It's been 1 month since ELT decided this was the most effective way to make us quit. How is everyone doing with it so far? I can't help but wonder how much more $ we spend to keep these buildings full of bodies vs have them empty? The energy costs alone make me scratch my head. The whole thing seems so backwards and short sighted. It would almost be like discovering electricity, then the government taking it away because it 'feels' that people did better without it, while showing no actual data. Just "trust me bro" talking points. Or air conditioning, the greatest thing ever for st louis and tempe. Imagine having that and then it being taken away because a handful of low iq malicious government officials wanted people to move out of their city. A demonic calculated move is what that would be chalked up as. That is what RTO feels like. A tech advancement that was shown to work for the whole firm for almost 4 years (any way longer for many HO associates), but got taken away with zero offset for compensation. For you slow learners on here who think being in a cube for 4 days is great, how would you feel if your pay was cut 15%? You would suddenly be singing a different tune wouldn't ya? You might hate HBAs and remote work, but for many of us, it was a major perk/benefit and reason for staying here. Now it is gone and after 30 days of this cr-p I see absolutely zero + impact. In fact, it almost seems like productivity is moving the opposite direction. 2 days max in office will get you all the in person "collaboration" one needs. If you want more, come in and enjoy your toxic dystopian sh!thole. Why do office junkies care so much where other people do their jobs at if at the end of the day the same work is getting done? HBAs dont care how many people fill up the cubes or who clocks in a what time. Seems like only the micro managing doofuses of ELT and GPs care about such a stupid concept.
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@gm GPs are getting downward pressure to improve scorecards and such pushing to produce trivial "wins" and widgets. So theyre grumpy they cant skate by as much by just being stakeholders and opinion givers.
@z2 If you like returning to the office you have no friends and basically hate being around your family or have nothing to go home to. Sad...So, to fill the void they expect everyone else to miserable like them. The office makes them feel like their life has purpose, but once they leave the cube farm they are just another cog on the wheel.
New studies show that leaders who have Low Home Life Satisfaction prefer Return to Work and leaders who have High Home Satisfaction prefer remote work. Makes sense.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91567439/in-an-rto-world-workers-long-for-peace-and-quiet
@hf Edward Jones 2026: We need to get with the times so we aren't left behind and can compete with our rivals!
Also EDJ: Let's use a failed obsolete business model from the 1980s wall street culture so we can make everyone here miserable and angry. That will for sure double our AUM in record time! 🤡
it’s fu---d I know a dude making nyc money and also doing dog sitting working remote,, just came to our office for a few days last month and is concerned a HBA. fu-k this place
Cube farms are so 90s!
@ej , along of folks drive solo to work everyday along with you. Misery loves company.
@dz Same here. I probably lost weight from stress and not having appetite, but definitely sleeping worse. Wake up every day to drive into a sh!tbox where higher up leadership hates all of us. Everyone walks around with ear buds in and the look of depression and anger on their faces. The GPs even look more annoyed and stressed than before RTO. Not sure what that is all about. Regardless though, edj is following suite with all the other big corps who think sh/tting on their employees is the way to long term growth. Mo--ns.
@ej Just remember, as you sit in traffic with psychos and horrible drivers, ELT is giggling like little girls at your misery. They think it is funny and amusing. The more miserable we are, the happier they are because they assume more will quit. Their small little insecure brains only see us as numbers on paper that need to go away so they can get the atta boy from PP and maybe get an invite to see her shoe closet or wine collection. Demonic parsites these people are, who get off on ruining people's lives. Think about that.
You think you have it bad? I travel an hour a day to work by myself. No joke. No one in my dept even lives in my STATE! I spend money and time for ZERO.
@e6 OP here. I used 2 days as an example of where you "top out" at as far as "collaboration". Anything over 2 days is a waste of time and office expenses. Very stupid. Same for the insane amount of travel expenses we have been using to fly leadership over to india non stop the last 3 years because regulations have us needing "boots on the ground" over there at all times. This is why we are using a global capability center. It will be an end run around all the flights to india. The super smart people in charge apparently failed math though, and have the collective iq of a bug colony...sorry about your VSP, but hope you are happy at your new employer. At least they gave you cake and punch on your last day to make everything feel good lol. The ISP peeps were locked out of their system before their meeting about getting fired. We can't even layoff people without fumbling the ball. Clowns!
As a former Jones associate who was laid off or VSP, I don’t recall the policy of coming into the office 2 days a week. Hybrid meant coming into the office 3 days a week. What division are you all working in?
My new employer uses an app so you can reserve your own hotel suite cube. We have lockers too. Did Jones not install lockers for you to put your stuff?
Since returning I’m putting on more weight, sleeping less, spending less time with my family, stressing more, with no improvement in team dynamics, communication or culture. In fact, everyone seems more negative than before.
