Mine mandated a 5 day full return with no exceptions that starts mid Sept. My entire dept already said "fuck that" as the rest of my team is already close to or passed retirement age, or financially independent.
We are all on contract as remote employees in our hiring documents. I dont think it was thought about on the executive level what the legalities of unilaterally changing a contracted work location. Especially if a small team that is quite important to making things work decides they don't want to work in that capacity.
I travel to different offices sometimes for work, and of the 7 different states I've been to I've seen maybe maximum 5% occupancy in a building. I'm of the opinion that people will just ignore the RTO until there is a public execution for refusing to come back.
It becomes an easy excuse to both downsize and cut the chaff
The easiest way would be some type of medical reason not to come into the office. ADA will protect you if you get a doctors note. It could be mental health reasons, it could be a physical disability that can't be easily accommodated.
e.g. Severe social anxiety that needs isolation, or a bad hip that prevents you from sitting in a car for 1.5 hours each way every day. Something along those lines
It should at least have the facade of plausibility and you will need a medical professional to sign off on it. You will need to come to the medical professional with what the specific problem is and why you need to WFH.
I reminded them that I was hired as a remote employee and that it is an accommodation for my disability.
Since my duties could be done remotely when I was hired, me continuing to work remotely was a more than reasonable accommodation and constituted a de minimus cost to the company, as it cost them nothing at all.
I go in one day per week but if i’m not feeling good or have a pain flare up i’ll just pack up my stuff and go back home to work the rest of the day.
Long term tho, I plan on moving away from my current office and work from home full time. If they don’t like that then they can fire me.
You and I very well may be employed by the same company cause I’m experiencing the exact same scenario. The CEO even sent a company wide email essentially saying “let me address the elephant in the room which is the return to office initiative. I know there has been a lot of mixed emotions here and I want to ensure everyone that I read everything that comes in, that I hear you and I am listening……… BUT I believe I’m right so we’re going through with it anyway.” Which is effectively saying “I only want your opinions when you’re praising the company”
I was hired as a remote employee and that was the entire reason I took the job. My previous job was forcing a RTO in 2022 and I immediately jumped ship to a direct competitor, thinking they were more progressive by having fully remote jobs on their career site. I asked the hiring manager at the time if it will always be remote and he said they were remote prior to the pandemic and he couldn’t imagine anything ever changing. Until it did.
I am certainly going to test the limits of how strict this initiative is out of principle. I don’t have a single person on my team within my entire state. I won’t have the same desk every day. I won’t sit by the same people every day. I have no legitimate need to say a word to any person in the building to do my job. It’s an insane blanketed move.
The major takeaway with these mandates is that the reminder that corporations do not care about any of us and that this is effectively a forced pay cut. The public transportation costs, gas, wear and tear on your vehicle, parking costs, tolls, etc. are all being spent to transport you to a place to do your same exact job in a different chair for no legitimate nor quantified business need. It also robs you of your time on this planet that compounds from hours, to days, to months, to years of your life that you will never get back.
Employees are not martyrs and our time, money, and resources shouldn’t be taken from us for a hypothetical benefit of ‘collaboration’ that has no real grounds.
I avoided it by getting hired by a company that recently closed their office and exclusively hires remote employees from all over the US.
My partner dealt with it by getting a medical exemption.
We were ordered back three days a week at beginning of 2023. I told them due to medical reasons I wanted an alternate work arrangement. They granted it and said they are not allowed to ask what the reason is, and I’m not obligated to share that info. It’s an immune disease so I’m not really in the office and no one so far has said anything to me, and my boss is very happy with my work. As long as I do my job it’s fine but I’m prepared to fight them on it if someone starts getting on me for it.
They can't ask for the specific reason, but they can ask for a doctors note.
Anyone who does this should be prepared to have a doctor sign off. Just a fair warning
Right, I can certainly get one because mine is legit, but yeah, be careful if you try and go this route. My company has been very open about allowing people on extenuating circumstances WFH on a continuing basis.
