3 ms·

For anyone else confused, RTO = "Return to Office". First thing that came to mind for me was "Recovery Time Objective."

by throaway920181 3y ago

ikomrad 3y ago
Thanks! I was familiar with RTO since my employer is doing it by gradually increasing required # days in the office. But not everyone will know what it is .
- Phelinofist 3y ago
  A few weeks ago our CEO decided that we should be at least one day per month in the office (my commute is 2h over all by car). They say it is not mandatory and will not be enforced. Also, everyone can select the day that fits them the best, so not everyone will be at the office at the same day. When asked about the reasons for this, since we did pretty well during covid when everyone moved to HO, they gave the following reasons: - People have to identify with the company more. When asked about the details of that they complained that a lot of people just log in, work on their issues and log off. So basically doing what they are paid for. I answered that this is not a bad thing, which was not well received. - People need to socialize more. According to them everyone needs to be more friendly with their peers. I think that I am friendly to my peers and direct reports, but I admit that not everyone can do that level of socializing online. OTOH I will not be able to socialize as well in person. Also, while I'm generally friendly I never join events for exactly that reason. - Silos between different departments. According to them there is bad blood between some departments and they hope to resolve this if everyone get to know each other better. I can't really confirm this, as all my interactions with different departments always go well. However, since there is no mandated day I can't understand how this will tear down the silos. - Onboarding of new colleagues is considered hard/not as successful as it should be. Again, in can't confirm this as three people joined my team in March and they are doing pretty damn solid. - According to them, before covid when everyone was in the office things were better. I asked them how many employees there were at that time: 50. Currently we are ~160. IMHO it is kinda obvious that communication and peership is better with 50 than with 160 people and office presence will not improve this. - According to them, meetings and workshops are better in person. I can't really agree on that as I feel that since moving to HO, meetings have been way better and a lot more productive. Some other things to consider: from 7 people in my team 3 are located in India, so they will not be able to come to the office anyway. Also we have two office locations in Germany, so we will not be able to everyone anyway. Also some people have 100% HO contracts and they will not come to the office since they live a few hundred km from each location -> kinda unfair IMHO. I think all their reasons are frankly pretty bullshit and coming to the office will not improve any of those. As the situation will not improve by this I expect them to go up with the days in the office since "we need to do more to improve things!11". I'm not so happy about this.
  - yieldcrv 3y ago
    yeah once I realized everyone at my company shows up on different days of the week I stopped coming I’m in the office once or twice a month now, usually for some team lunch or something.
  - TheGigaChad 3y ago
    [dead]
jq-r 3y ago
Which is kind of ironic because in the last 3 years after the company was returned from Chinese ownership back to the States, pretty much all employees were new and all worked remotely. So the "Return" part is misleading a reader thinking that the employees were working from a office pre-pandemic. That's just not the case.
- jwestbury 3y ago
  They don't even have offices to return to. I know someone who had just started there when they did this. The paperwork they sent her regarding RTO didn't even have an office location on it, but specified she had to live within 50 miles of the unspecified office. In the end, it turns out they've rented some WeWork space.

For anyone else confused, RTO = "Return to Office". First thing that came to mind for me was "Recovery Time Objective."

Thanks! I was familiar with RTO since my employer is doing it by gradually increasing required # days in the office. But not everyone will know what it is .

Phelinofist 3y ago
A few weeks ago our CEO decided that we should be at least one day per month in the office (my commute is 2h over all by car). They say it is not mandatory and will not be enforced. Also, everyone can select the day that fits them the best, so not everyone will be at the office at the same day. When asked about the reasons for this, since we did pretty well during covid when everyone moved to HO, they gave the following reasons: - People have to identify with the company more. When asked about the details of that they complained that a lot of people just log in, work on their issues and log off. So basically doing what they are paid for. I answered that this is not a bad thing, which was not well received. - People need to socialize more. According to them everyone needs to be more friendly with their peers. I think that I am friendly to my peers and direct reports, but I admit that not everyone can do that level of socializing online. OTOH I will not be able to socialize as well in person. Also, while I'm generally friendly I never join events for exactly that reason. - Silos between different departments. According to them there is bad blood between some departments and they hope to resolve this if everyone get to know each other better. I can't really confirm this, as all my interactions with different departments always go well. However, since there is no mandated day I can't understand how this will tear down the silos. - Onboarding of new colleagues is considered hard/not as successful as it should be. Again, in can't confirm this as three people joined my team in March and they are doing pretty damn solid. - According to them, before covid when everyone was in the office things were better. I asked them how many employees there were at that time: 50. Currently we are ~160. IMHO it is kinda obvious that communication and peership is better with 50 than with 160 people and office presence will not improve this. - According to them, meetings and workshops are better in person. I can't really agree on that as I feel that since moving to HO, meetings have been way better and a lot more productive. Some other things to consider: from 7 people in my team 3 are located in India, so they will not be able to come to the office anyway. Also we have two office locations in Germany, so we will not be able to everyone anyway. Also some people have 100% HO contracts and they will not come to the office since they live a few hundred km from each location -> kinda unfair IMHO. I think all their reasons are frankly pretty bullshit and coming to the office will not improve any of those. As the situation will not improve by this I expect them to go up with the days in the office since "we need to do more to improve things!11". I'm not so happy about this.
- yieldcrv 3y ago
  yeah once I realized everyone at my company shows up on different days of the week I stopped coming I’m in the office once or twice a month now, usually for some team lunch or something.
- TheGigaChad 3y ago
  [dead]

jq-r 3y ago

Which is kind of ironic because in the last 3 years after the company was returned from Chinese ownership back to the States, pretty much all employees were new and all worked remotely. So the "Return" part is misleading a reader thinking that the employees were working from a office pre-pandemic. That's just not the case.

jwestbury 3y ago
They don't even have offices to return to. I know someone who had just started there when they did this. The paperwork they sent her regarding RTO didn't even have an office location on it, but specified she had to live within 50 miles of the unspecified office. In the end, it turns out they've rented some WeWork space.