#worklifebalance

So the guidance is that you need to work a full 8 hours but should still feel free to pick up your kids or attend medical appointments etc? I literally asked what happens if it’s snowing and I need to leave a little early to pick my kid up before school closes or my kid is sick and I need to get them and the answers was find a way to be here 8 hours/ find another day to come 8 hours or you risk being ‘noncompliant’ which may impact your performance LOL so the real answer is that the RTO guide that was sent to managers is straight up BS and there is zero flexibility for unexpected events. Feeling so tired of this company which I’ve foolishly worked hard for all these years. We are truly unappreciated and disposable.

It is coming folks

5 day rto is brutal for families with kids. How r u surviving this.

This is crazy. 3 day is understandable. 5 day is torture.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to drop off kids work 8 and pick them up. With no notice this is ridiculous. So I think my option one day a week is to drop them off and then head back into the office in the evening and sit there. So do the reports just so first in. And last out? Do they calculate gaps? And don’t play the curse on you because you have kids or pre-Covid . This was never a problem before because I always get my work done, work late if needed and am an adult.

I’ll never get why some people act like they’re chained to one company. You're not. Not a single one of us is. If you’re miserable, update your resume, practice your pitch, and start applying elsewhere. No job owns you and there’s always another opportunity waiting, even in this job market.

Which has a better work environment?

https://www.reddit.com/r/developersIndia/s/IRDuqwVf86

Almost two hours wasted on the commute. On a good day. Feels like that was the plan from the start, to force people out without paying a dime. People mention real estate/tax incentives as the main driver of RTO, but I think it’s mostly about cutting headcount on the cheap. Everything else comes second. Time will tell.

But for the rest of us - run. Start putting yourself first, because no company ever will. If you’re not already looking at other options, you’re late. Don’t kid yourself that loyalty, long hours, or dedication mean anything. They don’t. Your skills are yours alone. Treat them like currency and use them for your future, not for a company that’ll cut you without blinking.

Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, has stated that AI could probably bring 4 day work weeks. "We're at the beginning of the AI revolution... and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence across industries could probably bring a transition to four-day work weeks."

This comes as the CEO of JP Morgan (Jamie Dimon), the CEO of Zoom (Eric Yuan), and Bill Gates said similar things.

JP Morgan CEO: "AI will lead to people working “3 and a half days a week"

Zoom CEO: “I feel like if A.I. can make all of our lives better, why do we need to work for five days a week? Every company will support three days, four days a week. I think this ultimately frees up everyone’s time.”

Bill Gates: "What will jobs be like? Should we just work like 2 or 3 days a week? If you zoom out, the purpose of life is not just to do jobs."

I've now scheduled my ME day three times, and each time something comes up. Today was the third attempt, and I've been told I need to provide information to my manager by noon. Every time I try to take this day, I'm told there's something due or overdue, and because we’re so short-staffed, I need to step up. I’m just exhausted.

On top of this, my boss has already said I need to start coming into the office three days a week before November 1st. They’ve also questioned why I haven't done any charity work this year, saying it could affect my performance review and that I should try to schedule something. I’m working seven days a week, and yet it still doesn’t feel like enough. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up.

HP has really turned into one of the worst places to work. It feels like nothing more than a sweatshop. I am told, no salary increases and no bonuses this year and that I should be happy to have a job considering the job market. I am just tired and ranting and I am sure no one cares especially here.

Anyone else have issues with their pets seeming depressed? Not only is my spouse upset that I'm never home and misses our lunchtime walks and heathy food prepared together, but my cat has acted strange ever since I stopped returning home until the evening. Last year, it was only 3 days in the office and I was typically home in the early afternoon. Now, with full time RTO, he stays in the garage all day, according to my spouse. He always runs to the door when I get home, but then disses me again and goes back to the garage. He used to always hang out in the house with us before this year. It b-ms me out that this has affected him as well.

Many people join companies like Amazon and Meta not to stay long-term, but to get a powerful stamp on their resume. They know the high-pressure environment means they can't last, but the initial stock and the brand name are worth it.

I saw this firsthand at Meta. The system is brutal: a performance review every six months and a yearly evaluation that lets go of 10% of the workforce. Despite this, people still join because that “Amazon” or “Meta” on a resume leads to bigger salaries and more stock options elsewhere.

Oracle used to be a different story—a place with good work-life balance but lower pay. Now, with its focus on AI, the pressure is on to cut costs. The plan is to lay off 10% of each team every six to twelve months. This makes it a risky place to be.