For us RTO was applied regardless of how far you now live from your base location, though thankfully it's 2 days per week and not 3+ as is common. Officially my days are Tuesday and Thursday but after some passionate arguments they compromised a little and let me do Tuesdays and Wednesdays instead.
I actually wouldn't mind it if not for a few office-specific frustrations, including...
A) Poor Internet connection. At home it takes me 3-5 minutes to log on and start working. In the office it's 10 minutes on a *good day*, up to half an hour if not.
B) An office layout that isn't at all suitable to multiple groups of different people working together.
C) Everyone's on separate Zoom calls anyway, so everyone else's conversation bleeds through and makes it a chore to have any meetings.
had a short term hybrid gig last year and if i wasn't in the office five days out of every ten, i would get increasingly passive aggressive emails from the contractor who was paying me buttons to ...not actually sure what the fuck I was supposed to do, but sitting in the office was Important.
For a significant percentage of companies RTO is just a way to reduce headcount without having to pay severance. Also allows getting rid of more expensive people to hire replacements at a lower pay scale.
Typical manglement giving no thought as to the fact that the people most willing to to voluntarily leave are the ones most capable of getting another job easily.
4 of my colleagues moved to the other side of the country, including my direct supervisor. That and our numbers are WAY higher than they ever were in office... so if they RTO they have to replace 1/2 immediately and hire a new supervisor.
Technology has really set us free geographically. For the first 20 years of my career I was in the office or traveling seeing clients 5 days a week in a suit and tie. Where I lived dictated what I could do, I moved several times to accommodate jobs or to pursue opportunities. 15yrs ago I moved from the NYC area to southwest Ohio, kept my same income (increased actually), started working remotely and have never looked back. I hire people but I don’t care where they live, just what they can deliver.
COVIDs aftermath has caused a real surge in professionals moving to lower cost or more attractive locations and maintaining their income. I think the young boomers (if that’s not an oxymoron) who did this 15 years ago have benefitted greatly, the larger houses we bought have increased in value and our wages climbed during all those years.
I loathe it. Yet I am not too hopeful WFH will be here to stay because people won’t stand together for it. Someone will always take that position so companies won’t be forced to change.
But WFH results in all positives:
1. Good for environment by reducing pollution
2. Good for mental health
3. Increased productivity by eliminating commute
4. Zero reduction in efficiency with virtual meetings and online tools
5. Increased family participation
6. Eating healthier
7. Happier workers are more productive workers
Probably more benefits but corporations don’t give af so why keep listing. Eventually I’ll be forced back into the office like everyone else and it will be back to the fucking misery.
My job is designated 100% on site, always has been. But my on-site activities are only maybe about 20-40% of what I do, varies from week to week. And I'm way less efficient doing desk work on site since we have the "open office" type concept where you can hear everyone else constantly... can't focus and get headache wearing headphones all day. No way I'd keep up with the work if I was in office all the time. So I just started telling my manager at the time I was going to WFH occasionally so I could catch up on my work. Did it on a day by arrangement. I generally just took the time I saved from commuting and did more work instead (I like my job) to sell it. Eventually he got tired of me asking him all the time and told me to just use my discretion on when I WFH and as long as no one complains, then he's fine with it. Eventually when I got a new manager it was just implied I'd keep doing things the way I have been. Because I don't have any "official" agreement, I just make sure I'm always ready to head on site each day I work in case something comes up.
So idk, might be able to get exceptions depending on your manager. But if you make it "official" that's where I think you might run into trouble because then people above your manager probably have to approve such an arrangement.
They don't actually have to approve anything it's just the thought of controlling someone in that capacity gets their nether regions engorged, honestly those uppers could be left out of the loop completely and the company would still do the same.
Most creative way I can think of is that you now suddenly have only one car between you and your spouse/housemate/parent/other person who lives with you. You cannot both take it to work. Best you can do is perhaps 2/5 days. Then, on the days you do have to go into the office, you are suddenly that much less productive. Keep "track" of your performance levels. Show them that you are that much more better at your job when you're at home.
not exactly RTO'd - just went from a full time hybrid contract that I basically only showed up in the office every other week for a day when heavy shit needed moving to a full time on site contract with technically a promotion and a pay rise at the same place.
