RTO is like voluntary redundancies as a solution to layoffs. It seems like its a good idea but it's not.
You rarely hear about voluntary redundancies these days for good reason. If, say, you wanted to downsize by 10% you'd seek volunteers within each division. They'd get a severance package. The net result? All the best people left because they could take the money and get another job.
RTO mandates are quiet layoffs. They're layoffs without having to pay severance. It's great (for the employer). At least in theory. Layoffs are a tool for increasing uncompensated workload (as the 5 remaining people still have to do the work of 8) and suppressing wages. Some people can't RTO (eg they moved during the pandemic). Some just don't want to. Particularly in the Bay Area, the commute is a giant waste of hours a day. So, again, the best people just leave. The ones who stay usually can't leave because they're being held captive by work visas and green card applications.
Blaming employees is nothing new here. In any large company you will see reorgs happen every 6 months, maybe more often. Some VP you've never heard of (but is in your direct management chain) now reports to a different VP who you've also never heard of. Some orgs have their names changed and there's a new set of priorities.
The point of these reorgs is for leadership to escape responsibility for consequences. There's a perpetual handover or ramping up period. Nothing lasts long enough to fail. Nothing lasts long enough to succeed either but there's little value in success and a huge cost to failure so the people involved optimize to avoid failure. More specifically, the appearance of failure.
In all of this, you, the employee, are entirely expendable. Your life can be completely upended for no other reason than someone wanted to cancel a project to give the appearance of a reorg or your name was randomly picked for a layoff on a spreadsheet. Always act in your own best interests.
You rarely hear about voluntary redundancies these days for good reason. If, say, you wanted to downsize by 10% you'd seek volunteers within each division. They'd get a severance package. The net result? All the best people left because they could take the money and get another job.
RTO mandates are quiet layoffs. They're layoffs without having to pay severance. It's great (for the employer). At least in theory. Layoffs are a tool for increasing uncompensated workload (as the 5 remaining people still have to do the work of 8) and suppressing wages. Some people can't RTO (eg they moved during the pandemic). Some just don't want to. Particularly in the Bay Area, the commute is a giant waste of hours a day. So, again, the best people just leave. The ones who stay usually can't leave because they're being held captive by work visas and green card applications.
Blaming employees is nothing new here. In any large company you will see reorgs happen every 6 months, maybe more often. Some VP you've never heard of (but is in your direct management chain) now reports to a different VP who you've also never heard of. Some orgs have their names changed and there's a new set of priorities.
The point of these reorgs is for leadership to escape responsibility for consequences. There's a perpetual handover or ramping up period. Nothing lasts long enough to fail. Nothing lasts long enough to succeed either but there's little value in success and a huge cost to failure so the people involved optimize to avoid failure. More specifically, the appearance of failure.
In all of this, you, the employee, are entirely expendable. Your life can be completely upended for no other reason than someone wanted to cancel a project to give the appearance of a reorg or your name was randomly picked for a layoff on a spreadsheet. Always act in your own best interests.