Supposedly anyone within 25 miles of any office. Good luck.
31 replies (most recent on top)
@7xw
The point is there are enough people out of work in hub locations that would go into an office. Let go of the lazy LD ED pigs and their cronies. Then Hire someone for less.
Wha doesn’t make sense is if half your team is stateside and half team is in Philippines and if no one in your state is in your team/ they are spread all over country/ what is point of going to office whe you are still going to talk to them on teams
As just a basic software engineer working on Aetna systems forced to go in, I would love to see the LDs forced to RTO .My boss forced to move to Hartford would be hysterical. The guy is an a--kissing butt jockey who steals from others. For him to see how much everone hates him would be great. Same thing for his peers.
Just like last time, they'll probably implement it just as summer is beginning.
@dm
Steve never said never. He said a bunch of word salad weasel words about maintaining the current condition (which was open revolt against RTO) so it could go either way,
That being said, Brian Kane was wishy washy on enforcing his RTO mandate anyways. Very few teams actually went in.
On the very busiest days,Hartford feels like a ghost town (even during the Kane-era RTO efforts). Yet the RI headquarter feels like a pre-covid office space every day of the week. I had to go out there last week and couldn’t find parking like it was 2019 again
They did force all of the Aetna line presidents to move to Hartford area again though. Can’t say if they actually visited the office or not, but they moved them all there.
@18k well the main CVS campus in Woonsocket is not nice. Anyone who’s from RI knows Woonsocket is just a place you avoid.
@v1 yeah the entire first floor of Roger’s just completed a massive refresh with all new $$$$ Herman Millar cubicles and director offices. Lots of other modernization construction going on too on the campus. Especially in the areas that still look like a 1990’s office space. Long dormant office areas being prepped for build out too. They are certainly preparing that building for something big,
@ww Trauma bonding for unity sake would just result in a "forced fun" environment and nothing to do with their actual jobs. You're right though, some people thrive in office and many people signed up for it and should get that back. I feel bad for those that had official WAH agreements already in place pre covid. They should have been exempted from the RTO. That's a wrong BK made that SN should correct. I know several that had arrangements for a reason, and BK didn't give a damn about it. You're a single mom who needed to pick your kids up from school...who cares. You had an elderly father you monitored w/ no impact to work...oh well. You had pets b/c you though you had an agreement w/ your employer upon hire that allowed you to take care of them on breaks...too bad. Leaders aren't wrong for wanting RTO, but the WAY they go about it matters. They shouldn't preach trust and empathy if they don't show it themselves. That's not reinforcing the things that drive us in the right direction.
This didn't work the last time they did it. The Hartford office was full of people arriving in the morning, going straight to the gym, and then leaving, others coming in for 1 hour, grabbing coffee, saying hi, and then going home, and nearly everyone else was gone at lunch time. They were only measuring badge swipes, not how long you were there, so most people didn't work a whole day there anyway. Others got the short end of the stick because their manager was there and they had to be there all day. I also think this discourages EE's from looking for new jobs, because they will likely have to go from full time WAH, to a hybrid model. So they stay where they are, unhappy, and coasting. I do wish the office was fun like it used to be, then I'd want to be there a couple of days a week, but it's not like that anymore, at all.
@wt
As a former WFH Ae5na person, I will say this....if Aetna requires certain people to go into Hartford, the leadership at least 2 levels up should be there as well up through AVP. That means all those DDAT and business Aetna people would have new leadership.,
Forget VP that'll never happen.
Not sure about NYC...a train commute of an hour used to be reasonable.
@wt respectfully what you said actually highlights perspectives supporting RTO. Some may say there is way less genuine informal relationship building happening intracompany between employees that are not on the same team. That being said maybe if they force a collective group of people on different teams to all do something they otherwise wouldn’t want to do maybe there will be an increase in sense of unity through collective trauma bonding. Even though many here might not feel this way, there certainly can be people that want more in person connection, they try showing up to a decently empty office, feel unfulfilled and want more connection and leave to work elsewhere. Unfortunately for the WFH crowd, the execs would prob rather keep the people that want to have all sorts of close relationships with their fellow employees beyond just their teams than those that are happy to stay remote and just get their job done and be less personally attached to the company
@v1 That may be true, but carrying it out with honesty and integrity still matters. Making people go in and sit there without their teams while pretending to do it for togetherness doesn't come off as sincere. Exempting certain teams and roles with no obvious reason comes off as cherry picking. Having leadership work remote in the same state while requiring a couple of staff members to work on site is questionable. It is what is is, so let's not try to spray perfume on it.
I do sometimes wonder if there have been any cases of employees claiming unfair favoritism by their manager/leadership and now in a remote/every interaction and communication logged and tracked… if it’s much easier to support claims against the company.
In person conversations have many less bread crumbs that can be used against them. Many different dimensions to think through…
Wonder if they will start using this to track work location.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/01/24/microsoft-starts-sharing-your-location-with-your-employer/
Hartford is an expensive campus. Other companies in the area require RTO twice a week if you live within a certain radius.
Not surprised the Aetna business wants it. Lots of unemployed people who would go in rather than search for employment in this economy.
@pq Aetna
The only way I can work as much OT as I do to meet project deadlines is because of WAH. It's concerning.
@sg the point of rto is not for practicality. It’s used as a free layoff for them
@a6 well since you’re so important, forget it. We will cancel all plans. Thanks for your warning. Carry on.
If anything, it would make more sense for them to sell off or rent their space rather than make everyone return to office. It's cheaper to let everyone work from home.
I’m calling BS on this. I was at several Corp locations over the last few years and all of them were downsizing, giving up part of their space to another tenant, or closing completely.
@pn what’s this even mean… there’s prob over a hundred thousand employees that never stopped working from their office (the stores) … how can you force them to keep working in the store while others can work from home? See how your logic falls apart?
@p7 what area are you in?
How can you seriously require some but not others to RTO? That makes zero sense.
I hope it ends up being nonsense. My team got pulled into a meeting giving us a heads up it’s coming. And that sr leadership asked all the business areas for feedback on the impacts.
they are only asking RTO to speed up attrition of a team. if your asked to RTO you are on the chopping block
Given all the rhetoric from SN about becoming a trusted company, hopefully he will honor his original direction on this. It seems it would be hard to become the most trusted company if we can't trust our own leaders. I like him and want to believe him. Time will tell.
This is nonsense. DJ already said we’re not doing that. He’s in Texas.
This is just a layoff without severance
They will get exactly eight hours from me from here on out if this comes to be. No more 50-60 hour weeks when WFH. Important 5:00PM call? GFY