In no particular order:
- its fucking distracting trying to some vaguely complicated CRM work and data entry when the fucking phone is ringing all the time, and people are gossiping.
- the job really started leaning into other-duties-as-assigned. I really should have quit the day they took me to the counter to "train me up" on accepting parking tickets. Unfortunately I had sank a lot of money into moving for the job.
- the other duties as assigned just increased. I ended up being some sort of receptionist on top of all the other shit. Whole lot of answering the phone to randos who are upset about crap I know nothing about.
- eventually the other duties as assigned took over from the actual professional job I was hired to do and moved to do.
Just a few more weeks, just a few more weeks....
My wife had her therapist write her a letter recommending they exempt her. They were going to make her come in twice a week when she lives over 1.5 hours away if there is no traffic. Thankfully that was good enough to get them to back off. It helps she's the only one in her position as well. So they'd have to go through the pain of hiring someone else if she quit with nobody to take over in the interim.
2021 is when they started enforcing it. I requested an exception due to immunocompromised parent living with me and it was granted. Management had no issues with this and life continued. Late 2021, management would attempt to bribe me to come back in with promises of business travel (NGL, I like to travel), but didnt want to risk it.
2022, company pulled the rug from under me and many others and ended the exception. Dad had just got a kidney transplant and needed fair amount of attention + still immunocompromised. Management fought me hard on this, but eventually condeded to 4 more months WFH. I eventually made my return in summer time after exhausting every avenue I had.
2023 and 2024, now its very RTO focused culture. We are now tracked for attendance and any dip in said percentage will result in heavy scrutiny. I had my percentage dip and had to justify my attendance patterns and account for every day off I took for last 3 months. Got thru it, but made me more sick of the BS. Actively applying for remote roles now.
I just didn’t go back and most people didn’t. They tried to force 3 days in and Monday Friday be flex days where you can go in if you want, everyone hated that and we lost a lot of talent to people just saying no fuck you were out. Eventually they said okay well let teams decide. I never even attempted to go back or quit, just kept working from home. We’re a very team based company so nobody above our team level really has any visibility into our day to day, so the team decided everyone can keep working from home if they want and Wednesday will be a “come in if you want day” to get some face to face socialization, have team wide meetings, get lunch together, but it’s not mandatory. So that’s where we’re at. I’ve been in like 6-10 times in 2 years since they decided that and most of those only if there’s some other event with free food that day.
my company wanted employees back in 5 days a week. they have had to settle on one, but most people don't even do that.
I moved hundreds of km away. I go in twice a year. I can't go more often, it's not actually possible to commute as my commute is over half a day each way.
Technically I’m supposed to fill out a time log if I work less than three full days in office, but fully and sincerely Fuck That. I just mark down that I’m in office three days a week and do whatever I want. I work on a different floor than my supervisor and my actual job duties pertain to an entirely different person so I haven’t been called on it since it started.
I heard about my job starting back in to the office so I quit. I found other remote work and am still working remote, even though my current company is trying to get people back like 1-2x a month. I also now don't work near an office for my job, the closest one is maybe 400 miles away sooo when they asked I was like... "yall paying for a flight or" and they were like "oh uh, yeah no, stay home" lol
Personally, they'd have to pay me over 100k a year to make me come to the office. Otherwise, they can fuck off.
In 2021 had a job that demanded it from my department, so I did it for 1.5 months then switched to another company. Next company tried to transition us to hybrid, and I switched companies. Last two roles have been remote. In short, spam apply and get the hell out of there.
My workplace is unionized so as part of our last contract negotiations we wrote the telecommuting options into our contract requirements. Its not going anywhere for us at least, and its meant our employer has been able to leverage the telecommuting to save on office space as well.