This instability is a huge problem for many H-1B visa holders. Constant layoffs can prevent them from applying for their I-140 or Green Card, putting their future at risk.

No longer look for WLB. Just focus on salary, promotion if not run.

What you have with your employer is a business relationship and not emotional. So stop using words like company loyalty, work family, corporate culture and other BS. The more loyal you are to the company the more you will get hurt when they clip you. Always remember- you are getting paid for your talent and the time spent there. If you want to show loyality - show it yourself, your family, your skills, your health and wealth but NOT to the company you are working for.

You look to your left and then to your right. You did it. After months of uncertainty and awkward days in the office where you and your peers were told to report to work only to be cut by day’s end - you survived. You feel pretty good, pretty relieved. You still have a job. You are better than everyone else. That’s what leadership will tell you. You were ranked higher than those who were culled. Your role is valuable to the company and so are you. As the days pass, the office is quieter but work quickly starts to pile on. As the months roll on expectations increase dramatically and you find yourself working endlessly, stressing about work when you come home. We need to do more! Better than last year! Last quarter! Last month! By the end of 2026, you sort of wished you were packaged out - free from having to do more with less. Sure the job market su-ks and yeah you saved yourself from the embarrassment of being laid off but there are opportunities out there. Sometimes a fresh start is nice - sometimes it is actually better.

Written by ConocoGPT

Five years of micromanaging, angry clients, and being treated like a kid. I finally hit the point where I said no more. Scariest move of my life but now I sleep through the night.

Leaving this company was the best decision I’ve made in years. If you’re smart and want your life back, start planning your exit. We all deserve workplaces where our time, effort, and wellbeing actually matter, not just a revolving door of chaos and stress. Don’t wait until it’s too late to make the move.

Oh right, because there aren’t that many different options out there. They’ve cornered us into putting up with absurd levels of bullying, pressure, overtime, and exhaustion, while the only payoff is the chance we might get to keep our jobs. Just might. This is a sc--wed-up system, and State Farm has turned it into an art form.

Just pastures that haven’t been left to dry out and die. It took a while to find something else, but I gave it a real go. Staying here wasn’t just unbearable, it felt reckless. Months of layoffs with no end in sight, and the company’s future obscured, to put it mildly. The pay is about the same, there seems to be some semblance of work-life balance, and most importantly, there’s no amount of money that can buy peace of mind.

I was laid off a couple years ago from at Schwab. And I admit that at the time I was pretty worried about my future and aLeo angry at the sleezy shenanigans that went down in my management chain that got me on the list.

But you know what? It, honestly, was the best thing that could ever have happened to me.

It turns out, laying me off from the worst employer I’ve ever had
In my career, gave me the motivation to go over my finances with a fine toothed comb and push me hard enough to actually try the “semi retired “thing and I have been living the high life ever since! I’ve taken a half dozen trips, started some new hobbies, spent more time with friends, taken some freelance work on occasion when I decided I wanted to not because I had to… I am a much happier person overall than I ever was when I was working at Schwab.

So I guess, in a way, I’d like to THANK Schwab for being such a miserable place at work that it forced me to think of other possibilities I might not have considered otherwise.

So my advice to you, if you are in a similar position and can make it happen, maybe it’s something you should think about!

After all, why your remaining years of full time employment working for mo--ns? Just something to think about.

I’ve seen friends and colleagues develop serious health problems because of the pressure here. Stress seems to be the norm and the leadership couldn't care less about balance or wellbeing. Watching people struggle like that makes it hard to stay motivated and makes me think twice about sticking around.

If MW and company want to continue destroying morale and this company then if anyone out there is still working hard for Chevron should stop now. Put in the bare minimum. If we have to go into the office 4 days a week, then no late night or early morning meetings with India. S crew them. Collect your paycheck and do nearly anything else. For those saying "have a work ethic and self respect", having self respect is taking back your time and life from a company who obviously hates its employees so the right thing to do is bare minimum work!

At some point you realize the job is just a paycheck. All the talk about loyalty, impact, and family is a sales pitch. Do your work, keep your boundaries, and stop believing that going above and beyond will save you when budgets tighten. And you'll be much happier for it in the end.

I’m investing in my own skills because clearly no one else is going to. I feel like this place is intentionally pigeonholing us into positions so we don’t have too many options to leave unless they’re the ones to kick us out. Anyhow, if there ever was a time to start expanding your skills people, it’s now.

