#worklifebalance

The most alarming number in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best Companies for the Future” ranking isn’t AT&T’s overall rank of 375.

It’s the Talent rank of 390.

The WSJ’s methodology specifically looked at hiring, retention, and employee satisfaction as part of future readiness. In other words, human capital.

For years employees have been saying the same thing, excessive RTO mandates, constant uncertainty, forced relocations, and a lack of flexibility are driving good people out the door.

Leadership ignored it.

Now a respected third-party ranking is essentially saying the same thing. AT&T isn’t being viewed as a future-ready talent organization. It’s being viewed as a company struggling to attract, retain, and develop the workforce it needs for the future.

Even Kevin O’Leary (hardly a champion of employee entitlement) recently warned that companies risk losing their best talent when they become overly rigid about RTO and where work gets done. His point was simple - if you make flexibility a non-starter with RTO, your talent pool shrinks and you will only attract the undesirable bottom quartile of talent nobody else wants.

And that’s exactly what many of us have watched happen… I’ve never seen this many experienced employees leave. At the same time, a strict 5-day RTO policy isn’t a selling point to younger workers who increasingly value flexibility and work-life balance, it’s a detractor and immediate non-starter. Nobody with other options will ever sign up for this prison-like micromanagement.

Talent rank 390 isn’t the cause of the problem. It’s a symptom of this bad policy.

You can mandate badge swipes. You can mandate presence. You can mandate commutes, but what you can’t mandate is that talented people choose to work here, or stay here.

At some point leadership has to ask whether a five-day RTO policy is helping build the future, or helping explain why we’re ranked near the bottom when talent is measured.

Max cap being cut from 150% to 125% so they can take that off the balance sheet and not have to pay out that additional time when we're all RIFd.

Office politics are so much worse when you have to navigate them in person. From micromanaging to bullying to being put in the middle of arguments... It drains people in a way that's much, much worse than just hearing about it or dealing with it from a distance. I'd take a pay cut to avoid it.

Turnover's blowing up at so many other companies but things feel weirdly frozen here. I'm still looking for an exit but most of my team seems fine staying put even after everything that's happened, and I can't tell if they know something I don't or if everyone's just too tired to move.

The cuts have taken place, things are where they, hopefully, want them to be, so I'm going to assume there won't be additional cuts any time soon?

Company and management expects excellence but the company can't even pay you correctly or resolve a pay issue within a 6 month time span. And then they tell you you're the problem for trying to solve your own problem since no one will actually help you resolve issues.

The most difficult part about working for this company is dealing with the company itself.

They have been pushing team members in the most recent all hands meetings to take their PTO and time off. I have never heard such a push for this from leaders. I have been with the company over 7 years now, and there’s never been mention of taking your PTO like this.

So, take your PTO NOW before you lose it to this transition.

Bumping this for important info, the OP is @a2+1ksqvmzt4.

I’m an employee who’s been through a few rounds now, and the strange part is how routine it’s started to feel. Once one layoff ends, people don’t really relax, they just start wondering when the next announcement’s coming. Most of us just keep working, keep quiet, and try not to draw attention. Sad.

I love survey time of the month. It’s hilarious that the company asks us each and every month about how we feel about them. Do they take it seriously? Absolutely not. Do they use it to weed out people who come forward to section and claims managers? ABSOLUTELY!!!

But I want to point out how hilarious it is when you answer the questions about why it’s so stressful and why you don’t want to come into the office e more -!it ends with ‘you are least satisfied with Strategy.’ Really?!?! The strategy is to grind us into oblivion. I can’t believe I’m saying this but bring Tippy back. Least Tipsord wasn’t blind to the need for work life balance…kind of. D1 injury in particular is the most likely to make you crash out from mental exhaustion and it’s very clear they don’t give a flying F!

I am about to join Q's Automotive divison, i appreciate any insights about quality of work, teams, wlb. Thanks in advance.

Since Andrew left, and he only led for approximately 4.5 years or so, the treatment of employees has gone down to the gutter. The only period in which employees were treated fairly was during his tenure. Look up the history of UHG leadership and you will see what I’m saying. I was recently laid off after working here for 15 years. They not only offered me 5 weeks of pay, they put very “questionable language” in my layoff package.
Accepting their layoff package is accepting more abuse on the way out.
• If they get sued you should be on their side.
• If you were mistreated and (I’m watering this part down) or if you saw someone being mistreated, by accepting their severance you are saying it never happened.
• If you catch wind of them potentially being sued, you should warn them
• Also they added that you should not expect any payment for any of this! hahahahaha!!!!!!
• And if they call you for help with work after you’ve left, you have 48 hours to get back to them and help. This is teetering on… “fill in the blanks”…. and not even enforceable!
Who do their lawyers think they are? Very thuggish! I asked others that were laid off with me and they had similar language. And one that worked for 3 years only got 2 weeks worth of a paycheck.
This is all provable and true! To those of you still there, this is how they treat you after years of service, that’s if they don’t put you on a CAP or PIP to manage you out like someone said in a post on the UHG link here. They did this recently to my friend who worked in UHC for 25 years!