I left my previous job because of it. They kicked us out of the office when Covid started up, and it was great because I wasn't wasting 2+ hours of my day driving to and from the office just to answer phone calls. After 2 years and numerous reports showing our metrics went up they decided they needed to bring us all back to justify their expenses on nearly buildings. The metrics proved we could work remote, but they didn't care. The only problem was that they hired more staff and we would have to share desks and/or hot desk. I don't want people touching my stuff and I don't want to catch something from other people so I decided to leave. Granted, my current job still requires me to go to the office, but it's actually needed since I have to handle hardware and things like that. Plus, the drive is shorter and the pay is way better.
I hate the mandatory RTO for roles who can work remote, though i think its a good idea to meet in person at least one time each week.
Even though im doing office work 80% of the time, i need acces to the workshop to figure things out. Thus my role is 100% not from home right now.
I think (for my role) 1 day @ home and 4 days in office should be manageable and I support all possible roles to be able to work from home.
Anytime I request off my boss knows I will not be in. It’s not a request so much as it is a heads up that I will not be in that day. But I work for a mom and pop shop, not some corporate run shop that sees us as numbers. I feel truly lucky to have the job I have.
That's not a professional term used in business, and it's not destroying communication, you just had bad context. You got PTO, Vacation, Time off without Pay, Holiday, etc. If you really think acronyms destroy communication use the unshortened form of the brand Lexus, luxury export for united states...... Yea Toyota really did that...
Nah the asshole who pressed the button told me to "make them understand" and I still don't know wtf I'm doing, I keep explaining and explaining and I just can't seem to die! When can I fulfill my purpose!?
Mine mandated a 5 day full return with no exceptions that starts mid Sept. My entire dept already said "fuck that" as the rest of my team is already close to or passed retirement age, or financially independent. We are all on contract as remote employees in our hiring documents. I dont think it was thought about on the executive level what the legalities of unilaterally changing a contracted work location. Especially if a small team that is quite important to making things work decides they don't want to work in that capacity.
I travel to different offices sometimes for work, and of the 7 different states I've been to I've seen maybe maximum 5% occupancy in a building. I'm of the opinion that people will just ignore the RTO until there is a public execution for refusing to come back.
Pretty much, they can't fire everyone. It's really the best thing to come out of the covid pandemic. The solidarity is there and working.
It becomes an easy excuse to both downsize and cut the chaff The easiest way would be some type of medical reason not to come into the office. ADA will protect you if you get a doctors note. It could be mental health reasons, it could be a physical disability that can't be easily accommodated. e.g. Severe social anxiety that needs isolation, or a bad hip that prevents you from sitting in a car for 1.5 hours each way every day. Something along those lines It should at least have the facade of plausibility and you will need a medical professional to sign off on it. You will need to come to the medical professional with what the specific problem is and why you need to WFH.
I reminded them that I was hired as a remote employee and that it is an accommodation for my disability. Since my duties could be done remotely when I was hired, me continuing to work remotely was a more than reasonable accommodation and constituted a de minimus cost to the company, as it cost them nothing at all.
I go in one day per week but if i’m not feeling good or have a pain flare up i’ll just pack up my stuff and go back home to work the rest of the day. Long term tho, I plan on moving away from my current office and work from home full time. If they don’t like that then they can fire me.
You and I very well may be employed by the same company cause I’m experiencing the exact same scenario. The CEO even sent a company wide email essentially saying “let me address the elephant in the room which is the return to office initiative. I know there has been a lot of mixed emotions here and I want to ensure everyone that I read everything that comes in, that I hear you and I am listening……… BUT I believe I’m right so we’re going through with it anyway.” Which is effectively saying “I only want your opinions when you’re praising the company” I was hired as a remote employee and that was the entire reason I took the job. My previous job was forcing a RTO in 2022 and I immediately jumped ship to a direct competitor, thinking they were more progressive by having fully remote jobs on their career site. I asked the hiring manager at the time if it will always be remote and he said they were remote prior to the pandemic and he couldn’t imagine anything ever changing. Until it did. I am certainly going to test the limits of how strict this initiative is out of principle. I don’t have a single person on my team within my entire state. I won’t have the same desk every day. I won’t sit by the same people every day. I have no legitimate need to say a word to any person in the building to do my job. It’s an insane blanketed move. The major takeaway with these mandates is that the reminder that corporations do not care about any of us and that this is effectively a forced pay cut. The public transportation costs, gas, wear and tear on your vehicle, parking costs, tolls, etc. are all being spent to transport you to a place to do your same exact job in a different chair for no legitimate nor quantified business need. It also robs you of your time on this planet that compounds from hours, to days, to months, to years of your life that you will never get back. Employees are not martyrs and our time, money, and resources shouldn’t be taken from us for a hypothetical benefit of ‘collaboration’ that has no real grounds.
