403 Likes. Zero Conversations. This Is AT&T's Culture

Sitting in AT&T's open office today. No assigned desks. Five day mandate. "Collaboration" is the official reason.
The reality: complete silence. Cold shoulders. Headphones. Everyone either annoyed or running on fumes. The only conversations happening are between people who already knew each other before they got here.

Forced proximity is not culture. It never was.

McElfresh posted about collaboration last week and got 403 likes from 130,000 employees. The open office told the truth he won't.

And for the person who always replies "see you on the commute" congratulations. You've perfectly summarized what AT&T calls culture.

Two hours of traffic. A hot desk with no name on it. Headphones in. Eyes down. And a COO posting about collaboration from a corner office while the rest of us perform presence for a badge reader.

This is what market-based culture looks like from the inside.

#Collaboration #Culture #EmployeeEngagement #OfficeCulture #WorkLifeBalance

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I feel like someone said, “Make 1994 Great Again.” But with worse desks and being your desk back and forth between home and work every day.

Truth

Yep, headphones in most of the day. Rarely talk to anyone. Usually just socially, but never for any business purpose. Nobody in my group is in my office and I’m in Atlanta. None are in Dallas either, so yeah. Spread out. Just pointless and that’s my biggest issue with it. If we all were in the same location, I’d get it, but we aren’t and never will be.

@ax , I’m not sure about AVPs. There’s (at least) two in Alpharetta who sit amongst us p1$$ants.

@ax try harder L2

AVP and above have a dedicated office, while the rest of us sit shoulder to shoulder with headphones on to cancel out all the background noise.
Market based culture at its finest.

McElfresh doesn’t care AND can’t read the room!

Yup. Most days I’m the only person in the office. But man do I collaborate

Where can I find this post from McSelfish? I would like to comment.

The problem is no one’s willing to speak up because it immediately puts a target on your back. They got the truth in the survey. They’ve chosen to ignore the truth. Things will not change here until 5x RTO ends.

This is the best post here in a while, sadly accurate

@a6

Thank heavens you are here to "contribute" your trite and tired one-liner. We'd truly be lost without it...

Spot on, @OP. This place is making me hate my life. And a GFY to the see you on the commute guy.

@a6 This doesn't even make sense. Congrats on finding your meaningless one-liner that you think is ki-ling it.

This company has made me hate my life.

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403 Likes. Zero Conversations. This Is AT&T's Culture

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