However ya feel about returning to the office, for or against is irrelevant. It’s coming. Filtered down this morning announcement is coming by June 1. All employees with exceptions only for health or extreme hardship will come back to the office and redesignated as Full Time Occupants. I can tell you where I’m at we already have most of the office in person nearly fulltime anyway as we have multiple level 4 and above leadership so it’s nothing new. We have been working 3-4 days since last spring in office. So love it, hate it…RTO as FTO is coming.
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"Working in the office allows employees to engage and collaborate with members of their local team."
I have no local team anymore. They surplused my coworker's, or forced them to retire early by removing healthcare benefits. But once a month I fulfill my obligation by driving to the office, sit in a little cubicle with no windows, no display monitors, a cr-ppy unstable chair, and count the minutes until I can leave.
Working in the office allows employees to engage and collaborate with members of their local team.
Haha, no. You really don't. The only interactions we share are the occasional crunchy munchies and hour-long phone conversation with our fishing buddies.
Let's be real, the only reason the fossils think offices are more productive is because they think employees self-moderate each other. They don't, and I most certainly won't. If someone's snoring at their desk, I'll giggle to myself but I ain't gonna do jack sh-t about it. It's not my job description to wake them up.
Sorry management. You can pound sound if you expect me to go above and beyond what I am being paid to do.
RTO = This too shall pass
Remember, at&t has never, I mean never, successfully implemented any process or plan.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TGZTT5zvljg
For hub locations only.
Consolidation of real estate is happening, I know that Bedminster, the former HQ for legacy T, will be completely vacated in exchange for much less expensive leased space.
People in Dallas in my org are pressed for space, sitting in open areas except for the occasional conference room call. Not particularly happy about it.
In twelve years of virtual office, I been told I would (a) need to relocate (b) go sit in a downtown office, where they made space for me in the basement (c) told not to worry (d) came close to being to office space in my neighborhood where I would sit with an unrelated group, but they objected and that was that. That office was eventually abandoned.
The shifting messages has been a source of stress for my family, so I don't tell them about these plans any more unless they ask.
Oh, and yes I have done laundry and shopped at Costco, but I've also been working when the smarties on this forum are sleeping.
I sold my house and moved into my office full time. I save a ton with no mortgage, taxes or bills.
It's amazing that people see how the company operates, over and over again, yet can't figure out how it'll apply to a new situation.
We're always going to do something new and do it 100%. And then what really happens is we do it 25% and call it a day. Some flunky then makes up charts that say it accomplished something.
Stankey isn't going to haunt parking lots. He gets a report of the % that badge in. He may get aerial photos of parking lots. One way or another, that % is going to go up some and the lots will get a little more full in the pics. They'll do an employee survey and basically force people to say they feel more engaged and show him that. And then he'll go on to something else.
The SVPs are no different than anyone else, they are thinking what kind of bone can I throw him so I don't get any more grief over this.
Nope. My org just revamped all our designations. Only those in hubs are back in office and they are only there 3 days a week. The remaining 80% of us are made virtual.
Made up nonsense.
"There was miscommunication in the Kertz organization."
Apparently, they missed where Stanky said the key to a good leader is "communicating, communicating, communicating."
Does anyone have experience with filing a religious exemption?
If you think it doesn’t make sense your not thinking of everything. Some will retire over this and with no severance which is really the goal.
I'm gonna complain a lot about this.
Stankey trying his best to appease local city businesses. Need to get parking and restaurant revenues back to pre-pandemic levels. These proprietors have spoken, Stankey has heard them loud and clear. Stankey has got to unify all employees on the new and improved telecommuter policy at at&t. Exceptions to adhering to the new policy should be few and far between.
how long has returning to office been coming. it is a joke
Lets see how many different excuses can be created in an attempt to justify staying home .
After 27 years of not being in an office, not starting to go now.
Lots of teams within or-a that have people spread out with like 1/2 the team in one place. And the other half 100+ miles away in different locations. Some don’t even have another team member or functional group to collaborate withZ it makes zero sense for these people to be in office Full time. No reason for people like that who can also do their jobs anywhere to spend anymore the. 2 or worst case 3 days in a defined office location. There is zero benefit to anyone
Molly, you in danger girl!
Stankey is so wishy washy on this whole telecommuting policy. How hard is it to set a policy then anyone not in compliance should be fired for just cause. The way it is now all VP org's have a different understanding of the corporate telecommuting policy.
If all are going back to the office full time then I expect we will get assigned office space.
