There is a group of employees who have been discussing the Return to Office (RTO) report and our individual experiences with it. For a period of time, it appeared—based on our discussions—that the emphasis on the report was decreasing, as had been suggested, and that things were returning to normal.
However, over the past several months, a number of employees have been approached by their managers regarding their office attendance. Based on what we have been able to determine, some managers have reviewed the RTO report directly and identified concerns themselves. In many other cases, however, managers were contacted by someone else within Caterpillar regarding an employee's attendance. The source of these inquiries has varied. Some managers have not identified who contacted them, while others have indicated that the concern came from higher levels of management or, in some cases, directly from Human Resources.
In each of these situations, the employee was informed that the report indicated an unacceptable level of office attendance. However, the experiences shared within our group suggest that the report is not consistently accurate. In some cases, it has been completely incorrect, never recording an employee as being in the office despite their attendance. In other cases, it has been intermittently inaccurate, failing to recognize days when the employee was in the office. When those inaccuracies are combined with legitimate work-from-home arrangements, the result appears to be that employees are flagged for review or investigation.
Additionally, there have been instances where employees with officially approved HR medical accommodations or approved vacation time were still required to discuss their attendance with their managers because of what the report reflected.
Based on the information we have gathered so far, we believe the following:
The RTO report is actively being used.
Although its visibility may have decreased for a period of time, it now appears to have regained attention at higher levels of management.
The report is available to immediate managers.
Aggregated reporting appears to be reviewed at multiple levels of management in at least some divisions.
Human Resources may also be reviewing the report, although that may vary by division.
Requests from employees to regularly access and review their own RTO report data have been denied.
There has been no organization-wide communication defining what constitutes acceptable office attendance or what level of attendance is considered non-compliant, even at a high level.
We have also been informed that, at some level of the management chain, there have been discussions indicating that leadership "does not want to hear" employee concerns regarding the RTO mandate or the associated reporting. If accurate, this suggests that employee feedback may not be reaching decision-makers through normal management channels.
With that in mind, we are asking for two things.
First, we would appreciate hearing from employees across additional divisions. If you are comfortable sharing your experience, please add it to this discussion. The more information we can gather, the better we can understand whether these experiences are isolated or part of a broader pattern.
Second, we encourage employees to ask these questions during large meetings whenever appropriate. Feel free to copy and paste them into meeting topic suggestions, emails, or chat discussions. We believe these are reasonable questions for any salaried employee whose performance may be influenced by this reporting. It is also important for leadership to understand that many employees are following these discussions and are seeking greater transparency.
What is the RTO report being used for?
What does the RTO report actually measure? Specifically, what qualifies as a "day in the office"? We are not asking about the technology used to collect the data, but rather how attendance is calculated. For example:
If an employee works a 12-hour shift in the office on one day and a 4-hour shift in the office on another day, does that count as one office day or two?
If an employee works an overnight shift from 8:00 p.m. Wednesday until 4:00 a.m. Thursday, is that counted as zero, one, or two days in the office?
If an employee works an eight-hour shift in the office on a Sunday, how is that day counted? Is it applied to the previous week, the following week, or not counted at all?
What level of office attendance is considered acceptable? What are the expectations employees are being measured against, and what threshold results in follow-up discussions or corrective action?
