MN: Local AT&T workers fight against return to office plan [telecom]

Local AT&T workers are calling on the company to allow for a permanent work from home option for employees.

Wednesday morning, Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7250 held a press conference to challenge the company’s decision to recall workers to the office.

On Aug. 3, AT&T and CWA reached an extension that would allow many employees to continue to work from home. That agreement acknowledged a joint effort between the company and union to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic circumstances. On Aug. 5, AT&T outlined a plan to return to work by the end of September.

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Reply to
Bill Horne
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Am Thu, 25 Aug 2022 21:11:21 +0000 schrieb Bill Horne snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com:

I hope they will reach that goal.

Reply to
Marco Moock

I hope so too, but I doubt it, at least not anytime soon.

After swimming in the belly of that beast for 25 years, I realized that most of the "First Line" supervisors at Mother Bell's orphaned children practice what I call "Warm Body Management" - if their subordinates are in their assigned seats and their bodies are still warm, most Supervisors assume that they are productive.

On the other hand, there are a variety of tools available to managers whom really want to manage distributed teams competently: tools to report on keyboard activity, websites visited, emails sent and received, etc. Those tools can be misused, of course, especially when untrained supervisors are called to interpret the reports they will receive from them, without experience in dealing with reporting people whom will be trying to fend off their childrens' demands for attention, their husbands/wives asking about their plans for dinner, etc., etc.

It's going to take several years before the managerial work force is prepared for the challenge, and it's likely there will be a lot of old buildings converted to "cubicle farms" so that work-at-home employees get the option of working-anywhere-but-home. In the meantime, don't be surprised if the various ILECs demand that their "distributed team" employees attach thermometers to their computers, so as to assure that the bodiess are still warm.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Horne

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