#worklifebalance

The day just thinking about and waiting for the sh---y week ahead.

I know several people who were riffed in June, and there are still rumors of larger global RIFs coming in July and August.

For those who make it through these rounds, whats the outlook for the rest of 2026? Do these cycles eventually come to an end, or is this just the new normal?

At this point, I’d rather be included in a RIF now while severance packages are still relatively generous.

So tired of this, let me work or let me go

I’m finally admitting it. I should have moved.

Will Corp Risk eventually adjust back to 3 days in office once they get the numbers they need?

Software engineer - anyone negotiated notice period to less than 30 days?

Just don’t wanna burn bridge.

Not sure what all of you people are crying about. To add, converged service rep like myself just takes inbound sales/retention calls all day. One day a week we have a 30 minute meeting and that’s literally it. My friend in Lubbock does the exact same thing but now is permanent WFH as of July because of the surplus. It’s clear that our job does not need to be in office, I would be offline less time if I was conveniently at home. So unless you can answer my question, move. How can I not work from home but he can?

Has anyone heard what they are going to do about 7/3? The 2026 holiday calendar shows 7/3 as a holiday but we have never observed the Friday before when a holiday falls on a Saturday. We usually get a float day. The federal reserve, DTC and everyone else is open on 7/3 so wondering if we are really going to be closed.

Over 70% of AT&T employees are over 50 years old… Let that sink in.

This company is rapidly approaching a point where a huge percentage of its workforce will be eligible for retirement, taking decades of knowledge and experience with them.

Normally that wouldn’t be a problem. You’d replace them with the next generation of talent.

But that’s the problem.

AT&T has made itself deeply unattractive to many professionals under 40. Five-day RTO. Presence reports. Badge tracking. Relocations. Constant uncertainty. Policies that feel like they’re from 40 years ago, not 2026.

The people leaving aren’t the ones with no options. They’re the ones who do have options. The ones with the skills they want to keep around.

And the people choosing where to start or build their careers are increasingly choosing somewhere else. The applications here have never been lower.

Leadership seems convinced employees are interchangeable. They aren’t.

You can replace a body. You can’t replace experience. You can’t replace institutional knowledge. And you can’t force talented people to join a company they don’t want to work for.

That’s the real risk….

Five years from now, what does this workforce look like if retirements accelerate, experienced employees keep leaving, and younger talent keeps looking elsewhere?

The answer should concern everyone, especially you, Stink!

The solution isn’t complicated… end five-day RTO, ki-l the presence reports, and start making this company a place people actually want to work again.

Because right now we’re not just losing today’s talent, we’re losing tomorrow’s too.

This company is #3 out of the big 3 in telecom with no chance of ever becoming #1 again. Things are headed downhill fast and this company is circling the drain. Time to make a change before it’s too late. Your move, Stinky-Legg and Gerbil Jeffy McSelfish!

So we were informed that we need to have 7 hours of steady typing, mouse clicks and phone per day. After removing allotted lunch/breaks, that is 100% of time chained to a desk? So we are forced to drive hours to sit in an open plan sweatshop just to continuously type and click? Wasn't the "purpose" of forcing everyone into an office for COLLABORATION? Why does WF hate their employees?

https://www.businessinsider.com/worker-got-religious-exemption-using-ai-at-work-2026-6

My department’s leader recently sent a note to all staff with directions to update our “My Career Story” in the HR portal area. She said the “critical fields” to update were education, external work history, career preferences, and relocation/work preferences.

Seems kind of odd. Anyone else agree?

So I’m a converged service rep in Amarillo and have to work in the office 5 days a week. My friend in Lubbock who is in the same department as me but under a different center manager got a surplus and was offered to keep their same job and wfh full time. How is it fair that we do the same work but I have to keep reporting to the office? What’s the reason for us not being able to work from home?

When will ELT and Sr Leaders slow down the type and quantity of change they are shoving down our throats?! I understand that change is required in any organization, but for fcks sake give us a change to digest these changes and understand them before you dump more on us!

