Who thought a video like this was a good idea? If you "aren't asking or negotiating at this point", why aren't first-level managers just telling employees to get back into the office or find another job?
I shouldn't be amazed, but somehow I still always am.
Because if most of them just ignore you, what then? Fire most of your staff?
1. Track badging 2. Enforce RTO via chain-of-command. SVPs, VPs, and directors have aggregate RTO compliance metrics. SVPs crack the whip on VPs to get their numbers up, VPs crack the whip on their directors, and directors crack the whip on their reports, and so on, all the way down.
The actual implementation of the policy was a mess and there was poor messaging especially at the beginning. I'm pretty sure it still doesn't take PTO or illnesses into account — if there's an issue with that, you're supposed to work it out with your manager — and from what I heard they simply handled the holidays by excluding the work weeks before and after Christmas from the metrics. But, ultimately, the chain of command approach appears to have worked very well in terms of actually getting people to come in.
edit: Just noticed from your profile that you also work at Amazon, so I guess there's nothing new in my comment for you :)
Most people are maliciously complying. They will come in at 11:45, grab lunch, and then leave. The clever ones then come back late at night to badge in and out again after 6pm so it looks like they were there all day, just outside. So far they aren't counting total time on campus, but when they do those people will have good numbers.
But it means they are now not working during those drive times. And they ones that are coming in all day waste a ton of everyone's time, including the remote people, looking for meeting rooms and setting up video calls, because every meeting still requires video, since all the teams are spread out over multiple offices.
And they also had to resort to denying promotions and raises for anyone who didn't RTO.
People do work noticeably shorter days, a handful of people come in for less than 30 minutes (huge waste of resources and time), and yeah, there is a morale problem.
One thing I have noticed is that the more co-located a team is, the more people behave like pre-Covid — in at 9:30, out at 5. Satellite workers who are coming in are the most unhappy (for obvious reasons) and are the most likely to badge in, grab a coffee and check their emails, and then leave and finish the day at home.
* They already do their best to make delivery drivers' and warehouse workers jobs as inhuman and miserable as possible.
If someone is a top performer within a highly valued part of the org, then one way or another they will be able to navigate RTO without serious problems.
For everyone else, RTO is a dial for management to fine tune voluntary attrition before having to resort to more unpleasant tools like higher PIP quotas, at a time where big tech firms all still need to cut employee costs.
Also: Good luck filling those positions (especially after that video)
Probably the 3 entry-level employees that still care to go to the office.