The world is more unpredictable and dangerous than ever, yet corporate America is dragging people back into offices. At a time when safety, flexibility, and family should come first, pulling people farther from home makes no sense. If something were to happen, being close to loved ones and communities matters most. Forcing rigid return-to-office policies isn’t leadership — it’s reckless. Real leadership means empathy, foresight, and moving forward, not clinging to broken traditions. When does the next pulse survey go out?

The company will extract every bit of effort you can give while offering almost nothing in return. Eventually, the abuse will end when the company collapses, but by then, the damage to your sanity and personal life will already be done. Just some friendly advice from somebody who's been here for way too long.

Just a reminder to get up, take a break, get away from your computer regularly. Take 5 or 10 minutes every hour to focus on yourself. The clown Robin can afford it, and they're going to mark 25% of us as not meets anyway :)

Corporate life can drain your enthusiasm, no matter where you're at. I joined from a small company and even there, the experience of cursing bosses and endless bureaucracy ki-ls your excitement. You’re basically always choosing between two unpleasant extremes.

Four years here is what it took for me to be done. The toll this place takes isn’t worth the paycheck anymore. I dread logging in every single day, and I can’t imagine ever feeling any different. The whole system is built to grind people down until they finally break, and I guess I did.

• US employers are hiring fewer workers, and some are looking to get rid of existing ones.
• Business leaders cited RTO mandates as one way they're able to reduce headcount without layoffs.
• The acknowledgment confirms a piece of what some observers have long suspected about the RTO push.

https://www.businessinsider.com/rto-mandates-driving-workers-quit-helping-employers-avoid-layoffs-2025-9

I’’ll start:

Yearly pay raises close to or exceeding inflation
Accepting salary based on 35hr/wk, flash forward, management expectation of 40-50, no adjustment
Pressure to ignore benefits paid by lower salary like RFC for “azz in chair” time

I keep seeing more companie rolling out unlimited PTO policies and I’m curious what people here think… Some say it’s a game changer, others argue it’s just a sick scam to avoid paying out unused vacation…..unlimited PTO sounds amazing. No accruals, no use it or lose it deadlines, and more flexibility for employees to recharge. It can also be a big draw for talent in competitive job markets, plus it cuts down HR headaches for employers…flip side. A lot of employees actually end up taking less time off because of workload pressure or guilt. Some people worry it’s just a way for companies to save money on vacation payouts. And without clear guidelines, it can feel like a trap rather than a benefit.

So, what do you think? Does it feel like a genuine benefit, or more like a scam?

It is not worth it! I have seen professionals work until they died and what is the point of that? The stress will ki-l you. Take some time for yourself as you near your golden years. You will also have time to hone your investment skills and manage your investments yourself. Pursue your hobbies while you have plenty of energy and never stop learning.

I’ll never understand the mindset of people who think their job is validated by swiping into an office instead of actually producing results. Walking past a turnstile doesn’t make you valuable. Sitting in a cube doesn’t make you productive. And bragging about being “present” doesn’t make customers any happier.

The real measure of worth here is what you deliver — the problems you solve, the customers you help, the value you create. That used to be obvious. But now we’ve got folks acting like their contribution is measured in commutes and cube hours. That’s not work, that’s theater.

AT&T doesn’t survive on badge swipes. It survives on results. The sooner this company remembers that, the sooner we stop bleeding talent to competitors who already figured it out.

I've been back at full time office for almost 2.5 years. I saw the writing on the wall and decided to do 5 days even before that mandate came out. Loved the initial months of WFH but the days became longer and longer. I was averaging 53-55 hours per week. Now I do a straight 40 and leave. When asked about working additional hours I cite an after-work obligation I need to attend to. I continue to receive good reviews, decent bonuses and team awards. The quality of life improvement in taking back those 13-15 hours a week is amazing. I get the downside of RTO for the masses, but I'd like to know if others have recaptured the additional hours they were giving away for free before 5 days a week in-office was mandated.

