Letters warned employees that failure to follow return-to-office expectations could lead to ‘further disciplinary action’
Bank of America is cracking down on employees who aren’t following its return-to-office mandate, sending “letters of education” warnings of disciplinary action to employees who have been staying home.
Some employees at the bank received letters that said they had failed to meet the company’s “workplace excellence guidelines” despite “requests and reminders to do so”, according to the Financial Times. The letter warned employees that failure to follow return-to-office expectations could lead to “further disciplinary action”.
The bank is the latest company to signal to employees that going into the office is mandatory. Companies from Citigroup and Meta have been tracking whether employees have been going into the office, usually with a hybrid policy of three days in the office and two days at home, with similar warnings of discipline if employees don’t show up.
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For many workers, their hybrid policies are likely to stay. A new survey of American CEOs found that only six of 158 said they will prioritize bringing workers back to the office full-time in 2024. Another survey from Deloitte in November found 65% of chief financial officers surveyed said they will keep hybrid policies in place this year.
We need to outlaw unnecessary RTO
We need to outlaw unnecessary executives
Market seems to be doing this for us so far.
I mean, there’s nothing morally wrong or dangerous about RTO
It’s more something akin to pay and benefits. Aka what it needs is unions.
I think it’s morally wrong to allow a full-time employee to move across the country and begin to transition their career into being fully remote, have them buy a house, settle in with their new family, and then tell them that if they don’t move back, they’re out a job.
I’d say that’s morally wrong.
Amazon is doing that. I’ve heard they’re hemorrhaging employees in some divisions.
Which is part of the goal, layoffs that aren’t called layoffs.
Commutes are dangerous.
And that carbon footprint
Well, there’s the contribution to climate change. There’s the added danger of driving at all - look at traffic fatalities. I’d argue that a business forcing unnecessary hazards on employees is morally wrong, as is causing unnecessary pollution.
I mean, are we talking about bank tellers here? If you’re not a customer service person in a bank branch specifically there for face to face interactions, I struggle to think what you’d need to go to an office for at BoA.
WHAT? You don’t think there are moral arguments against RTO?
How about the fucking AIR WE BREATHE?
You know? It’s funny how much harder it would be to get a union started up if everyone is working remotely.
Riot games recently sent out a layoff letter. They told everyone to go home that day and take the next day off.
Seems smart. Give everyone a chance to cool off before they stoke further resentment at the water cooler.
IT for a different bank here (a little smaller than BoA but not by much) - only about 30% of our userbase is in the branch offices full time - everyone is perma-wfh or hybrid & there are no plans to change that. in my office space (downtown in a major metropolitan area), we’re actively downsizing - there’s no reason to pay rent for floors where no one sits on.
I would bet this leads to BoA having higher costs than you - paying for additional unneeded office space and ALL that entails, plus at least for me, I’d insist on a premium in wages to be in an office regularly vs WFH most of the time to all of the time.
How does the media find out about this? Are they asking the bank? Does the bank publish a press release? Does an employee that doesn’t want to go back inform the media?
Most likely the last one. Everything would be internal company logistics and this pisses off employees who report it to the media.
Cool. I guess that makes sense.
When any company sends out ethically questionable emails to a large group of employees someone always leaks it to the media. How could they possibly stop it without restricting when and where people can read their emails (while simultaneously preventing people from using their phones in the office or… memorizing things LOL).