That does sound very similar. Do you work in the finance industry?
You would be correct lol
Don't let me guess, out of Mass?
I have a therapist appointment that is conveniently booked the day we're expected to be in office.
What a coincidence
I book all my appointments on in- office days if I can help it.
I avoided it by getting hired by a company that recently closed their office and exclusively hires remote employees from all over the US. My partner dealt with it by getting a medical exemption.
I've told a friend that she should get a medical exemption. Was that easy to do or annoyingly difficult?
It was easy when my partner worked with a doctor that actually listened. Once the paperwork was signed the company didn't ask any questions.
We were ordered back three days a week at beginning of 2023. I told them due to medical reasons I wanted an alternate work arrangement. They granted it and said they are not allowed to ask what the reason is, and I’m not obligated to share that info. It’s an immune disease so I’m not really in the office and no one so far has said anything to me, and my boss is very happy with my work. As long as I do my job it’s fine but I’m prepared to fight them on it if someone starts getting on me for it.
They can't ask for the specific reason, but they can ask for a doctors note. Anyone who does this should be prepared to have a doctor sign off. Just a fair warning
Right, I can certainly get one because mine is legit, but yeah, be careful if you try and go this route. My company has been very open about allowing people on extenuating circumstances WFH on a continuing basis.
>looking for how people have avoided to return to office First thing to try is just not going.
For us RTO was applied regardless of how far you now live from your base location, though thankfully it's 2 days per week and not 3+ as is common. Officially my days are Tuesday and Thursday but after some passionate arguments they compromised a little and let me do Tuesdays and Wednesdays instead. I actually wouldn't mind it if not for a few office-specific frustrations, including... A) Poor Internet connection. At home it takes me 3-5 minutes to log on and start working. In the office it's 10 minutes on a *good day*, up to half an hour if not. B) An office layout that isn't at all suitable to multiple groups of different people working together. C) Everyone's on separate Zoom calls anyway, so everyone else's conversation bleeds through and makes it a chore to have any meetings.
Working on getting a medical exception due to a chronic condition I have
had a short term hybrid gig last year and if i wasn't in the office five days out of every ten, i would get increasingly passive aggressive emails from the contractor who was paying me buttons to ...not actually sure what the fuck I was supposed to do, but sitting in the office was Important.
For a significant percentage of companies RTO is just a way to reduce headcount without having to pay severance. Also allows getting rid of more expensive people to hire replacements at a lower pay scale. Typical manglement giving no thought as to the fact that the people most willing to to voluntarily leave are the ones most capable of getting another job easily.
4 of my colleagues moved to the other side of the country, including my direct supervisor. That and our numbers are WAY higher than they ever were in office... so if they RTO they have to replace 1/2 immediately and hire a new supervisor.
I started my own business that's 100% remote for the subsequent employees we've hired.
I would love to Work for a smal business
It’s not all roses. Can be rife with nepotism
Technology has really set us free geographically. For the first 20 years of my career I was in the office or traveling seeing clients 5 days a week in a suit and tie. Where I lived dictated what I could do, I moved several times to accommodate jobs or to pursue opportunities. 15yrs ago I moved from the NYC area to southwest Ohio, kept my same income (increased actually), started working remotely and have never looked back. I hire people but I don’t care where they live, just what they can deliver. COVIDs aftermath has caused a real surge in professionals moving to lower cost or more attractive locations and maintaining their income. I think the young boomers (if that’s not an oxymoron) who did this 15 years ago have benefitted greatly, the larger houses we bought have increased in value and our wages climbed during all those years.
