what's your department like? Any word of 4-5x/week back in office?
39 replies (most recent on top)
Is anyone even paying attention to remote work? The cost of labour is the topic and reason for outsourcing
None of my managers even want to be in for the 3 days required, but they have no say in it either. I haven't heard anything since the 3-day update
Hybrid model will stay for the time being for the most location.
@58y I'll believe it when I see it, but I would like to see what happens if they follow through.
@58y RTO is on the paper. RTO is hardly enforced because many managers work remotely quite disconnected from the “worker bees/individual contributors”
I heard we are going to 4 days a week in office, which will be announced after AF, to start in the new year.
Hybrid is the new norm.
If you cannot come to the office 2-3days per week then likely you are not committed. Most of the roles, especially in operations, must be in office 5 days a week
@1ra outsourcing jobs to lower labour cost countries (with less entitlements) is progressing in the background. Silently.
High cost NA Remote jobs are easy targets. Remote=outsource. Right or wrong just or unjust that is the reality. Laying off remote worker is 3x easier than the in office employee.
@1ra I know more than a few people that lost their jobs to India and Poland. It isn't just talk. These actions go back ten years or more!
@35a my State doesn't have a factory and I work in a sales office. Should I feel demoralized and devalued as you said because outside sales does not have to RTO but other customer facing sales roles like mine had to RTO? How about we all just do the job we are hired for and not worry about how many cars are in the parking lot, just like we did before 2020? When we tried to all work together and it wasn't all this internal bickering?
@2qr upper management is stacked up with connections and stock uptions…they will be ok…just focus on your own work and the best you can be. Worry about yourself
Manufacturing folks cannot wfh/work remotely.
Office wfh employees serve as a demoralizing / demotivating figure and a poor role model for the shop/assembly/material handler/shipping folks who cannot wfh.
A lot of office workers who wfh run their own businesses/other income generating activities not related to RA during the work hours.
It is very unfair to us who make the actual product and must commute to factory everyday.
@2qr it's not just hearing it, it's seeing it on townhalls and quarterlies. They are all not in the office. I can't believe they remote it in and expect us to check badge reports. I know my team can work well. I feel like a fool asking an adult about their attendance in the office. It's embarrassing.
@2qr Do as I say, not as I do.
When you hear upper management is working ‘remote’ from their second vacation home and not working from the office. Why shall I rto :-0
Lead by example…
Outsourcing jobs to lower cost countries is nothing new and out of ordinary. Outsourcing is common to many companies. It has nothing to do with targeting the specific remote roles.
My husband worked remotely at Amazon. He was asked to return to office 3 days per week or else.
@1px You keep beating that drum, but can you cite a specific example of someone losing their job in the US and backfilled in India?
The business really has no incentive NOT to outsource most, if not all, NA remote roles to India. The only exception are perhaps the customer facing roles /relationship based roles.
Rushing to prove to the business that you can work remotely will only show to the business that your role can be outsourced.
@1ew There is an office in Westin Florida they expect them to work out of.. its mostly the LATAM base.
It all starts at the manager and up level, they don't have to come into an office (even if they live near one), they are given an office and never show up.. if you dont have leadership in the office do you really expect the employees you are forcing into the office to actually come in and put in 9-10 hours in a cube... now they are trying to get people to come in by doing more picnics or campus get togethers which I am sure is going to come out of our compensation
Has anyone been to HQ in the last few months? All I see when I have to fly in for a meeting, is a lot of coffee badging. 25 years ago there were very few work at home jobs for RA. Now since covid happened, everyone expects to be able to sit at home or some other remote location (Mexico on the beach) and work. I agree the return to office should start with all the managers and above. However, RA just fired the last director of marketing that lived in the Miami area, and the new person that position was given to lives in the same area. Correct me if I am wrong, but does RA own a major office in the Miami area? There are too many SVP, VP, directors, etc.. that live no where near any of the major offices. Milwaukee, Cleveland, etc...
Working remotely has all the benefits for me.
The business decision makers really have no incentive NOT to outsource most, if not all, NA remote roles to India.
Most of the Engineering (excluding key R&d and other specialized engs ), customer non facing project management, IT, remote tech support, customer care teams etc. etc. can and will easily be outsourced to India or other friendly low labour cost country.
I wish we could bring back great leaders like Victor Swint!
@t8 dare to grow. I like that. Who came up with that tagline. They must be awesome.
@t8 who is "we", there has been no such request at RA.
@OP we have been asked for 6 days a week in office and dare to grow.
If you are really perceived as valuabe and well liked, all can be negotiated!
If they want to get rid of you for whatever reason, they will enforce the RTO policy.
I am aware of at least 1 person that was able to get reclassed as a remote worker and they live within 10min of HQ, how does that work?
I love WFH. Worked remotely for the most part since Covid.
Remote mode of work has further deteriorated the collaboration among departments/groups and reinforced silos.
Sadly, These remote jobs will be outsourced to India. Engineering, project management, IT, customer care teams etc. can easily be outsourced to India. Slowly and under the radar.
The RTO mandate is a joke.. there is no enforcement because half of the reporting structure is remote jobs.. look at IT, outside of a few peons that are required to come in the office the whole management / leadership structure is remote.. same with a bunch of others like Sales and Marketing.. the majority of execs are remote now as well.. Why bother coming in the office?
The RTO mandate is put in place to encourage employees to quit in their own…sadly the remote work is being badly abused. The business will outsource all the local remote roles. Slowly though.
@gk so exceptions are being made?
@c3 they don’t care. If you are good and quit because of this, you are replaceable. If you are truly indispensable, they will make an exception. That’s about 10 people out of 22000
@OP overheard a couple execs on the elevator say it’s coming q1. 4 days. All days in q2. And they are expecting some desired attrition. There is a reason they made it Monday Tuesday and Thursday. Dare to grow!!!
The businesses have figured out that many, if not most, remote jobs can be easily outsourced to India or Poland. The business had over 4 years to pilot and determine which roles can be done effectively while remote before outsourcing them. Of course, this is all done gradually and not published.
The point of RTO mandate is to force employees to quit in their own… no severance package needed…
I can see them going to 4-5 days in the office hoping that some will quit.
There hasn't been any talk about changes to the hybrid schedule, but there should be. There are plenty of people milking the system, but I don't see anything changing because those in management roles are the biggest offenders, but they could always fall back on their do as I say, not as I do mentality.
Our manager once said that the company can hire a remote roles in India for 1/5 of the cost of the US based remote roles. I worked with many remote folks in India and engament is far greatred than local remote folks. One of the most relevant advantages of local workforce is the co-location.
Most of the NA local Remote roles are to be gradually outsourced to India.