I learned yesterday that a friend's entire team is still working from home with the blessing of their manager. Is this allowed? Is it really on a manager to decide if we should be returning or not? I'm not holding out hope that we'll go back to fully remote but I am peeved that there are groups to which rules don't apply, apparently.
22 replies (most recent on top)
It really has nothing to do with skill, and everything to do with the labor market in each specialty. The underwriters that are all WFH aren't rocket surgeons or super sought after by silicon valley, but the market simply has no tolerance for forced office work, so they get an exception. The company can either go with it, or eliminate that business.
Powell said that certain business lines and job functions may vary… read your emails…. Or do the rest of us a favor an add to the attrition numbers
Most high value team members are still working from home. Upskill and make yourself a more attractive employee.
The problem is the NY twerps think that the issue is limited to tech, and it's not. I've got teams that haven't been fully staffed for years, and guess who doesn't have a shiny exception from the top?
There will always be haves and have nots. If you try to normalize across the board you get things like RTO, compliance, training, DEI, etc because the minority screws it up for everyone else and we all suffer for it
LOTS of teams in information security under Saul have an exception. we are all over the place.
I have had to RTO, not happy about it, BUT it’s the employees who complain about someone else getting a break that make life difficult for everyone. (Those who complain about “such and such not being fair” is what forces WFC’s hand to treat everyone exactly the same.) The truth is that we all live in different cities, we have different jobs, different hours, different personal situations, different work conditions, different circumstances.
It would be better for most employees most often if WFC allowed their managers more freedom to make the best decisions for their own employees and teams. You may not benefit every single time (Welcome to life - you don’t always get everything you want) but there will come a time where you need a concession and your manager will have the freedom to accommodate you and hopefully you will appreciate it.
Saul was handing out RTO exceptions like candy, if you filled out the form.
Powell didn't like that very much. If it weren't for Powell, Tech would be WFH except for co-lo Agile teams going in for their stand up meeting.
Just speaking for my group, we've lost some really good people. The kind you just can't swap with some "resource" from the street. Those people are long gone, and they're not coming back.
Worse yet is that the word is getting around that WF isn't the best option anymore for the kind of people "who have options".
People are not putting up with this, unless they have to for some other reason.
Charlie is remote too.
We are too (tech)
Plenty of customer service level jobs are still 100% remote, meaning hourly employees. Jealous, yes I am.
There's some critical tech and data related areas that its almost impossible to find headcount. These people leave and its beyond a nightmare. Long time to hire, long time to get them access, and these guys get endless emails etc for new jobs. I think the company is giving manager some flexibility in dealing with the situation, which is smart. Get's your guys back in the office, but not if its going to destroy the company.
Be mad at the id--ts that came up with this RTO nonsense. And apply for jobs elsewhere. Life is too short to be mad about work.
and if you find out your friend makes more money then you are you going to feel slighted? if you don't want to RTO then do something about it, move to a team that will allow it like your friends or get a job at a company that will allow it.
there is some discretion at the OC+1 level about this.... however, given that OC are all about RTO, not many are willing to exercise that discretion.
There are teams that won't RTO ever, and yes, it's BS. "We're better together, unless the job market says you get to be 100% remote, then we're not better together" is the official policy.
Yes. Most teams are not localized, and RTO is pointless.
Most of the people on my team are over 40 miles from any location, and we're spread all over different states and countries. None of us are even within 200 miles of the closest other person on our team.
So for us there's no choice. What are they going to do, fire the whole team...?
Is that team hiring?
You’re mad that someone has what you want? You should be happy for them. If they continue to be successful, maybe more teams will be allowed the flexibility to wfh.
Lots of teams don't have to RTO until the end of the summer.