#worklifebalance

There’s a poll floating around what’s the worst job at Dell? Not lowest pay just the most thankless, grind it out, low impact role. The one nobody really wants to admit they’ve had.

Anyone else still just going to do the 3 days in and roll the dice and see what happens

8 hours for today -- 40 hours for the week. The market says my time is more valuable spent elsewhere. You guys have a great weekend.

The higher ups are such unethical liars. Look at a calendar, if you worked in office Monday-Wednesday, that would give you 9 working days in February. New requirements are 12. You would need to work 4 days for 3 weeks of the month to be compliant.

Even 11 days didn't fit February, but at least it averaged out in other months. But now it's 12 and But other months are 13/14 days required it's even worse.

Hybrid is all but an illusion now. Unethical liars.

Working? As soon as that daily Teams call wraps up, I’m already mentally checked out. Got the grill going, burgers and ribs cooking low and slow, just enjoying the smell drifting through the yard. I’m kicking back with a controller.
Fridays are quiet anyway. My manager doesn’t bother anyone so I figure there’s no reason to do anything. Good food, no stress that’s just how a Friday ought to be.

Where does it say what counts as a day in the office? The 4 hours in the faq is NOT for that formula.

What is this nonsensical RTO mandate going to cost you? Is RTO really all about foot traffic to justify the real estate investment? Are we secretly being used as pawns but told its for culture and collaboration but at the same time becoming a huge monetary and time burden while being reinforced its for the collaboration and growth of employees while at the same time helping the company justify its use of a building just for tax benefits? Like for real I'm facing an added $2500-$3000 in expenses every month as a result of this RTO mandate. The office I've been assigned to is over an hour away without traffic. So in a perfect world I am losing at least 10 hours per week in commute times. I actually expect this number to be about 22 hours/week based on our traffic. This is not work life balance. But hey at least that 1.5% raise I was GIVEN should cover the costs. I felt I should have EARNED more after exceeding all expectations again but I guess you get what they give you since performance and attendance mean nothing apparently. Would've been cool to get a 30% compensation boost like CEO.

Also I must point out there has been zero follow-up to Bill's email from mid January. The latest ethics and culture survey asks nothing about RTO.

I am the only one from my team in this state. What can I do in the office that cannot be done from a remote location? Besides playing workspace roulette when trying to find a quiet area to handle 5-7 hours of calls per day. I've tried to look at this from different angles but I can't get past this idea that the property valuations have been blamed on us and because of that we are being required to RTO 5 days/week to justify the use of a building. They do not care about the time, money, and tax burden this is causing thousands of employees because when you're worth tens of millions these burdens don't influence you or your decisions.

People leaving adds more pressure on the people who stay. Vacant positions aren't being fulfilled as quickly because of this RTO decision. Talent goes out the door. We have to work more hours. We have to spend more time and money. We have to train and onboard new people and hope they don't abandon ship or get pulled to a different team. This is a lose-lose scenario for tens of thousands of us.

Based on the previous goal of 11 days, we needed 132 days in office a year. To hit over 60% we now need 158 days. But, that doesn't include PTO, right? In order to get a month to require 11 days it needs to have 18 eligible days. Based on the maximum number of days each month, you'll need 34 PTO days to get back to 11 per month. Best of luck!

Why do people act like working at Truist is their life’s purpose? It’s not. It’s a job. Check the box. Collect the paycheck. That’s the endgame. Your “team” is just a bunch of strangers you’d never know or interact with if survival didn’t force it.

Meanwhile, in places like France, people actually get it: grinding at work is not something to brag about. Hard work is overrated. So stop worshipping Truist like it's holy!

That’s why I watch the Masters on company time.

There is absolutely no reason to go above and beyond.
If you want more money, switch jobs.
If you want more time and freedom, quiet quit.
Cisco seems to be unable to distinguish between overachievers and people who put in 10 hour weeks by clicking the right buttons at the right times.
Whats the point of taking on more than you can get away with ?

Vteamers enterprise wide are busy watching the masters golf tournament today. They didn’t cut deep enough in the rifs.

