https://hrexecutive.com/remote-work-doesnt-break-company-culture-poor-measurement-does/
Enough said.
6 replies (most recent on top)
@ae Disguising layoffs as RTO is a PR play. Oracle, Meta and the like didn’t look very good when they axed thousands in one shot. Plus, that sort of thing stays through multiple news cycles. RTO gets a couple of days of play about culture clashes and also allows AT&T to do additional layoffs in the drips and drabs that go unreported. You all should know that by now.
If all they want is to reduce headcount, they could do that with layoffs. The severance pay out is probably less than hoping people will quit, and paying salary until then. Oh! Better yet, ask for volunteers and give them the standard severance. They’d hit their number before the week was out! RTO is about control, big brother watching your every key stroke (or lack of). Collecting metrics. No trust.
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RTO is largely a job cutting exercise and nothing more. WFH was a success during COVID and could be at any time, it's the person doing the work, not the location. We sell global connectivity yet we do not want to connect employees who are also customers. We all know right now it's a 'do as I say, not as I do'. I'd respect honesty; yet that is not what the top brass offer normally; it's usually smoke and mirrors.
If AT&T wants to reduce its footprint, what better way than making the employee provide their own office? Case closed!
RTO is a layoff, that is all.
Offices are obsolete in 2026. 95% of jobs were and can be done remote. We are the company who provides the capability to work remote. It makes the least sense to have this strict RTO mandate here. But we all know the truth is they just want to reduce headcount.