AT&T

You do still get paid.

Oh my, where can I start? RTO has become the literal iceberg to the Titanic. It first started by closing the Redmond Town Center offices and moving everyone to Bothell. Hey AT&T Leadership, every other tech company (T-Mobile, Meta, Google, Apple, SpaceX, Microsoft, Amazon) is in Bellevue/Kirkland/Redmond. Where do you think your talent is going? Just in time for the new light rail to open with a station in RTC. Folks forced to move to a hub location, even though their work is entirely siloed and they don’t collaborate with anyone. Fired if you don’t move. Morale is insanely low. The only collaboration that goes on is people complaining about crazy new mandates for being in the office. Teams calls with people from the same team, sitting just desks apart, you can hear the person speaking through the other person’s mic. Frequently, folks take calls from common areas/lunch rooms because they can’t find a desk. They could literally be anywhere in the world with internet and be more productive. Not enough desks, not enough parking spots, not enough toilets, not enough coffee cups. Rumors are off the charts, literal report cards on the number of hours you are in the office, geo-fencing on your work-issued cell phone. Total inability to have any work-life balance. Have a doctor's appointment in Bellevue because you live there and worked there for years; you better take four hours of PTO to make up for the time out of the office. Apparently, FLSA does not apply, as exempt employees are being treated like hourly. The only thing of importance is that your laptop and cell phone are in the office, never mind the multi-million dollar project you are responsible for. The only logical reason for this is a soft layoff, and that’s just a terrible way to treat your entire workforce to save paying severance.

Wake up. Look at the data; it’s factual. You will get more out of your employees by providing them with some work-life balance. Let managers manage their team's productivity. So much of our work is just Teams calls with folks in other states/countries. Sure, there is time to collaborate and help guide the new folks, but it’s not 40 hours a week. Allow some flexibility. Nobody’s asking to go back to Covid times, but we’ve all built our lives around this flexibility, and to have it just ripped away is exhausting.

Most of the workforce in Bothell/Dallas/ATL are professionals with degrees and years of experience. It’s so demeaning to have mandates held over you like you’re not trusted to do your job.

Everyone I talk to says the same thing: “They used to get so much more out of me; I’d work 7-7. Now I put in my 8 and close my laptop. You’re not hearing from me until tomorrow.”