Change fatigue is real, and is the main reason I want to leave but probably won't because of the amount of $$ I have wrapped up in my LP. Plus, I don't want the tax hit from having to sell it if I leave and work for a competing firm.

But seriously... just fckng leave us alone for a hot minute.

Will there be any more layoffs before the month ends, or are we safe for a couple of weeks?

For all the people posting "just quit," I'm assuming you either have wealthy parents, a wealthy spouse, a trust fund, or simply don't understand that most American households rely on two incomes to keep the lights on.

The idea that people can "just quit" comes from a place of privilege. Many people can't simply walk away from a paycheck. They can't magically afford a maid, laundry service, extra childcare, or elder care to make RTO more manageable, or months of reduced income or no income on unemployment while they search for something new. And let's be honest—the job market isn't exactly making that decision easier right now.

What makes this especially frustrating is that many of us chose these roles over the last few years because they were advertised as remote or hybrid—not because we were specifically committed to one company. Changing the rules after people have built their lives around those expectations feels like a bait-and-switch.

So when people say, "just quit," what they're really saying is, "just absorb the financial risk and disruption to your life." That's easy advice to give when you have a safety net. Not everyone does.

The result isn't that people leave. The result is that you end up with a lot of frustrated, disengaged employees who feel stuck because they can't simply walk away.

And yes, it's hard not to notice that many of the people making these decisions have financial security and flexibility that most workers don't. It's a lot easier to tell someone else to take a risk when you're insulated from the consequences yourself.

Not to mention that the office setup, hot-desking, and commutes are terrible.

Am I getting paid for that commute time? No. Should I be? Probably. We all should be.

And let's not pretend there aren't real quality-of-life impacts. A lot of people use the flexibility of remote work to take a walk, go to the gym, attend a doctor's appointment, pick up a family member, or simply take a break that helps them manage stress and stay productive. When you're spending hours each day commuting to and from an office, that time disappears.

For many people, return-to-office doesn't just mean working from a different location. It means less time for exercise, less time for family, less time for errands, and less time to take care of their mental and physical health—all while doing the exact same work they were already doing successfully from home.

Global looks like their wages are dogshit, especially for the industry. Worldpay was not perfect but much more competitive, nd most of the new HR including the Head of HR are Worldpay folks not Global folks. A good sign for the future of employee benefits?

We were told all full timers are expected to work on 4th and holiday will be observed on the Monday the 6th in New Jersey- see once when do we push off a holiday until the following week- in all my years a Saturday holiday was in same work week not the next

Im sorry to say, this place is beyond cooked....and its not just BD, its the whole world.

Balance no longer exists. What remains is a world defined by imbalance so constant that it has become indistinguishable from normalcy. Excess and deficiency exist side by side, not in tension but in resignation, as though correction is no longer expected.

Across the public sphere, intelligent and coherent thought has grown less common, not because the capacity has disappeared, but because the conditions that sustain it have eroded. Attention is fragmented, discourse is accelerated beyond reflection, and communication is increasingly shaped by urgency rather than understanding. Conversations that once demanded depth are now compressed into immediacy, and in that compression, nuance is lost. The result is not silence, but noise without clarity.

At the same time, the natural systems that underpin life are under sustained stress. The ground, the water, the air, and the food supply carry the cumulative weight of industrial and chemical expansion, often in ways that are not immediately visible. These changes do not announce themselves dramatically. They accumulate quietly, persistently, until their consequences become unavoidable. What once could be assumed as stable now exists under conditions that are uncertain and increasingly difficult to restore.

Economic structures mirror this imbalance. Wealth and opportunity continue to concentrate, while access to stability becomes less predictable for much of the population. The idea that effort alone ensures security has weakened. Systems that suggest fairness in principle often fail to deliver it in experience. As disparity widens, so does the distance between those who can insulate themselves from instability and those who cannot.

