anyone have any intel on Phase 2 / timing? Will all remote workers be required to relocate close to an office ? Wondering if any management has been asked to prove the necessity of some of their remote people. Do we think exceptions will be made for those who were originally hired as remote employees ?
34 replies (most recent on top)
@x0 It will be good when full time RTO eliminates the numerous un-engaged, and useless introverted snowflakes in the business.
@bs Spoken like someone who hasn't created any content since the days of tape-to-tape linear edit suites.
@ba It's a global company, with hundreds of people who have direct reports who aren't even co-located in the same office. It's 2025; this "in-person collaboration" farce is way past its expiration date.
Universal RTO mandates don't result in some marvelous hive mind where everyone's building groundbreaking concepts together; it creates warrens of cubicles where everyone keeps their earbuds in all day to avoid the constant clatter of business calls, Zooms, and conversations happening two feet away from their tiny warren of a desk.
@b8 so if I was hired as a remote employee BEFORE COVID by the way - this is a “self appointed status”? Get out of your bubble. Life exists outside of NYC cesspool. Filthy, smelly, overcrowded, decaying, disorganized, and is of this week also a communist cesspool.
Tek it easy, bredda
The Caribbean remote workers are toast. No more collecting an inflated salary. You should have been let go a long time ago.
@fr he’s full of sh-t. We are not becoming a tech giant, they can’t even get us through a merger - it’s so chaotic.
@fr the CEO said it should be tech driven, not a tech company wholly. That being said, they should establish a RTP presence in Silicon Valley, as Netflix does, in addition to LA and NY.
@bs Our CEO has said he wants Paramount to be a tech company. I would say that if you are a tech company and you decide that the Bay Area is "remote" and therefore not a place to hire from, you're missing out on a lot of talent.
@bn as an FTE based in and residing in NYC making well below 6 figures, I approve this message.
@bn they already do that. If you moved you're supposed to report the move to your boss and they'd scale your salaries depending on where you moved.
I guess you could theoretically move in secret but I don't know how that could be possible with payroll and benefits tied to your home address.
i have team NY LA- LA office space is non existent no place to put us all
team guy hired remote asked about nashville office - no answer asked where would he report to - not even definitive on NY or LA- boss is la next up in org chart is NY
really wants to keep his job due to family insurance needs
i don't think they have ducks in a row on this ..
@bf If you are work as an employee for a major film/tv media and entertainment company (Paramount is one of those companies), then either 1) you need to be an employee who is close to other employees who are instrumental to the creation of media content at some point in that value chain. And/or, 2) you need to be an employee who is close to people who are instrumental to the distribution/consumption of that media content at some point in that value chain. If you are neither one of these types of employees, then maybe you have an ability to perform your duties remotely and in isolation. Otherwise, you are not involved in the daily working culture of the company, and you need to think about your relevance to the overall enterprise.
Question for those who’ve relocated from high-cost areas to lower-cost ones: how would you feel if they adjusted your salary downward to match the new cost of living? The difference could be significant between places like LA or New York and other states. Probably over 30% and maybe as high as 50% reduction.
Would you stay remote?
@bd ehh it is clearly antiquated but as owners of a company they can make and enforce the rules
@bf The owners of the company simply don't care if there are no offices where you are currently remote. They won't blink an eye at replacing you with someone in-office
Our team has remote employees in places where the company doesn’t have offices so how would that work?
@ba agree and hope so but i think there are plenty of comm PR marketing in LA NY to make them RTO not be considered exceptional ..
"Stop complaining and come be miserable in the office like the rest of us!"
Great work and collaboration that this stupid policy is creating, good one, DE! There are jobs and jobs and for some being in the office is so hilariously unnecessary that ordering them back seems antiquated. Forcing everyone to be in the same location where 90% of people don't work with them directly or they don't need heavy collaboration on a daily basis is antithetical with creating a "fast, nimble, tech focused" organization or whatever is the company line. People worked like this in 1973. Looks like Paramount will soon be just as antiquated and archaic as most of Oracle's software offering.
@b9 These must be more tech oriented positions. Speaking as someone more on the entertainment/content side, you need to be around people. The people in your organization and in the wider business. This is more important if you are more senior in leadership. Being cooped up in a cabin in Wyoming with great Starlink only goes so far.
@b9 In-person collaboration, that can only flourish in a full time RTO policy, is a part of the work culture they want to have. I'm sure there will be case by case exceptions. And in those cases you need to be exceptionally talented. Otherwise they need to be firm on the RTO policy to create that collaborative culture.
@b7 just saying it's common on streaming .svp and vp . but i hope you are right .. i can return office and expected to but it will cost me another car payment insurance etc .. - that's fine knew it couldn't last forever but would be so unfair if higher level management gets deals in RTO - their reasoning be oh the team is in LA and NY the boss in NY - we all never see each other anyway.. again if i still have a job next year ..
@b6 It's not "a status" that has any relevance or meaning to the company... where do people come up with these self-appointed terms? Covid happened, you were told to work from home. Covid ended, you were told to come back x days per week, now you are told to come back 5 days per week, like it was before covid. If you decided to move somewhere during covid, that's your decision, and yes your "status" changed according to yourself. But from the company's perspective, you are required to be at the office now, as you were before, as per normal. Can't come in? Can't do your job then.
@b6 Being SVP and Remote? That's the worst possible combination to be in at this company at the moment.
@b3 hope that's accurate .. people
moved away during after covid and some are high level roles we have svp etc .. in meetings who clearly don't live in LA or NY anymore .. hope they don't get to keep that status when a lower level employee is required back bc of relationships with top level management
I would say more than likely.. it's going to be case-by-case. Your job has to be mission critical as decided by your SVP in order for you to say remote. If you're working an analyst job, finance job or something that can be replicated by someone local then you're definitely not going to be allowed to be remote.
If any of you were on Danson OOH, this was brought up and as usual they had no answers. I would say prepare for RTO, it is coming sooner or later.
@aw That type of "status" does not give an employee any protections. If the company's organizational structure changes in such a way that the job requires you to be at an office, and you can't, then the job that you are doing is not required, and the company will have a reason to terminate that position.
i know of people who were hired as employees and got status moved to telecommuter- remote so they could be phase 2 - they think they are going to be able to wait this out and be given exceptions . .. have moved away -- streaming - CH seemed to imply it would be case by case - just a comment - would be annoying in this case - i hope it doesn't work ..
You’re not special because you’re remote. Get into the office like the rest of us.
Being a remote employee does not grant you "protected status". The company can decide that for organizational or economic reasons, it can change your job. If you stick your head out, complain, you are putting yourself on a list. HR is not there to help you, they work for the company.
What happens to employees who weren't ~originally~ hired remote but are classified as remote now. And why can't I get a decent answer from HR?
@a4 Fake news. They learned from Phase 1 that exceptions will happen.
There won’t be any remote employees a year from now.