What is your daily commute look like from home to HQ? What time you start if you have kids in school and how do you manage day to days life?

I’m starting to wonder if a regular workweek exists here anymore. Why is everyone doing extra time and acting like that’s just part of the job now?

I’m doing the work of two people.

Commuting in to an office to sit on zoom all day is expensive and depressing.

We do more and more hard work while org leaders reap all the benefits. Nothing trickles down.

I’ll just hang out doing the minimum until I’m laid off.

I joined just four months ago but I hate it already. I got lucky and another company just offered me a role that pays a little less but is much closer to what I actually want and hopefully comes with less toxicity. I am grateful for the option, but I am wondering how much it'll be an issue for my resume in the future to leave a job after such a short time.

you do not want to work at dell and you dont want to invest here. get out

I wanted to share my experience working within the Belk IT department. I have been out of this position for some time, but from what I’ve learned, it hasn't changed and it has somehow gotten even worse. While store employees face their own set of challenges, the backend IT support structure is completely dysfunctional and treats its tech workers with an absolute lack of respect.

To start, the geographical territory assigned to a single IT field worker is massive and brutal, often matching the exact same coverage area as a Regional Vice President (RVP). Despite this massive responsibility, the compensation is insulting. The pay is so far below industry standards that it rivals fast-food wages. Because of the vast territory, you are forced to travel anywhere from 30 minutes to over 3 hours just to get to a location. This makes the role completely unsustainable for anyone with a family or anyone who values a healthy work-life balance.

Once you actually arrive at a store, the execution is a joke. Nine times out of ten, a field tech is forced to escalate an issue because our on-site capabilities are severely restricted. You are then left waiting for hours just to get a response from a clearly apathetic corporate support team or an offshore team that is incredibly difficult and tedious to communicate with. Furthermore, Belk’s Point of Sale (POS) systems are completely unreliable, and actual application support is virtually non-existent. As a result, the standard "fix" is to completely re-image the machine, forcing the tech to sit around waiting hours for the process to complete just so the store can finally use the register again. And don't even try to complain or share what you've noticed with your manager. They know what's up and will never care. Ever.

There is so much more dysfunction I could detail, but I want the store employees to know this. When you see an IT person walk into your building, understand that we are miserable too. The only motivation corporate provides is an empty "thank you" from someone who never even shows up to the Teams meetings. The managers shares it with us as if we are impressed by that, and as if verbal appreciation pays the bills during a time of massive inflation and a harsh economy. The only real thanks I needed was the final good riddance to this joke of a workplace.

With all of the systems issues we shouldn’t be counted for today being in office. I went home after a few hours of spinning systems.

My son was born when I had a remote job, then Covid happened and I was home all the time (he’s always been in daycare while I’ve worked, though). Now he’s in first grade and this back to office is ki-ling me because I can’t be in multiple locations at once. I get him to school at 8. We live just north of spring and on my best days, I’m still coming into the parking garage after 9am. I have a friend who helps me with carpooling from our neighborhood a couple of days a week and gets the boys to their mutual after school activities so I can meet them there but I feel like all I do is manage a commute to satisfy a rule that is not in the best interest of anyone who wants to also be present with their children. I was always very good at my job and being the mom with fully stocked cooler at the field. I look around and wonder who else is quietly dealing with this? And why aren’t we saying anything as a collective voice. I’m tired of decisions being made for me by men whose wives or nannies have made them believe this is manageable for people who are lacking coparenting support.

I would have walked away from this place ages ago if I wasn't waiting on a payout.

I keep seeing coworkers bail for jobs that pay way less. Nobody even tries to match their old salary anymore because things have become that miserable here. That's how low we have fallen.

Hearing rumors going on about this.. can anyone here 'in the know' confirm?

Our manager explained to his team leads that the only reason he still has a job is the director knows if he removed the manager he will have to manage the team leads and direct reports. The manager also shared that he owes management a breakdown of his reports workloads and knowledge transfer requirements for those workloads to overseas teams.