What are ways to in all technicality adhere to RTO rules to the letter, without breaking rules, but still fighting the micromanagement mandates?

Some Ideas
Boycott TTUS

Log into office early (in office IP tracking) and run errands in the morning. Long lunch breaks while logged in.

Requiring your manager to attend all meetings in conference rooms (in person collaboration is important!)

Being in office only the exact minimum required. Tbd - maybe 6.5 hours?

Switching seats every day with reservations in Reserve me and kicking people out of their seat they forgot to reserve

It would be a shame if someone brought one of those fa-t sprays and it accidentally went off or if someone accidentally left fresh fish they had planned for lunch in a drawer over a weekend.

Does anyone know of any formal policy that prohibits employees from bringing a walking pad (electric treadmill) to campus to use under their desk? I have a dedicated spot, so no hot desking involved. Or is this a classic situation of “ask forgiveness, not permission” ?

I’ve been trying to get healthier this year by eating more fresh fruits and veg, fewer processed foods, and being consistently active throughout the day. I find that my legs feel better when they’re moving throughout the workday. Does the CLT office have any treadmill desks or walking pads available? My last employer had walking desks that you could book, and I have a walking pad at home. Great for those Zoom meetings where you need to focus but don’t need to talk. Get 2k steps in off camera. TIAA has always been about promoting healthy lifestyles for their employees! Hope there are walking desks I don’t know about for the 3-4 days I’m here for 9 hours at a time.

At this point I would just rather they say in office 5 days, remove all “tracking” and leave us alone! (That will never happen I know). But pre-COVID when all we knew was in office, and flex to be at home as needed or we worked 4 hours office and the rest at home but because they gave us the autonomy, we often gave more than they asked. I want those days back.

Let’s be real nobody’s exactly waking up fired up to work at Dell these days. But with how tight and unpredictable the market is right now, a lot of us are still tethered to our roles whether we like it or not. It’s less about passion at the moment and more about stability, timing, and being smart about the next move.

So we show up, do the work, keep things moving, and stay ready knowing that when the right opportunity comes along, we’ll be in a position to take it.

How do you live with the fact that you may be called to report to any location any time, while you are still owning a home in another state and not getting a job elsewhere? Are you willing to rent your current home and go, drag it out as long as you can or bite the bullet and move this summer voluntarily in the anticipation of not getting fired later.

There are no guarantees to job or life but these decisions do impact family and children. What are you 700 virtuals doing?

Go into your online profiles if you work there and update your preferred names, policy is policy.

I got home from work the other day, laid down on the floor… felt 100 pct worn out…

My wife looks at me and says, why r u so tired? You were just sitting at a desk for 8 hrs…

Some people do not understand that desk jobs can be exhausting too. It is not just sitting. It is nonstop meetings, phone calls, dealing with different people, navigating sh-t personalities, handling stress, and making decisions all day.

By the end of it, my brain is done. If one more person asks me to do something, I might lose it.

Please tell me I am not the only one.

..and then you d i e

Please someone convince me why Oracle doesn't implement return to office policies. David Ellison has made his companies go back for 5 days a week. Most of the other big tech companies are at least hybrid. I feel like they want us to leave, and man this would REALLY make me leave. It's our only remaining unique quality :/

Anyone notice that the new standard is “over” 60% of days in office vs hybrid 3 days a week = 60% exactly?
You will get 60.1% from me and nothing more. Also, thanks for the raise that doesn’t even cover commuting expense Gunjan!

Hello my WF friends — I’m hoping to get some insight from hiring managers or recruiters on here. This may benefit others as well.

After many years of solid meets/exceeds performance, I ended up with an IM rating this past cycle. TLDR: my manager and I didn’t really click.

I’ve found a couple of positions in other areas that would actually be a promotion for me. I also have a positive history with one of the hiring managers, as she’s a former manager of mine.

My question is: would WF policy even allow me to be promoted into another role while in the IM “penalty box”? I don’t believe I’m on a formal PIP, so I don’t think I’m required to disclose last year’s IM when applying.

That said, I assume my IM rating would come up during the interview process. If so, I’m guessing the hiring manager would need to make a strong case to move forward with me, given that context.

