AT&T’s new return to office (RTO) policy is more complex than many people realize. AT&T had over 300 office locations. They hired employees in those locations for professional jobs like engineering, product development, IT, call centers, HR, accounting, legal, etc.
AT&T announced a goal to have over 50% of non customer facing positions designated as permanent work from home jobs a few years ago so that they could save money on office space. Employees weren’t given an option to work in an office for jobs that were designated as perm wfh. Based on this employees invested their own money in creating a professional home office.
AT&T is now consolidating down to 9 locations and employees will be required to be in the office 3+ days each week. The employees won’t choose between the remaining hub locations. Their new location is decided by the leader of the department they work in. So employees who were hired in one location years ago are required to move to another city, sometimes even if they are already in a hub location. They receive an official letter telling them where they must now live with a deadline. In some departments, over 40% of employees are being told they have to move.
AT&T has already laid off over 40% of their employees in recent years so those who might relocate under normal conditions are not uprooting their lives, knowing they may get laid off a month later.
This has an impact that goes beyond the employee. For those who have a spouse, if they do relocate, the spouse will likely have to resign from their job. Kids will be uprooted from their friends /schools etc. Some people have joint custody of children or care for elderly parents so they aren’t able to relocate.
No relocation money is provided so the employee takes on the burden of the moving expense. Those who don’t relocate will get no severance pay, like you would with an official lay off.
18 replies (most recent on top)
I get there will be severance but I kind of get OP’s caution. If you don’t badge in 3 times a week, HR or your manager will have a talk. If you continue to not badge in 3 times a week, you may get put on notice and then terminated. No severance then.
The question for every individual is how far are you wiling to make the commute, esp if you moved further away to buy a cheaper home.
Regarding the severance... the FAQ does say that severance would be provided if the employee's job/role was "relocating".
However, it has not been spelled out what this means. Some cases seem clear cut; employee works in Chicago; job is moving to Dallas. But other cases are not so clear cut. For instance, many folks were hired during the pandemic as remote workers or were remote workers to begin with (prior to the pandemic). Depending upon where their assigned office is, the company may not think that the job was "relocating". I personally am not willing to drive 300 miles round trip 3-5 days a week. There are some grey areas that are not covered in the FAQ, and I will believe in the severance when/if I see it.
TBH I stopped reading at investing in professional home office. I would sooner pull every tooth in my head than to have declared are "legal" home office and claim such on taxes. Not saying that anyone did, but "home offices" as defined by the IRS are a complete pain, hard to keep in compliance, etc. Even when I worked from home for the last 3 years I didn't declare it as a HO, I just worked from home with no deductions. Also a PITA to back it out of your home later.
I think they probably meant just physically setting it up. Sure, some peolke work from their kitchen table, or even from a closet, but I have designated room, big desk, lighting, expensive chair, 3 big monitors, good quality peripherals.. It's an investment. It will see use after T of course, so not all that bad.
OP forgot to mention it's all happening during an intense inflation, bordering on a full on recession, with mortgage interest rates hovering around 7%. Just perfect.
I don't know if I agree about the no severance part however. To be honest, it's all of little to no concern to me as I was just laid off, and got the severance (well, not yet, but supposed to within 45 days), but we went over this... They stated many times that affected employees should get severance, and it's listed in the FAQ. Not everyone will, they say you have to qualify, probably meaning years of service and distance to office and maybe other factors too.
Based on this employees invested their own money in creating a professional home office.
That's a nice legit tax writeoff.
There are two separate things. There is RTO, which could be a local office, or one requiring relocation. Gotta return to the local office if that is your option.
If a relocation is required, the employee has to agree to that. If not, layoff with the severance in guidelines may be the alternative. I say "may" because, after all is said and done, AT&T could find itself short on employees, so there will be no layoff.
They could come back with further relo offers, with paid relocation. Anything could happen. But, it seems that the external job market is holding up.
They aren’t consolidating to nine locations. It is nine hub cities. There are multiple office locations within those nine cities that will be utilized.
I know, facts and knowledge and hard.
Someone spent a lot of time clearing their cache and voting over and over again. Get out of your Mom’s basement man….
Severance will soon be revisited and reduced substantially. Mark my words. It is not legally required. Do not consider severance as part of your financial planning. It is absolutely at risk of revocation.
Thank you captain obvious.
tldr, but stop with the no severance, been explained an proved wrong a hundred times already. if you don't relocate, you absolutely get severance
TBH I stopped reading at investing in professional home office. I would sooner pull every tooth in my head than to have declared are "legal" home office and claim such on taxes. Not saying that anyone did, but "home offices" as defined by the IRS are a complete pain, hard to keep in compliance, etc. Even when I worked from home for the last 3 years I didn't declare it as a HO, I just worked from home with no deductions. Also a PITA to back it out of your home later.
AT&Ts new motto: We have seen the enemy and it is us. My motto: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Will the premise techs in the west move to the east and the wire techs in the east move west? Motivation
Nothing new or original here. I got a similar result produced from Microsoft's CHAT summarizing RTO. Reads too smooth!
It Makes perfect sense. I already knew this
FFS with this no severance nonsense.
And is this supposed to be an article? It's atrocious.
Needs of the business have changed.