A sad day today. Fellow coworkers I’ve known for years are calling it quits today because of poor leadership, terrible pay, extremely sub-par raises and a crushing economy. But the real nail in the coffin, an expensive and pointless RTO5 policy. Three months ago you waved your executive power wand and declared RTO5 starts May 4. However the remaining people I will interact with on May 4 are still remote to me. We are separated by hundreds of miles, multiple states and time zones. And ya know what, we make it work. We’ve been able to accomplish so much because of the tools and technology the bank has implemented over the years. Pretty sure that is called moving with the times and adopting the digital world. We can reach each other quicker than we could take an elevator to the floor above us. But your boomer self is pushing an order that treats us like kids, ki-ls our production, adds lengthy commutes, increases our carbon footprint, eats our income and eliminates the work-life balance you touted for years. Why in the actual f*ck in the year 2026 are you forcing RTO5 when there is a perfectly viable option of remote work that has proven time and time again that it works. Let us not forget it not only works very well but it saved the company during the most unsettling unnerving unpredictable time of this century. You and all of your reports know a vast majority of these roles can be 100% remote. Plus 11 million customers can prove it too. Record profits ring a bell? Consistent dividend increases mean what? Bank acquisitions are just pointless side quests? ATH stock price is just a silly number?! So why are we going backwards? Are you trying to protect the real estate investment? Were you coerced by city mayors to bring employees into towns? Some of those towns being a dr-g and crime-ridden hellhole. Is there another double digit comp increase in the works if X-amount of employees swipe their badge? Did you over-hire during covid and now need to protect the bottom line so you subliminally utilize the consequences of not following an outrageous policy as your reasoning? Were you swindled into believing that a manager’s error was blamed on his/her team’s lack of collaboration? Did one person do wrong and you took the elementary school approach and punished everyone? Are you and the boomer executives unable to fathom the digital era? What is it? You’ve created a lose-lose-lose scenario. Talent is going out the door. Potential talent is applying elsewhere. People who try to grind it out are stuck holding the bag and getting reamed by the cost of commuting. Instead of trying to standout and provide a flexible workplace, you ruin it with a generic order full of buzzwords, no follow up, no guidance to management, no recorded message, no recorded video.........crickets. Just a pure power move because your friends in New York are doing it.
Nearly 21 years here and this is the first time I truly felt sorry for the people I recommended to this place for employment. I’m sorry we are facing this situation. To the younger folks a few years out of college, good luck this is brutal. Exiting folks that have other options lined-up, good for you. Now excuse me while I fill my tank for $130 because I got a lengthy commute Monday morning. Hopefully I am not late for standup.
P.S. Real professional hearing the upper management pi$s on us during the recent hands on meeting.