“The way I see it is if you want a rainbow you gotta put up with the rain” - Dolly Parton

I love how they talk about flexible schedules and quality of life at Macys. Quality of life should not include having to work EVERY FREAKING WEEKEND. Unless you use all your vacation days or promise your first born to an associate to switch with you, which is rare, you WILL WORK EVERY WEEKEND. Captains in my store get a weekend a month off. Why can't the automatic system do the same for Selling associates. Its ridiculous. I don't expect to have every weekend off but one weekend off a month would be nice. Cmon MACYS we have no air conditioning so at least give us this!!!!

If you are tired of doing the work of multiple severance or laid off employees for shrinking wages and benefits, Denmark is actively recruiting burned out American workers looking for a more humane and equitable economy where work-life balance is emphasized and employees are valued.

EastTown MSP
6am?
5am?

Every other month is a quite layoffs unless it is a big one then even more losses. Then they rehire these kids, give them scraps because they straight out of college, and expect us to train them. Nope. Other more indians with fake diplomas and degrees.

Anyone ever had their bonus be $0 due to not working the full 8 hours in office on connect weeks?

First - I am an optimist. And, yes I was impacted. Top performer, great team, but toxic and politically motivated weak leadership. I was planning to leave after the earnings call in June. They just beat me to it. Yes, lost a ton of RSUs and the Q4 payout. Financially, painful...indeed and it felt intentional and it probably was.
All said, i keep coming back to this with hopes of seeing a mass exodous of folks posting ..done, walking, better opportunity, and it simply not worth it... my health, knowledge and expertise are worth far more than hanging on to what is a false set of expectations and a mirage wiith the hope they are not next. That's a hard road.

The more people that just silently leave the louder the message.

Wishing you all peace and happiness as you pursue a better life ..its out there.

HANS . humans achieving nothing strategically

60% each month? No it's over 3 months? Which 3 months?

It’s 2:30 here at HQ. I’ve met my 40 hour requirement for the week so it’s time to head home. Man I love Summer Fridays!

Displacing individuals is too slow and not creating sufficent staff reduction.
Poor work conditions and arbitary illogical management and we-ponized metrics have failed get employees to self attrit. Leadership next phase: Build League, the foundation to start displacing entire teams of employees at once....

Everyone quit your crying 😢 about RTO and get back to the office five days a week. If the complaints don’t stop you will required to work seven days a week on 12 hour shifts. Oh and no holidays off either!

Welcome to corporate America 🇺🇸!

I left EM a little while ago to move to booming data center industry where they need capital projects people and pay better

Do some research and apply. Why not see?
Base Salary a little lower than EM but more than made up with near term cash and stock

Example. CL27/28 with 15 years experience can get you this
Base: 250k
Annual cash bonus: 20%
Stocks: $800k-$1.2M spread over next 4 years. No ridiculous 3 and 7 year waiting to get couple hundred XOM shares.
Basically $500-600k+ per year
And even know some CL 28/29 folks that are looking and can get closer to $800k all-in.

Or you can stick around and work with disrespectful people like Dan W or Carman M!
Good luck!

What the he-l is wrong with you kiss-a-s corporate boot-lickers?

Beth doesn't support families, women, disabled people, and those with extenuating circumstances with the RTO requirements that make FTO impossible. And to add insult to injury, the recent layoffs despite record stock prices and revenue...

Have some god-damn self respect for yourselves.

I have seen several capable coworkers leave over the past year and it rarely had anything to do with the work itself. Most of the frustration came from how people were spoken to or ignored by management. After a while employees stop feeling valued and start looking elsewhere. It is becoming a pattern that more people are noticing. Exxon is losing good workers it should be trying to keep.

I have worked here for over two decades and this is one of the more frustrating periods I have seen. The actual workload is manageable, but the constant politics between departments and leadership make the day feel heavier than it needs to be. We're spending more time avoiding conflict than solving problems. Most of the conversations are tense and few are comfortable speaking openly anymore. A few coworkers who used to be very engaged now barely participate unless they have to. It's exhausting, and for all the wrong reasons.

But because things are the way there are now, I feel like I have ten years ahead of me. I just want to be done with this place.

They expect you to eat, sleep, and breathe work. If you're willing to give up your evenings, your weekends, and any semblance of a personal life, you'll probably do fine. If you want to see your family or have hobbies, good luck. Is this a Cisco-wide issue? I was thinking of applying internally, but I don't want to end up in a same environment.