@cd This is an excellent summary. I can't wait to see the ELT bootlickers and trolls down vote it but not offer a counter argument. Not once have seen anyone from that camp attempt to make the case for why they continue to double down on failure.
The collaboration narrative is d-mb. Sure I spend more time talking with my teammates. I like them, and we all seem to get along. Most of the conversations tend involve our lives outside of work. We sometimes chat about work stuff.
However they framed this collaboration to be a good thing. It would be better if senior leaders, directors, GPs made more time to collaborate with us, get to know us, form professional relationships that can help us move up. But they all segregate to themselves in conference rooms all day. How are we suppose to network when we do not even see them. Sure, I suppose I could put 10 minutes on their calendar a month out. That just doesn't seem natural.
I volunteer for projects and working groups, but they're filled other associates. So unless of of them gets promoted. The exposure of in office is pointless
There one reason and one reason only why ELT is insisting on RTO. CONTROL.
PP is watching Edward Jones - the firm she wanted to “transform” upstream into a modern wealth management powerhouse, losing share (and quickly) in markets they traditionally owned (Midwest) and failing to take share in expanding markets (the coasts).
I have no doubt she tried. But two decisions seeded her failure:
Not aggressively enough upgrading talent around her ELT. Leaving weak, insecure execs in role that couldn’t ever hired in any comparable firm (like KC, LD, KJ, SM, DC, HM) has resulted in a transformation that has been steered very poorly.
Leaning largely on the advice of the above weak leaders, instead of channeling the EJ culture as an advantage, she chose to go to war with it, criticize it as a liability, fight it versus use it as an advantage. She turned her back on 100 years of strength, trust and momentum.
So here we are, year 6 of the “transformation”, falling behind. Her execs need an excuse for why EJ is well behind its plan - and associates are an EASY scapegoat. The firm has lost “control” of its workforce, associates are inherently lazy, not working full hours, not giving the “hustle” that is expected. AHA - that must be the reason!
So we double down on the “war” on culture by moving away from working in partnership to working under autocracy, ditch trust for oversight, replace investment in associates with layoffs and rehires in India, and so on.
This is how transformations (and companies) fail - watching culture eat strategy for breakfast. If this was a public company Penny would have been ousted by a board years ago based on consistently poor decisions informed by poor talent around her.
This is a war. And unfortunately the enemy is you.
@c6 omg hahahahaha this is so accurate
Why Four Days?
Simply put, four is twice as many as two.
As a result, employees should expect approximately twice the collaboration, twice the innovation, and, where practical, twice the culture.
While these projections have not yet been validated, they remain directionally encouraging.
The Value of Presence
Research consistently demonstrates that employees working in close physical proximity are more likely to:
Ask if anyone has seen the conference room adapter.
Spend fifteen minutes determining whose turn it is to reboot the meeting-room computer.
Participate in spontaneous conversations that begin with, "Quick question..." and conclude forty-three minutes later.
These are the kinds of high-value interactions that cannot be replicated through purpose-built collaboration software specifically designed to replicate them.
Visibility Matters
Although employee evaluations will continue to be based entirely on performance and results, it is important that those results occur where they can be observed.
This allows leadership to appreciate the effort that accompanies the work, such as walking briskly between conference rooms while carrying a laptop.
Building Culture
Many employees have indicated that they already feel connected to their teams.
This is encouraging, but incomplete.
Organizational culture is strengthened through shared experiences, including:
Searching multiple floors for an available meeting room.
Listening to someone else's conference call while attending your own.
Discovering at 11:58 a.m. that everyone had the same idea for lunch.
These experiences build institutional knowledge that is difficult to quantify, which is fortunate.
Addressing Productivity
Some employees have expressed concern that additional commuting time may reduce the number of hours available for focused work.
Leadership recognizes this possibility.
To offset the impact, employees are encouraged to become more efficient.
Frequently Asked Question
Q: If my team is distributed across three states and we still meet on video calls, why am I commuting?
A: While your meetings may still occur virtually, it is important that they occur virtually from the office.
This reinforces our shared commitment to flexibility.
Looking Ahead
We recognize that organizational change can be challenging.
History shows that every meaningful workplace innovation—from mandatory password changes every sixty days to replacing assigned desks with "collaboration neighborhoods"—was initially met with questions.
In time, these initiatives became accepted, if not entirely understood.
We are confident this one will follow the same trajectory.
As always, Human Resources welcomes your feedback.
Please continue submitting your comments through the Employee Listening Portal, where they will be carefully categorized, summarized, and presented to leadership in a deck titled "Themes We Have Already Considered."
Thank you for your continued professionalism, adaptability, and willingness to embrace evidence-adjacent decision-making.
Together, we remain committed to creating a workplace where every employee can be seen contributing, regardless of whether anyone can explain why.
Would anyone from the ELT cult or GP side like to make an argument for why 4 days in office is better than 2? Or, are you guys so deep in the kool aid that your brains don't even knkw how logically process this question?