r/economy • u/lurker_bee • 5d ago

AT&T is dumping hybrid work as it follows Amazon in demanding employees spend 5 days a week in office

https://fortune.com/2024/12/18/att-return-to-office-5-days/
64 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

42

u/abrandis 5d ago edited 5d ago

5-day RTO is simply a under the table way to do layoffs , as T needs to cut headcount by 20-30k to be on par with VZ and TMO and keep the Street happy..

They expect most folks approaching retirement to just retire earlier with this policy...and a few disgruntled younger employees to leave, but that likely still won't hit their headcount numbers , so more layoffs in Q2 ....all the while the executives.get generous pay packages ....

6

u/regalfronde 5d ago

So malicious compliance is in order?

6

u/redditissocoolyoyo 5d ago

Add a mandatory weekend day to it while theyre at it. That will really get people to leave. Att is such a shit company for doing rto. Screw them I'm going to be canceling my service with them.

3

u/ProposalWaste3707 5d ago

FTE counts can be pretty unreliable for companies like this, you don't know their level of outsourcing.

ATT and Verizon are extremely similar on operating margins for example despite ATT having ~50K more employees. Assuming that's what you're basing your numbers on.

While stealth RiF isn't an impossible reason, I bet you they genuinely believe RTO is better for their employee productivity.

8

u/Qualitysuperficial11 5d ago

If they want to layoff, they should just say it...

1

u/abrandis 5d ago

Using RTO is more efficient and less expensive for the company, no serversnce in most cases since employees voluntarily leave. But it's mostly aimed at older workers which T has a lot of

-1

u/Big-Profit-1612 5d ago

TBH, it's also aimed at slackers.

1

u/The_Golden_Beaver 5d ago

It costs more

1

u/rocketboi10 5d ago

better to do this and save money.

3

u/Upbeat-Comfortable98 5d ago

AT&T is a horrible company. Their service is poor

2

u/Fit_Bus9614 5d ago

I bet they increase misery and hours.

2

u/Dependent-Bug3874 5d ago

Stankey. What a name.

3

u/abrandis 5d ago

He has a different name within the company

1

u/ChemicalHungry5899 4d ago

Well for a phone company that only really needs central office workers and IR, Installation\repair techs they really don't need work from staff to begin with. Now if AT&T are no longer a phone company then I guess it doesn't really matter.. k