BOFA hasn’t been the most terrible employer. When Covid hit they got us home. Their benefits are competitive with other companies. Even when some states remained opened during the pandemic they kept people at home for over two years.
The issue is not about Covid anymore but RTO. While working from home most people realized their lives were better off for it. They appreciated the less heartache and stress commuting to work. Getting up early and having to get dressed, pack their kids lunches and take them to school. Sitting in rush hour traffic for long periods of time only to get home and have to rush to prepare dinner for their families and shortly after head to bed to do it all over again. It’s a chaotic schedule five days a week. Parents, especially women faced these challenges daily. It’s not fun!
Life for most felt easier and simpler working for home. It gave people a true sense of work life balance. They got to spend the extra time with their families. They got more time for themselves to do fun things.
They worked harder because they were happier. The bank reaped the benefits of those happy employees and it showed in their profits. Productivity soared for most companies.
The question has become, is collaboration really better in the office? The fact is you can collaborate from anywhere. If anything Covid has proven the office is more of an unnecessary distraction and a cess pool for germs. We collaborated from home for over two years.
Can a company who prides itself as a work from the office company see the benefits of remote employees? I think they can if people keep leaving but most importantly if they can’t replace those skillset. At some point something will give. If forcing employees to go back to an office setting will cause them unhappiness, it will eventually show in their work and morale will sink. It may seem like they’re not listening but they eventually will. It is going to be very difficult for BOFA to remain competitive when their competitors are going in different direction. They will continue to lose talent and at some point they will have to stop the bleeding. I have chosen to start posting. I want to work for a company that is willing to step up and lead in times that are unprecedented. In my opinion this bank has failed its employees with its RTO strategy. If some companies who preached the same can change direction so can BOFA. There is no point anymore for an annual survey or them priding themselves as a great company to work for when they got the opportunity to lead the way innovating remote work and they continued with the old mentality that somehow the old way still works. Covid has changed everything. mostly people. After one disaster comes another. Inflation and record high gas prices will cause even more unhappiness when people start to struggle to buy the basics. These crisis are not new but to have so many in such a short time will cause people to rethink what’s important to them and BOFA will not win this fight as remote work is here to stay says the many companies who embraces it.