I'm really not trying to rant here, I'm actually asking. Does anyone feel productive when they come in? My office days are pure chaos. People talking about sports, playing on their phone, solving puzzles together. Random coworkers keep stopping by my desk to chat. I spend half my energy just trying to tune it all out so I can do my job. At home I get ten times the work done. How is any of this helping us collaborate?
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Drink at lunch, it helps to focus the second half of the day.
@ay dont need to be in the office to collaborate with people who live 3000 miles away from you. You’re the only one in your area in the office. What does that do for the company?
We had a quiet team. We had to share a space with a noisy team that made noise all day long it seemed like.
But it was funny though, we all had cubes so everyone is contained in their own areas. Which i enjoyed.
On several occasions I came in early before everyone else and dumped a bag of fine pepper, I'd spend awhile at home grinding up real fine. Then bring in pour it all in the floor and other areas of this ladies cube, over time it was probably around 3 lbs worth.
Nearly every day she would always sneeze. Almost to the point it got annoying hearing it lol. I'm like maybe should have done that.
They'd always be calling the cleaning team to spray and vacuum.
They thought it was a just a moldy musty building causing them to sneeze.
Is the OP under 35?
Layoffs have been happening recently in India. They aren’t immune to AI. They are a stopgap.
It’s just lovely in the office. The nice Indian lady next to me took off her shoes and rubbed her bare feet on the gross carpet. She then opened up a container of reheated rice and onions. So yeah, none of us can pay attention.
No I treat in office days as like the day before a major holiday.
@b7 not kidding. RTO is used primarily to drive attrition.
@ay The point of RTO is and always has been to drive attrition. The CEO has come out and said this on national television multiple times
@ay you're kidding, right? (point of RTO is to get people to quit)
@ay well the whole pitch everyone together, talking being merry collaboration. Nope whatever online always seemed the complete opposite in my experience in the office.
Everyone wants to be left alone.
Men won't talk to women vice versa everyone on edge.
People are noisy in everyone business, whose not doing this and that.
Not highjacking this into a rto post, but we'd all be a he-l of alot better off staying WFH. They really should have ran with that. Get more people on with the company (offer as a perk if you will).
But no, everyone back in person. It's 2026 really no need. Why even have laptops?
Isn't that the whole point of the RTO mandate? Cross-functional collaboration, spontaneous communication, and company culture celebration?
It's never been about long stretches of quiet, focused, head-down work. Get with the program!
@a3 that ship has sailed. Demonstrated completely one hundred percent effcient and effective for everyone and I may add for two years solid but yet we want everyone back in an office anyway.
We want everyone back to five days a week also covid shots are no longer a requirement.
Remember that, couldn't come back unless you had it?
@as sounds like an experience at WEC.
Same here. I have tried listening to white noise through my earbuds, but some people will still interrupt me actively despite clearly seeing I try to concentrate and remain focused. There are two “emotional vampires” who do this to me every single day. Once they are done with me, they move on to another victim. I am completely drained and exhausted after listening to those two. No comparison to WFH, where I am completely focused since early morning till late evening.
Before they let us go last year, and yes we knew it was coming. The way they treated us that year was surprising but not. When Employee Appreciation came around, centers everywhere celebrated with buffets, bowling parties, and all kinds of fun stuff. You know what we got? We got a cookie, yes, a cr-ppy cookie that looked like it had been in storage for a year. They already wrote us off to the point that they didn't budget for us to even celebrate ourselves. It was a slap in the face, meanwhile we kept getting photos from all the other sites of people celebrating in different ways while we ate our stale cookie.
@a6 I absolutely agree that it’s crazy seeing the number of people already working from India and the amount of jobs posted in India all while hearing senior leaders telling people in India that there won’t be any layoffs there. All while also hearing senior leaders brag about all the great work going on to reduce the workforce due to AI. Add in post from another senior leader about how great it was to take a trip to the Manila and how much the team cares about our customers and great they are celebrating the wins. Guess what we used to have that here as well until the constant movement of jobs out of the US AND the lack of any real recognition AND the constant fear of the ever growing layoffs. It’s interesting all the tax breaks Wells Fargo gets paid by the everyday US citizen all to move jobs to other countries.
I'm through working hard to line the pockets of senior "leadership", when they have created an oppositional relationship with employees.
I'm here for myself - to rack up paychecks while minimizing work efforts and maximizing resource waste.
Bread and circus!
@a3 nailed it with this : “When the company doesn’t value the employees, the employees will not value the company.”
Very very true. We Still have a population of delusional bootlickers employed here that don’t get it, but that population shrinks every week, just like WF’s headcount
I cannot believe the 6 replies to this comment on Office Focus! This can’t be the state of American Workplace conduct! Everyone doing everything but work? Playing games, waiting for layoff notices, gabbing, puzzles, games? I retired from WF in 2023 and it was a totally different work ethic. WTF happened? Serious question!
Hope you're logging those conversations so you can justify the nonproductive time Aternity logs.
As mentioned in a couple of other posts, people are well aware that their jobs are on the chopping block. You may be told that it's not, or that because you're at a core site that you are excluded, not true! Every LOB is in India. Go to Teamworks, look up the job opportunities in India, look at how many people there work for the bank, it's mind blowing. The only thing that'll be left are branches and a handful of LOBs that have to stay here, for now, due to laws that vary by state in addition to federal laws ( collections, probate, bankruptcy, etc). One day you'll go into work, and after a last minute mandatory meeting pops up on your calendar, you'll be let go.
The reason people aren’t engaged is not distractions it’s layoffs. Go the extra mile and feel like an id--t when you get let go. Even worse, when you get an IM because they have to stack rank people. Whether you work hard or you blow off your job it makes no difference- they want 20% gone.
Earbuds all day every day
Consider the nature and what is truly going on. Employees no longer feel valued. Ask the tens of thousands who have been laid off over the last 5 years. Those whose hard work and admirable work ethics were ripped away from them so some one in India could do the same job for $2.00 an hour. It does not excuse the fact that these people are paid to do a job regardless and should be. But when a company does not value their employees, then the employees are not going to value the company. If your posting this in the hopes that one of the bank's overlords are going to see it and decide to let people permanently WFH, it's not going to happen, so get over it. The goal is to either have someone overseas take over your job, or to have it done by AI, period. Your are not an asset, you are an expenditure.
Get in early and do your work before the animals arrive.
RTO is here to stay :(