Institutions that were meant to provide coherence reflect this fragmentation. Education struggles to reconcile its purpose with shifting demands. Governance often reacts rather than directs. Information systems prioritize engagement, leaving accuracy as a secondary concern. These structures continue to function, but their ability to produce alignment or trust has diminished.

On an individual level, the effects are less dramatic but no less significant. People remain connected through constant technological access, yet the sense of being understood does not scale with that connection. Productivity continues to increase, but fulfillment does not follow proportionally. Options expand, while direction becomes less certain. Activity grows, while meaning becomes harder to define.

None of these elements exist in isolation. Each reinforces the others. A decline in thoughtful discourse makes it more difficult to address complex problems. Environmental strain contributes to economic pressure. Inequality intensifies social fragmentation. The systems designed to manage these forces operate within the same conditions that weaken them.

This is not a moment defined by a single collapse, but by the gradual normalization of imbalance across every domain. It is a state in which strain is continuous, correction is delayed, and the expectation of equilibrium has quietly receded.

I have spent the last decade and a half working forty plus hours a week and I have nothing left to give. My health, my hobbies, my relationships, they have all taken a backseat to just surviving work. And I have several decades of this left. Is life really supposed to be like this?

A theory I have is this….if you want to go, you are more likely to NOT be chosen. If you are it sends the wrong message. “Look at that guy leave, he’s so happy. People will start to question as to why should they stay here like this guy.”

If you want or need to stay..the more desperate you are, you are more apt to be chosen. It sends a different message. “This could happen to you. Look how miserable he is to be let go, better buckle down and give give give more and more to the company. Really put in those hours, don’t be like Bob.”

Is this return to office in September an attempt to get moreee people to quit? Anyone able to get out of this?? How???

We can’t wait to get outta here….behind this trapped door

They can't keep people it is such a terrible company to work for and ever since the Rentokill mess, it's worse. The techs can't do their jobs efficiently since their planners clearly don't understand a map or distance. They schedule 6 8-10 stops that are 20 miles apart and mandate the amount of time you have to spend at each stop. The leadership are all the latest failures from unrelated industries like Burger King or some other cr-p job. The after hours work of calling customers and fixing the scheduling the planners can't get right reduce your hourly pay to min wage or worse all to work in cramped spaces in extreme heat and cold. Seriously, layoffs are not the issue, retaining people is their big problem.

I'm asking because I honestly can't remember what it's like to not dread Monday morning. If you actually love what you do, what's your job and what makes it worth it for you?

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say this: I do not give a fu-k about my 9-to-5 job. I don’t care about your KPIs, the company’s goals, or the team’s goals. I don’t give a fu-k about my coworkers, and I don’t give a sh-t about my boss. I don’t care how some director or VP feels about themselves, the team, or the company. I couldn’t care less about any of that.

The only thing I care about is how much money you’re paying me and how much bullsh-t I have to deal with to earn it. I don’t want drama. I don’t want politics. I don’t want unnecessary headaches. I want to do my job, get paid, and go home.

Over the years, I’ve had bosses and executives come to me talking about KPIs, metrics, performance targets, and company objectives. They act like it’s the most important thing in the world. Meanwhile, in my head, I’m just thinking, “Yeah, sure. I don’t give a fu-k.”

If we hit our KPIs, what does that actually mean for me? Am I getting a significant raise? Am I getting a bonus? Is my life improving in any meaningful way? If not, then why should I care? I don’t give a sh-t about what it means for management or what it means for the company. I care about what it means for me.

Unfortunately, when we’re at work, most of us have to pretend we care about those things. We nod along, smile, and act engaged because that’s part of the game. But the reality is that for most people, work is a transaction. We exchange our time and effort for a paycheck.

I think for 95% of employees, that’s the truth. They’re not there because they’re deeply passionate about quarterly targets or corporate strategy. They’re there to make a living. Everything else is just background noise.

Lock in guys, lock in.

Or in other words, what is your number? How much is enough for you to go to your boss and tell FU you won't see me in the office tomorrow.

My number if 5M, what is yours?

