Jockeying for desks and parking: AT&T workers say the 5-day office return is off to a bumpy start

AT&T is one of several major firms requiring office workers to be on-site five days a week.

The first wave of AT&T’s five-day return-to-office mandate started on Monday. Conversations with half a dozen AT&T workers across the country this week indicate it hasn’t been off to a smooth start.

At the Dallas-based telecom giant’s Atlanta offices, AT&T employees told B-17 that a lack of open desks, parking lots that quickly filled up, and a limited number of elevators were complicating the company’s plan to phase out hybrid work.

Internal documents obtained by B-17 suggest that AT&T is aware that its RTO mandate is asking more people to work on-site than the number of workstations it has at some of its offices.

An internal FAQ that was updated last week said employees in at least one division should expect workstations for 70% to 80% of those assigned to a particular location.

“As a reminder, employees should not leave personal items, make signage, or add name plates on desks,” the document said. “These items will be removed.”

A spokesperson for AT&T did not immediately provide a comment when contacted by B-17.

The document followed a memo sent to employees last month from AT&T’s chief technology officer, Jeremy Legg, that said his AT&T Technology Services division would “not offer one-for-one seating per employee” under the new RTO rules.

One employee at the Atlanta offices told B-17 on Monday that he arrived before 7 a.m. to ensure he got a workspace.

Another Atlanta worker said that he arrived before 6 a.m. and that the available desks he saw had been filled by employees by 9 a.m., at which point some employees sat in the dining area or around conference tables.

“I actually enjoyed coming to the office and even came four to five days a week,” the employee said. He said he felt that the working environment “deteriorated” as more employees returned to the office over the past year amid the three-days-in-office requirement.

The worker said AT&T employees had been competing for space and sometimes speaking over one another while conducting simultaneous Microsoft Teams meetings. The employee added that the elimination of hybrid work was heightening those challenges.

The two Atlanta workers, as well as employees at other offices, told B-17 that finding parking in a timely manner had been a challenge for themselves and for colleagues, especially at offices converted from less-dense cubicle setups to more tightly packed floor plans.

In communications sent to employees, AT&T has said it will continue to monitor workspace capacity and usage and will adjust accordingly. Legg’s memo said the company anticipated some percentage of workers to be out of the office each week for sick days, work travel, vacation, and other reasons.

Workers in Atlanta also reported seeing signs in front of the office’s elevators (which they said had increasingly long wait times) with motivational quotes recommending they use nearby stairs instead.

Workers said the signs included phrases like “There is no elevator to the top of the corporate ladder,” and “There will be challenges, but each step you take brings you closer to who you’re meant to be. Take the stairs.” It wasn’t clear exactly when the signs were placed, but the Atlanta employees said the signs were gone by Tuesday morning.

One of the Atlanta employees told B-17 that an additional elevator was planned to be installed at the location.

More workers are set to arrive this year under subsequent phases of the company’s five-day RTO mandate. AT&T previously said divisions were setting their own schedules based on their business needs.

AT&T’s move away from hybrid work follows similar moves from Amazon, Dell, and others requiring workers to be in the office for the entire workweek.

“We believe there is great value in having people connecting, collaborating, and innovating together in an office setting,” AT&T said in a memo distributed after the initial return-to-office mandate was announced in 2023. “Consolidating our work locations will also help us reduce costs and simplify things for our employees and our customers.”

Nearly all of the dozen workers B-17 has talked to in recent weeks have said they feel that the new rules may be an attempt to reduce the company’s US workforce.

“This is not about collaboration,” one of the Atlanta workers said. “If they can cut costs and have people leave because they’re uncomfortable, that’s the sweet spot.”