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After 2 years my company, a recent acquisition of a "large bank", has begun the RTO transition. The CEO of our parent has been leading the charge to "get back in the office, where face to face gatherings foster great ideas, spread our great culture, train our young associates!" etc. Looking around today in the office, still largely empty, I know the truth is: very little is done 100% onsite in the same building. Hell, we've been working with mixed teams comprised of offshore and nearshore members, and departments in other offices for years prior to the pandemic, and, of course, for the last 2 years under the pandemic in a 100% WFH regime, and have in this distributed team model actually grown assets under management by over 100%. Business has been good if not outstanding. So it rings very hollow to hear all this cheerleading about how good we had it. How, all of a sudden after, finally, some respite from pandemic numbers, our senior company leaders are "excited" to dive back into long commutes and rub elbows with their employees around the water cooler - not that a lot of elbow rubbing ever really occured. I swear an HR manager said in an all hands Zoom call, "The one thing I miss most was that Ferry commute! Yeah. The one parked for hours in a car line, both ways, then getting on a boat trip, if you were lucky a breakdown hadn't occured. All this 3 hours a day on top of at least an 8 hour work day. This claim sounded so forced and desperate it was completely, obviously, an attempt to shill the whole idea. Can't fathom why we'd continue to cling to this false notion that everything has to happen 9-5 and in one office. It hasn't been like that for a very long time. |
Since nobody is going into the office, that HR manager is welcome to take a trip or two on that ferry whenever the mood strikes! It won't be crowded so they can just make a round trip and then head home to get some work done.