Pros
WFH was the pro. Now its not.
Cons
As I explained in the "Pros", WFH was the pro. That has now been axed for the most part. Their formula for deciding who comes in and who can stay home is not (IMO) receiving the negativity it should. Basically, if you are 35 miles or less, you must return to the office. Instead of actually concerning their selves with Work Life Balance, they would rather throw a wrench into it. If your job can be done 100% remotely, then you should work remotely. One of the big keys of this endeavor was to “Work Together”. So far all I have seen is people still doing meetings on teams and unless you are in some kind of sorority with certain folks and co-workers, it’s like being in a Walking Dead episode. There is no upside to commuting at least a half hour to an hour and expect better results versus heading to your desk at home and getting things done. Now the desk you go to is like being out in the middle of an interstate. This is also not going to motivate those that are RTO to do both remote and in-office on the same day. So right there is a negative impact on performance on situations that probably require additional man hours to solve that will now be lost. Now let’s be adults here. If the job calls for the additional output (i.e., on-call, upgrades, etc.) well that’s what the individual signed up for. But my main point here is tasks that have motivated an individual to keep digging on something versus “clocking out” takes a hit here. The bottom line is they need warm bodies in buildings to justify their real estate. They already sold 2 buildings and now they had to rent out the one they sold just accommodate for this whole fiasco. My next point is electronic communication (mobile phones). Now technically this is not necessarily a requirement because you cannot be forced to install Company Portal (InTune) on your phone. But you are required to provide your own means of communication for work-related purposes. My biggest problem with this is you are held accountable for issues that may arise with your personal device in the event of needing to be reached. Some departments may have an out with having a company provided mobile, but that’s not the case with everyone that is in that kind of environment. I think it should be placed on the company to provide suitable communication equipment as necessary. Most everyone who like to consolidate their billing opts to forgo landline and mobile is the only option. Usually with WFH, that would be a trade-off, but that’s not the case anymore. Let’s talk about Ever Green. Honestly, I don’t know if I am spelling it right nor do I care. This little weeklong event is supposed to give back to the employees. Now it’s turned into a mandated volunteer work program. There is nothing wrong with volunteering, but the bank is putting on a facade that they care about the community. They put together committees to scrape together any little event that would give them news coverage for being such outstanding pillars of the community (sarcasm implied). They will bully you into signing up for something and they are relentless about it. If you choose to work instead of participating in this fantasy land play, you might as well consider yourself on their black-sheep list. For those of us trying to do a job, this is a total wash. I’m not there for a family reunion to pass out goodies and build houses. That should be to the individual who seeks to be part of it. I’m not trying to be a Debbie-downer here, but this is really something that needs to be organized as an actual “volunteer” event and not a weeklong job requirement. My last point is compensation. Now while it’s up to you to negotiate a reasonable salary, this organization does not metric your work experience and skillset in a competitive fashion. You are the mercy of what HR decides and not the department. Or at least that is what you are told. Another thorn is zero incentive bonuses. There’s only certain departments and positions that qualify for these bonuses and profit sharing is obviously taboo with this place. There is absolutely no upside to dealing with these recent changes other than adding on more gas and frustrating traffic.