Fidelity Ends Hybrid Work, Requires US Staff in Office Five Days a Week

[Anonymous]

I'm "required" to be in office three days a week in big law. I am able to bill so much less in the office. Between the commute and the random chit chat, leaving my house at 8 and leaving work at 7 results in only about 7 billable hours. Working from home, I can bill 9 in that same time period. It feels even stupider to waste that time coming into the office when I mostly work for people in a different office, and 100% of my meetings are still on Microsoft Teams.

I am on track to bill 2,700 hours, meaning I work an enormous amount. A pace I couldn't keep up with the in-office requirement. I've simply stopped coming in and explained how hard it is to bill in the office. I figure they can fire me if it's so upsetting to them. So far, no one has said a word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now the job market is very tight and companies have their pick from many people desperate for a job when hiring. If the economy ever switches back to a good market for job seekers, this will be a negotiating point and companies will lose out on the best talent.

That is a big if, considering our current president seems Hell-bent on destroying the economy and has been failing to create jobs.

This truly makes no sense to me. If they are looking to cut costs, they can downsize or eliminate office space. Plus by going remote, they have access to the best talent from across the country rather than only the immediate metro area.

They can't because they are so heavily invested in CRE. The big companies own their buildings and use them for tax advantage. Selling them might make sense in the long term, but it would be a short term hit + admission of error so they won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a Fed who has been back 5 days for past 14 months, I have no sympathy. Remote and hybrid work are being phased out.

What a bizarre mindset. Were you born wrong or just raised badly? Who thinks this way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a Fed who has been back 5 days for past 14 months, I have no sympathy. Remote and hybrid work are being phased out.

This is the problem with society. It's filled with people like you that are jealous and vindictive of others. No empathy with the flight or experiences that others might be going through. Instead of using it as an opportunity to share concerns that progressive changes in the work place being undone systematically by the capitalist system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's so stupid. Id rather have a happy financial advisor than a miserable one l working in an open office.

They will recover and be just fine.

No, the good ones will leave and go where they are valued.
Take your money out of fidelity and go with them.

They will try but they might not get picked up somewhere. They will be fine and I'll be fine too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last two comments are Stockholm Syndrome.

Five days a week in the office sucks. Agree this is mostly to try to get people to quit so they don’t have to pay. Have no doubt that the big portfolio managers will have no problem being MIA on Fridays while everyone else miserably marches in.

100 percent. The posts are just confirmation of Dostoeyevsky's statement that a human being can get used to anything (prison, pain, tortured suffering)

+1. So much of modern employment feels like a humiliation ritual. How much are you willing to degrade yourself and grovel and for how small of a wage?

Being asked by your employer to go into the office is a humiliation ritual? It's called work for a reason and you're paid to do it. Please tell me that you're a troll.

Not PP but yes, it is when it is done for no other reason than to make your life worse, in the hope that some people will quit and help cut costs.

Work can happen at home too. I’m sure you’re one of those people for whom it is a foreign concept but in modern professional services jobs it is not necessary for the work to happen in the same physical location.

An inconvenience, maybe, but calling RTO a humilation ritual is just histrionics. This is a First World problem, check your privilege. And it you don't like your employer's terms, work for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Fed who has been back 5 days for past 14 months, I have no sympathy. Remote and hybrid work are being phased out.

What a bizarre mindset. Were you born wrong or just raised badly? Who thinks this way?

There are many of us who think this way. We are tired of listening to you whine. Is your employer asking you to do something illegal or immoral? If so, that's an issue to sympathize with. If you just don't like terms your employer is offering, bring your skillset elsewhere.
-DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Fed who has been back 5 days for past 14 months, I have no sympathy. Remote and hybrid work are being phased out.

What a bizarre mindset. Were you born wrong or just raised badly? Who thinks this way?

There are many of us who think this way. We are tired of listening to you whine. Is your employer asking you to do something illegal or immoral? If so, that's an issue to sympathize with. If you just don't like terms your employer is offering, bring your skillset elsewhere.
-DP

No one is forcing you to be here. In fact, most people on this forum would probably be happier if you weren’t here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's so stupid. Id rather have a happy financial advisor than a miserable one l working in an open office.

They will recover and be just fine.