"...consistent with Verizon ways, I paid millions to the big 4 consulting firms, hired an internal transformation team, brought in the data & analytics teams and pitted them all against each other to develop an AI prompt. I changed my mind constantly so that the cross functional group would be aimless and confused while I hoarded power. After months of back to back meetings causing divorces, parents missing their kids activities, massive burnout and more - I just did the prompt myself in 2 minutes. I then blamed everyone for wasting so much money, did a reorg and promoted myself. Proud to be a transformation vz leader pushing forward the art of the possible!"
5 hours ago by Anonymous | 2 reactions (+2/-0) | Reply
Post ID: @aq+1k4ay94vk

When my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer my FA told be to look after my husband and my family, that my job would always be there for me. He had arrangements for me to work from home when things were bad after treatments and boy were they bad. I still signed every day and returned phone calls. I never missed a thing to be completed for our clients. I even returned phone calls from a private spot in the hospital. My FA was completely satisfied with the work being done. I was working from home and office since last December. Never heard from HO once. July I get a phone call from HO stating that I was committing time sheet fraud. Never once was I told from them to complete one and was fired right then. No warning, nothing. My FA was as devastated as I was. I did what I was told to do and got fired. Edward Jones does not care about their staff, Only BIG PROFITS!!!.. I worked 15 years for them and had Outstanding Reports since I started... I am heart broken. A sick husband and no income.. The public needs to know all about EJ and their abuse of staff...

Bad enough that every day feels like a punishment for a choice I barely remember making.
And if I dare complain, Ernest’s voice echoes in my head: “You self-selected for this role.”

The expectations?
They are not expectations. They are shackles.

Seven days a week. Twenty-four hours a day. No pause. No mercy. No life. And still “You self-selected for this role.”
Four jobs crammed into one because people burn out and leave, and replacements never come. Their absence becomes my burden. And still “You self-selected for this role.”
Forced into company charity work, even though my own family barely remembers what I look like. And still “You self-selected for this role.”
Begging for scraps of budget, even with a team of a hundred souls. Every dollar has to pass through Ernest, because we are all assumed to be thieves stealing from his bonus. Because God knows, we will never see one. But of course “You self-selected for this role.”

I missed my son’s entire summer of sports. Every game. Every smile. Every memory.
Gone. Because I was chained here.
I leave home at five in the morning, return after seven at night, and collapse into bed only to wake up still exhausted.
I have fallen asleep in the bathroom at work. I have fallen asleep driving to work.
I confessed this once to my colleagues. You know what they said?
“Do not say anything. Do not make Ernest angry. He does not care.”

And he does not.

We cancelled the VIA because Ernest did not want to hear the complaints.
The job market is brutal, and he knows it. He wears it like armor, like permission to treat us all like dirt. Like criminals. As if respect is too expensive a luxury to waste on us.

Quarterly reviews? Forget it. My boss literally told me to just get AI to generate something. Promotions? Not a chance. Ernest fills jobs from the outside, proudly waving the diversity flag, while those of us drowning here never get pulled from the water.

Every single person in Supply Chain hates their job in Spring.
We are exhausted. We are broken. We bleed for this place, and in return we get nothing. No bonuses. No stock worth anything. Just the knowledge that Ernest collects his fat paycheck on the blood and sweat of our backs.

And the Fire Side Chat?
God. Two hours before, you will hear someone calling this place what it is, a shithole. But once the cameras roll, suddenly it is smiles and empty words about how great it all is.
It is pathetic. It is tragic.
We are so dysfunctional it hurts.

RTO really boils down to two drivers: control, and the financial interests that CxOs hold in commercial real estate companies. The more employees are physically in the office, the more those properties stay profitable. It has little to do with productivity and everything to do with money and power.

On a personal level, RTO has increased my monthly costs by about 25% compared to working from home. Between gas, parking, meals, and other daily expenses, the difference adds up quickly. On top of that, I’m losing about 90 minutes a day to commuting - time that could have gone into either more focused work or simply maintaining some balance at home.

So while companies frame RTO as being about culture or collaboration, for workers it often just means higher costs, less time, and no real improvement in output.

I’ll never understand the people on these threads who equate working from home with not working. It’s frustrating that even the ELT has started to adopt that attitude. We’re three rounds of layoffs in after three years, and it’s not because people were slacking off just because they weren’t physically on site. In my group we were almost entirely WFH, regularly putting in 50-hour weeks.

Ironically, WFH actually makes it easier to work longer hours, since the project is always right there in the next room, waiting to be picked up again in the evening. Now, to drive attrition, the ELT wants me to give up an hour and a half of my day to commute. I’ll still end up bringing work home, but I won’t be able to put in the same evening hours or keep up with household responsibilities once the commute is added on.

I left without any sense of guilt, because I knew I needed a job that didn’t consume my evenings and weekends. At first, I worried about letting my team down, but honestly, no one wins when you’re burned out and running on fumes. Moving to a role with a healthier balance has reminded me how much better life feels when work isn’t draining every ounce of energy you have.