Many keep mentioning teams being physically spread out. One thing far too many employees fail to remember is that T is a huge enterprise. Everyone has a logical team by management chain and also a physical team by location. Working in the office allows employees to engage and collaborate with members of their local team. This is an important component to helping T make an impact in local communities.
There was miscommunication in the Kertz organization. Several groups were told that they were changing to full time office. Then on the call, Jerry Kertz said it wasn't decided yet. Immediately after the Kertz townhall, leadership called us back and said "hold off on what we said about FTO".
Something got messed up on the subject on the way down the chain.
Expect there is some validity -went into the shared workspace 2 weeks ago and they have updated the environment-new connections, monitors, etc.
I have always been a TW, and have been for years before the pandemic. I live some distance from the collaboration zones (far in excess of 50 miles), which was a condition that existed upon getting hired. I have gone into the zone when needed for meetings, but for the last 6 years or so, most of my team has been located over 2000 miles away. I don't know if the 50 miles "guideline" is an AT&T policy or not, but in my state, if a company forces one to a location over 50 miles, the person is eligible for unemployment benefits. Therefore, I am eligible for unemployment and only planned to stay at T for perhaps another year, anyway. So if the ax falls on me in June, so be it. My state's unemployment benefits are among the most generous in the nation, and I will move up retirement a bit. I have kept all of my skills up to date, and already have an exit strategy in place. Best of luck to everyone who may be impacted, if this is indeed true. (Note- there are huge logistical obstacles in place for full time return to office, however... the person who commented about the lack of space is spot on, at least in my collaboration zone. I went back not long ago for a lap top issue... it was a mess. Not set up for collaboration, when teams are geographically dispersed.)
As a more affordable alternative to dedicated buildings, T could purchase time at commercial telework offices to allow for nontraditional collaboration zones in smaller to medium cities.
Was on Jerry Kertz town hall yesterday and this was directly asked if her. She said that right now it’s a non issue and isn’t aware of any changes. She is C&E and one of the largest work groups. It saying it’s impossible but it sure hasn’t made it it everywhere, maybe it depends on your work group. OP, what group are you speaking of please?
Washers and dryers should be added to legacy cafeterias in buildings since so many have gotten used to doing laundry on company time.
There won’t be maintenance, sanitation and food services to support back to work due to labor shortages. Don’t get stuck in the elevator!!
There is so much that is problematic with this. For one, there are many locations where they don’t have space for everyone any longer. Another is places where they have space but have offices with missing and or broken down furniture as they have refused to replace anything over the last few years. My coworker had her chair basically fall apart and was forced to bring her own from home because she was told to just find another (broken but useable chair) from the office. They have allowed office space to decline and haven’t done any upkeep or maintenance. Add to that the open space concept is a disaster in terms of actual productivity. Leadership has made so many bad decisions over the last 5 years Thats creates unproductive working environments. It’s why work from home actually became far more productive but the people who should recognize this are the same who decided becoming media company was good for business so….
we were also told that if everyone came in every day who they have designated in either the "full time office worker" or the old "flex" (who are being redesignated full time) came in, there would be no space for all of them. The flex people were forced to give up their office space and now there is no room for them even in shared spaces if they all came in.
We were told there was announcement coming in June that would go into affect in July but said they left the details for the June announcement and apparently they still have to work through all these issues or they would have made the real announcement now.
The stalls are clogged, go during break outside.
WHO CARES!
Depends on your team and your role. We heard from our SVP that ain’t happening because it didn’t make sense for everyone. Plus “there aren’t enough seats for butts.” Quoting the SVP in a town hall just a month ago. We’ll see. Plus add in the outsourcing of CRE/GRE and terminations of leases on office buildings, yeah I don’t see it.
No I am not full of it. Straight from Directors mouth. No one is exempt unless you have a medical/health exception or a family related and documented hardship. It was a rumor a few weeks ago but now making its way down from VP’s to direct reports. Some are very quietly sharing to give their employees more time to address any logistical issues they may have. It’s coming like it or not.
Yup. We were just informed we are changing to FTO and are expected back in the office by June 1st. meh..
You are full of it. The reason I know this is that if you are farther than 50 miles away from a T office, you are exempt from going into the office. Furthermore, T no longer has the real estate assets to have all workers in the office at one time. Where I am at, we went from 30 floors in 4 major office buildings to 4 floors in a single office building. I know we have had layoffs, but no where near the number of layoffs needed to allow everyone to RTO full time. Offices are already getting extremely cramped when you go into them, and drop in space is limited.