I know some teams are still working from home with no consequences. I'm happy for them, but if we're told that everybody has to be at the office a certain number of days then it should apply to everybody. Either let us all fully WFH or force everybody to come in. The way things are now is only fostering resentment among employees - and that can't be good for Wells Fargo in terms of talent retention or the much-touted collaboration.
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I 100% agree. No one buys that it has anything to do with collaboration, and no one thinks it makes sense. It just makes people even more certain they should avoid anything to do with Wells Fargo.
If I have to go in, I'd prefer an empty building. To many distractions and to much effort to avoid disclosing restricted information if there's a lot of people around.
Hardly anyone is coming in. I work from two different hubs and every time I come in I never see more than 4-5 people and people don’t stay the whole day. Both are major hubs that were bustling pre-covid. It certainly makes me even less enthusiastic to come in when the building is empty.
The blanket RTO policy is so mo--nic that it should be considered a reputational risk for Wells Fargo.
Seriously. Whenever I explain to family and friends that I now have to report to an office where I do not have any colleagues, after successfully working from home for years, they express confusion and concern about the state of affairs at the company.
Look at the market. If a like job is typically available fully remote (such as those in tech), then it makes sense to offer at least some flexibility. Otherwise you will see 0 applicants. Look at the job postings online. Those fully in-office tech positions often have 0 applicants. Fully remote positions don't even bother to post. The best seek those companies out.
There is no worrying about ourselves. If you work for WF and your ar-e isn't in the office yet, we'll be sounding the alarms of inequity as loud as possible. You are our customers by not experiencing the fullness of all the epic collaboration that can only occur through the in-office experience! Don't get too comfortable, we are letting management know how bad you need to be in the office with us!
My guess is that they still don't want the buildings at full capacity due to covid. They do want people in the office as it impacts the local economy and companies get tax breaks from the cities they are in based this. So there is a balance there, still.
Some groups have RTO dates that are in the future. Just worry about yourself.
While I agree that the type of job makes a difference, I don't agree with the sentiment that life isn't always fair. There are people who have worked from home for years whose telecommuting agreements were made null and void. Some executive leaders got creative right from the start, and some pushed for some of their employees to stay remote. Others, who reported up through a leader strongly on the side of RTO, were instead given no options. If you are in a job, such as a branch person, then I think we can all understand why those people would be expected to work in an office. There are other people who work with an assortment of people who they are not co-located with. Even for people who are located near others, they still shouldn't have to come in 3 times a week just because. And no, we can't all just go find a new job somewhere. Some of us live in areas where it's challenging to find a similar job. Life doesn't have to be fair, but we can all hope that our executive leadership would at least be intelligent to realize a blanket approach is unwise. If they make decisions like RTO, what else are they deciding that's equally unintelligent?
In some cases, it depends on your senior executive leadership. Some are more flexible than others. But, not all jobs are equal. We had call center reps and branch staff working in offices throughout the pandemic. Everyone’s jobs are different, whether it’s pay, education requirements, workload, 50+ hour expectations, and even remote options post-RTO. Once you come to terms that life isn’t always fair, you can figure out how to navigate WF.
I don't like blanket approaches on something like this. Some jobs it makes sense for 5 days a week, some 3, and some 0. Mid/upper management should be able to decide based on the needs of the business.
I'm also tired of the inconsistency, but even more so, the idiocy of asking people to come into empty offices.
Some in information security are a few times per month.