Anyway, I’d appreciate any thoughts or experiences on this.

Long time Dell person here (20 years). I'm looking at applying for a job with AWS in Austin. Curious what the culture is like. And I get it...one devil to another. But I am single income house and need to afford to live and save. And for what it is worth I am okay with going into an office 5 days a week. Just curious how it's done at AWS Austin.

Some questions:
Are desks/cubes assigned?
Do cubes have walls at least?
5 days on-site or hybrid?
Do they track badge scans openly? (Dell does...created a tool for us too)

What is the review cycle like? Annual? Are there bonuses tied to annual review? What do percentages look like?

Anything else I should know?

i come into work every day and smile and make small talk with everyone. i act like everything is perfect. i compliment every body. i make jokes. i laugh at jokes that aren't funny. i don't bring up any problems. if i don't do all of that then it feels like they are just waiting to punish me.

i am really tired of this act. we are not family. i just want to collect my check and go home. so stop forcing me to act. last time i checked i ain't collecting a hollywood paycheck.

Took some work, but I got there. That also means I'm done trying to prove myself, going above and beyond, or giving this job anything beyond what my paycheck already covers. At this point, it's obvious that performance is the last thing that matters in layoff decisions. So no, I'm not ki-ling myself for the slim chance it might save my job.

I've been working two separate roles at Nike, simultaneously. They let go one whole department last month for one of my positions. And they just offered me half the pay I was getting for my other position. I plan to make next week my last week.

Some teams, not everyone is being limited to only 25 days of PTO and SICK combined which is not very nice. Other teams still retain the unlimited PTO policy. The Employee handbook does not talk about this at all and it says it's a "Flexible" policy with no time accrued.

It is very unfair that some Directors are forcing their managers to tell direct contributors that they cannot take more than 25 days off a year.

I have been moved around between a few teams in the last 2 years and in all of them we were capped. My current team is also capped at 25 days.

Anyone else?

Ok i know this question is unanswerable because there are too many unknowns but here goes. I am early 60s. 30 years with Citi. Mostly 2/3 occasional 1/2. LEA a few years back. I'd like to quit this afternoon but financially I would be better off to stay a couple more years. If I stay they pay me for 3 years and I work. If I get RFI'd they pay me for a year. Does that make any difference?

Are they tracking network logins? People are saying their manager is harassing them about being in the office at least hours a day all five days of the week.

What’s your favorite place to vacation? Your favorite island? Your favorite beach?

If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go?

Looking on LinkedIn there is loads of Broadcom / VMW jobs coming up. I left as a Senior Technical Support Engineer and I am thinking of applying to go back in.

Genuine question, how's life inside now? Would it be worth going back in

I don’t usually post stuff like this, but I wish someone had been honest with me before I joined, so here it is.

The culture here is honestly rough. There’s a lot of talk about “teamwork” and “growth,” but day to day it just feels disorganized and reactive. Communication is all over the place, expectations change constantly, and somehow everything is always urgent. It gets exhausting fast. Backstabbing is very common.

The bigger issue, though, is the pay. For the workload and stress level, it’s just not worth it. People are stretched thin, doing way more than what they were hired for, and the compensation doesn’t come close to matching that. Raises and recognition feel random at best.

Anyway, I’ve decided to move on. If you’re considering joining, just make sure you ask the right questions and really think about what you’re signing up for.

I'm aware that People leaders and above have access to badge-in data. One of the STS leaders has been strongly recommending that employees be in the office from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Is this a standard expectation across firm?

Will be done by 2p today and have 8.5 hours at work. I will be deducting that 1/2 hour from my Friday work day to reduce my average weekly hours to right around 40. Awesome way to start the weekend!

When I joined two years ago, travel for my role was described as occasional, but in reality it turned out to be anything but and it keeps increasing. A lot of it is last-minute, which makes planning anything outside of work difficult. Maybe if I was single I wouldn't mind so much, but I have a wife and two kids and this has been messing with my family time significantly. Why do they have to lie when hiring?

Stop celebrating overworking. You're not helping anybody but the company's bottom line.