Hi Fiserv folks! Several Truist people stopping by your forum. Mike Lyons was just announced as our incoming CEO. What can you tell us about working under him? Decent guy overall? How was his leadership style? Transparent and approachable, or more top-down? Did he allow any real flexibility with remote/hybrid work or was it mostly strict in-office?

Things have been challenging at Truist for quite a while, and morale and confidence in leadership are at some of the lowest levels many of us have ever seen, so we're realistic that a new leader won't fix everything overnight. From what we've heard, he stepped into a tough spot at Fiserv too. For anyone who was there during his time, did you see things starting to improve on culture, trust, accountability, employee engagement, or work-life balance, even if the transition was difficult or painful at first? Any honest long-term thoughts? Good, bad, or mixed? Appreciate the real talk.

They keep adding more work even though our plates are already full. People leave or get let go, and they're never replaced, meaning we have to pick up after them. At this point, the majority of us are doing sixty hour weeks. Do they expect us to forget we have families?

When RTO was first announced, I thought I’d adjust after a while. That hasn’t really happened, and not just for me. A lot of people seem quieter, more frustrated, and less connected than before.

I’m in my early forties, and I’ve worked in enough places to know when the energy has shifted. This is one of those times. I don’t hate the job itself, but the current setup has made it much harder to stay motivated.

I’ve been browsing remote openings for the past couple of months. I’d rather find something that gives me a little more control over my day and doesn’t make work feel like such a drain.

I was promoted to SM after completing the “high potential” program.

The reality of being a store manager is you get blamed for everything. You are the scapegoat.

A year into it, I began questioning if my paces were being manipulated, almost like a dangling carrot that I could never reach.

I was placed on an action plan. Taken off the action plan, then placed on an action plan again.

My store team was dismantled by budget cuts

Managers quit, associates quit, manager layoffs, restructuring, titles and duties changed

My hours were drastically cut

Deferred maintenance began happening

I said my happiness is worth more than stress and misery. I have notice, and obtained a job which actually has a work life balance.

How bad does it stink to service the big chains now? It’s easier to create a local Jam or honey and sell it into a Walmart locally than it is to sell for a cpg company right now. My neighbor got her honey into Walmart (9 stores) and is making more than our TSLs from that alone. These jobs are really bad right now.

With the recent reorganisations, layoffs, and an increasingly demanding workload, my motivation to attend this year’s SKO event is quite low. Also the late evening sessions and a gala dinner that runs late, makes it a long and exhausting day.

Given the effort involved in attending and also need to be present in office next day is not worth the effort and time wasted. I would rather use that time wisely, especially since it feels like a better balance for me right now.

Making your boss look good is a time-tested strategy for climbing the corporate ladder at all companies not just Verizon.

It doesn’t matter if they’re incompetent, or dishonest, or a je-k. Try to accomplish whatever goal they’re being graded on in a highly visible way. Don’t worry about the consequences of poorly thought out plans. That’s not your job. Pay lip service to whatever they’re paying lip service to.

This advice also applies to the Pulse survey. The correct answers are always everything is great.

I’m not being facetious. This is 100% real advice!

