnout risk.
It is not improving collaboration.

“All managers are mandated to be in the office logged into the LAN 11 hours per day or they will be terminated.”

We can’t make this place rules up!

Very odd it’s not in May, think they’re cooking the books with the layoffs to make the numbers look good? New CEO announcement? New RTO policy?

Amid the whole RTO mess and morale being as low as I can remember, we are named one of the best companies for culture in the country. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. We're 19th, in case you were wondering.

https://www.forbes.com/lists/employers-culture/

Crime-ridden Pittsburgh strikes again. This time a 19 yr old shot and ki-led less than 500 feet from headquarters. [https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/pittsburgh-man-shot-market-square-police-investigation/] And just like clockwork Bill and the execs are silent regarding employee safety in and around the buildings. Not surprised considering how they treated the RTO announcement. Just set it and forget it. Not to mention they are also incredibly silent about the cost of RTO. Remember folks RTO has nothing to do about collaboration and innovation, no, no, no, RTO is purely demanded to keep real estate numbers up. Don’t you get it folks. We are a disposable pawn used as leverage to keep over extended real estate purchases meaningful. I’m so thrilled to spend $5/gallon $38 parking, to commute 75 minutes to a highly distracting open office and take calls with people all across the nation and fake smile like I enjoy being here. Our team output is dropping like a rock. Lead dev left to go to a competitor. Team morale is slowing losing the battle. Our wallets are screaming. Our raises are comical (if you get a raise). Compensation is 15 years behind. I’m looking at stopping my 401K contributions just to afford the cost of living. What really pi---s us off is everything we did in office last week was no different from what we did while remote. But remember the real estate investments. If you ever wanted to see a real life example of shooting yourself in the foot, look no further. We are watching it play out and we have all summer ahead of us. Don’t forget the real estate investments and the CEO’s 30% comp increase. I hope this drop in production doesn’t hurt me and my team’s end of year reviews.

My manager just discussed it - apparently majority of the OT employees think RTO is fine.

I work out of an office but most folks I collaborate with are virtual! It feels unfair.

And yes, I have started applying externally..not out of spite for RTO but because I am ready for a level up financially. The 2% raises are not helping at all.

I have it on good authority that the next round of layoffs will be mid-July. This first one was more of a reorganization and getting rid of low-output associates. The next one will be based on attendance and people who don't fit the ways of working set forth. July 7th or 14th is being floated around as the date. I would highly recommend people who want to keep their jobs to come into the office on time and leave at 5 PM as instructed. Additionally to not abuse the flexible pto that is granted. Your peers and leadership are watching and keeping track of in-seat and badge swipes.

I feel watched constantly. My keystrokes, my mouse moves, my breaks, my location. It's oppressive and intrusive. RTO has ruined this place.

How many days a week do you come on-site?

Is 1, 2, 3 days a week strictly enforced?

It is deeply frustrating to navigate a demanding, long-distance Return to Office (RTO) mandate while balancing personal caregiving responsibilities, especially when that burden is not shared by the executive team.

The Reality of RTO Disparity

1) Executive Perks vs. Employee Costs: While executives often have commuting costs (limos, premium transport) covered as business expenses, average employees face thousands in annual fuel, vehicle maintenance, and parking costs.

2) The Caregiver Burden: RTO policies disproportionately impact employees with young children, creating immense pressure on work-life balance that senior leadership—whose families are often grown—frequently fail to recognize.Impact on

3) Retention: Research indicates that 80% of companies that enforced strict RTO mandates experienced talent loss, with high-skilled, senior-level staff, and women being the most likely to leave.

Comment your hot takes here.

Heard several people were impacted with the latest wave of ‘Coffee Badging’, anyone know what metric and timeframe this is for? I heard they were going to pull reports from January-May for those under 7 hours a day, can any manager here confirm?

That's it. Easy surveillance.

I am expecting more layoffs. I have no insider info. I feel that they are going to keep pushng in the same direction. This means job cuts.

Lookat the stock price. It has gone up several times over since 2023, and guess what else started happening around then? The employee count began dropping hard. That is not a coincidence.

The stock price is what they are watching. it's not our frustration stress & complaints. Not our objections to RTO. Not 100s of posts about loyalty. Nah, not workload too. None of that matters when the number they care about keeps moving in the direction they want.

And now they are starting to believe AI can make human labor worth less than it is today. I hope that is wrong. I really do. I am almost certain it will not. But it sure feels like that is where this is headed.