No, the good ones will leave and go where they are valued.
Take your money out of fidelity and go with them.

They will try but they might not get picked up somewhere. They will be fine and I'll be fine too.

In the current abysmal job market (no thanks to our current president's abysmal economic strategies), job seekers do not have the upper hand. Times may change in the future. In industries where there are more jobs than seekers, work from home flexibility will be a sticking point.

For me, I have a hybrid arrangement where I go in three days a week. If the company changes to require me in the office 5 days a week, I will leave for a location closer to my home even if it means a slight paycut. I am in an industry where there are more jobs than job seekers though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Fed who has been back 5 days for past 14 months, I have no sympathy. Remote and hybrid work are being phased out.

What a bizarre mindset. Were you born wrong or just raised badly? Who thinks this way?

There are many of us who think this way. We are tired of listening to you whine. Is your employer asking you to do something illegal or immoral? If so, that's an issue to sympathize with. If you just don't like terms your employer is offering, bring your skillset elsewhere.
-DP

What you’re missing is that for the vast majority of people the employer has moved the goal posts and changed the “terms” they are now offering unilaterally. What’s next? They will tell you that in order to occupy their building full time you will work in shifts now. Is that ok? I mean, you’re fine with them changing the “terms.” What if your employer has a scanning device that scans every time you leave your office and then doesn’t count that time as “billable?”
So, which “terms” can they unilaterally change after signing an employment contract with you before you say “that’s not what I signed up for?” Or will you bend over and take it regardless?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Fed who has been back 5 days for past 14 months, I have no sympathy. Remote and hybrid work are being phased out.

What a bizarre mindset. Were you born wrong or just raised badly? Who thinks this way?

There are many of us who think this way. We are tired of listening to you whine. Is your employer asking you to do something illegal or immoral? If so, that's an issue to sympathize with. If you just don't like terms your employer is offering, bring your skillset elsewhere.
-DP

What you’re missing is that for the vast majority of people the employer has moved the goal posts and changed the “terms” they are now offering unilaterally. What’s next? They will tell you that in order to occupy their building full time you will work in shifts now. Is that ok? I mean, you’re fine with them changing the “terms.” What if your employer has a scanning device that scans every time you leave your office and then doesn’t count that time as “billable?”
So, which “terms” can they unilaterally change after signing an employment contract with you before you say “that’s not what I signed up for?” Or will you bend over and take it regardless?

PP is most likely a retired boomer or someone for whom remote work has never been considered a possibility. In either case, it is easy for self-centered people to minimize things that have zero applicability to them.

[Anonymous]

Most people have never had a real job is the problem on DCUM.

People who work in bank branch, teachers, nurses, stock exchanges, restaurants, mechanics, retail stores, post office all have set in person hours. No flexibility,

It is normal for a ton of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people have never had a real job is the problem on DCUM.

People who work in bank branch, teachers, nurses, stock exchanges, restaurants, mechanics, retail stores, post office all have set in person hours. No flexibility,

It is normal for a ton of people.

Right, being a lawyer or an investment banker isn’t a real job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm "required" to be in office three days a week in big law. I am able to bill so much less in the office. Between the commute and the random chit chat, leaving my house at 8 and leaving work at 7 results in only about 7 billable hours. Working from home, I can bill 9 in that same time period. It feels even stupider to waste that time coming into the office when I mostly work for people in a different office, and 100% of my meetings are still on Microsoft Teams.

I am on track to bill 2,700 hours, meaning I work an enormous amount. A pace I couldn't keep up with the in-office requirement. I've simply stopped coming in and explained how hard it is to bill in the office. I figure they can fire me if it's so upsetting to them. So far, no one has said a word.

Yep PP I'm on the flip side of this. I'm in house and all my meetings with outside counsel are over teams unless it's something big like a depo or moot etc. I'm not spending time traveling to their office even in DC and certainly not paying for their travel time to come to me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people have never had a real job is the problem on DCUM.

People who work in bank branch, teachers, nurses, stock exchanges, restaurants, mechanics, retail stores, post office all have set in person hours. No flexibility,

It is normal for a ton of people.

But they know that before even having an interview.

My job was advertised as remote. Going to the office isn't what I signed up for. I'd find something else but it's sort of a niche field.