You know a company is awful when the employees get excited for layoffs. But you have to ask yourself, why do these employees feel like a layoff will save them? Payouts are chump change. A 3 year employee gets 6 weeks pay. Is this changing your life? Please don't hate the messenger... I suggest that if you are unhappy, then take matters into your own hands and apply elsewhere on your days off. VZW forces you to walk the line of happiness and integrity, all while making you jump through hoops. Use this job as a stepping stone. They don't pay you enough for this emotional abuse. The dirty little secret is that you won't find financial independence and be able to build the life you want working here. I can guarantee that this job has no future and zero career path. The sooner you accept this the happier you will be. Managers & Asst managers sit in back rooms secretly talking about their disdain for their entitled employees or arrogant district managers, all while hating life and wishing they hadn't invested so much time and life energy being stuck where they are. District managers find ways to either cheat the system or don't even know the systems and live the "do as I say and not as I do" fake lifestyle. This is not a solution to life's happiness. The leaders that do make good money blow smoke up your butt so dont be fooled by their happiness because its coming from the green you will never see. All jobs teach you something, and this job teaches you that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. You just have to listen to your inner voice that has been telling you that you should move on. Don't be afraid. You deserve better... or if you stay, you probably haven't learned your lesson just yet. You will learn this lesson at some point. You are in an abusive relationship, and you deserve better. Be brave and don't wait for your "partner" to break up with you. Verizon hasn't and won't change. You are settling. You are being used. This job is set up to use you short term and then replace you. That is all fine and good in its own right but you have to play the game. You won't find any life long employees. Don't allow the fake kindness and occasional smile limit what you deserve. Take what you can from Verizon in the form of educational assistance or the limited financial gain it presents till you can make that next move to something that offers long-term happiness and can lead you to a better life. It's out here. I promise. ❤️ To all the haters of this message - I lived each step of this message and I won. I have receipts.

I’ve worked at a lot of places, and I’ve never seen so many highly educated, talented people counting down the years until they can leave.

Spring Campus looks amazing from the outside. Free coffee, modern buildings, walking trails, cafeterias, gyms, collaboration spaces. On paper it feels like a dream workplace.

But sometimes it feels like a white-collar day prison.

You badge in, sit through meetings, update trackers, attend alignment calls, respond to emails, complete training modules, worry about rankings, worry about reorganizations, worry about whether your work will even matter next year, then badge out and repeat the process tomorrow.

The compensation is good, but many people seem exhausted rather than motivated.

The irony is that the campus was built to attract and retain talent, yet some of the most common conversations I hear are:

• “How many years until retirement?”
• “I’m looking externally.”
• “I’m just trying to survive another ranking cycle.”
• “I used to enjoy this job.”

Maybe it’s not just Exxon. Maybe it’s the reality of large corporate America in 2026.

Curious if others feel the same:
Has the modern corporate office become a place where people build careers, or a place where people quietly wait for the next paycheck and eventually their exit?

15 Signs Your Company Stopped Investing in You

You'll see 8. Your boss won't mention any.

You haven't been told.

The behavior changed anyway.

Here's what to watch for:

1. Your career conversation stopped being scheduled.
   ↳ What isn't scheduled isn't happening.

2. Your boss stopped asking what you want to learn.
   ↳ The question follows the investment. Both stopped.

3. Cross-functional projects stopped coming to you.
   ↳ The invitations dried up because the plan did.

4. You're not in the budget planning conversations.
   ↳ The invite list shows who matters upstairs.

5. Your review stopped including growth language.
   ↳ "Meets expectations" is a quiet decision.

6. Your one-on-ones got shorter and less frequent.
   ↳ Time spent is a signal you can measure.

7. You get steady work. Your peer gets the launch.
   ↳ Stretch goes to who they're still investing in.

8. The training budget went to your direct report.
   ↳ The bet shifted. Nobody told you.

9. New hires are being mentored by your peers.
   ↳ Mentorship signals who still has runway here.

10. The capex you proposed went to your peer.
    ↳ Development capital follows people, not roles.

11. Your boss stopped introducing you upward.
    ↳ Sponsorship is the resource that runs out first.

12. Your skip-level got canceled twice in a row.
    ↳ The cancellations are the message.

13. Your conferences got cut to local only.
    ↳ Travel budgets are a clean signal of priority.

14. Your development budget got smaller.
    ↳ Some budgets don't get cut. They just vanish.

15. You're reading this and recognizing 8 of them.
    ↳ The pattern has been speaking for months.

https://scorecard.plantmanagerblueprint.com/

This place isn't worth my health or my peace of mind. What happens, happens. I've gotten out of bad situations before, I can do it again. I refuse to look back later and regret losing sleep and energy over a job that doesn't deserve it.

I'm not happy here. But I also know my friends at other companies have it worse. So I'm staying for now. But I'm curious about people who are ready to leave. What would it take? What would be the final straw that makes you quit?