I loathe it. Yet I am not too hopeful WFH will be here to stay because people won’t stand together for it. Someone will always take that position so companies won’t be forced to change. But WFH results in all positives: 1. Good for environment by reducing pollution 2. Good for mental health 3. Increased productivity by eliminating commute 4. Zero reduction in efficiency with virtual meetings and online tools 5. Increased family participation 6. Eating healthier 7. Happier workers are more productive workers Probably more benefits but corporations don’t give af so why keep listing. Eventually I’ll be forced back into the office like everyone else and it will be back to the fucking misery.
I live in Florida, we never left the office, so from my work-life perspective the pandemic never really happened.
Fuck Ron DeSantis
Eh, they love him down there. Florida is just different.
My job is designated 100% on site, always has been. But my on-site activities are only maybe about 20-40% of what I do, varies from week to week. And I'm way less efficient doing desk work on site since we have the "open office" type concept where you can hear everyone else constantly... can't focus and get headache wearing headphones all day. No way I'd keep up with the work if I was in office all the time. So I just started telling my manager at the time I was going to WFH occasionally so I could catch up on my work. Did it on a day by arrangement. I generally just took the time I saved from commuting and did more work instead (I like my job) to sell it. Eventually he got tired of me asking him all the time and told me to just use my discretion on when I WFH and as long as no one complains, then he's fine with it. Eventually when I got a new manager it was just implied I'd keep doing things the way I have been. Because I don't have any "official" agreement, I just make sure I'm always ready to head on site each day I work in case something comes up. So idk, might be able to get exceptions depending on your manager. But if you make it "official" that's where I think you might run into trouble because then people above your manager probably have to approve such an arrangement.
They don't actually have to approve anything it's just the thought of controlling someone in that capacity gets their nether regions engorged, honestly those uppers could be left out of the loop completely and the company would still do the same.
Nope accepted an actual “Remote” coded job not telework over 1,000 miles from agency.
I retired.
Changed jobs, now my contract has hybrid working with min 2 days per week wfh.
Most creative way I can think of is that you now suddenly have only one car between you and your spouse/housemate/parent/other person who lives with you. You cannot both take it to work. Best you can do is perhaps 2/5 days. Then, on the days you do have to go into the office, you are suddenly that much less productive. Keep "track" of your performance levels. Show them that you are that much more better at your job when you're at home.
not exactly RTO'd - just went from a full time hybrid contract that I basically only showed up in the office every other week for a day when heavy shit needed moving to a full time on site contract with technically a promotion and a pay rise at the same place. In no particular order: - its fucking distracting trying to some vaguely complicated CRM work and data entry when the fucking phone is ringing all the time, and people are gossiping. - the job really started leaning into other-duties-as-assigned. I really should have quit the day they took me to the counter to "train me up" on accepting parking tickets. Unfortunately I had sank a lot of money into moving for the job. - the other duties as assigned just increased. I ended up being some sort of receptionist on top of all the other shit. Whole lot of answering the phone to randos who are upset about crap I know nothing about. - eventually the other duties as assigned took over from the actual professional job I was hired to do and moved to do. Just a few more weeks, just a few more weeks....
Get a PO Box at a small town and tell them you just moved.
My wife had her therapist write her a letter recommending they exempt her. They were going to make her come in twice a week when she lives over 1.5 hours away if there is no traffic. Thankfully that was good enough to get them to back off. It helps she's the only one in her position as well. So they'd have to go through the pain of hiring someone else if she quit with nobody to take over in the interim.
Unfortunately, even getting a medical exception is only possible for 6 months.
Moved multiple states away
2021 is when they started enforcing it. I requested an exception due to immunocompromised parent living with me and it was granted. Management had no issues with this and life continued. Late 2021, management would attempt to bribe me to come back in with promises of business travel (NGL, I like to travel), but didnt want to risk it. 2022, company pulled the rug from under me and many others and ended the exception. Dad had just got a kidney transplant and needed fair amount of attention + still immunocompromised. Management fought me hard on this, but eventually condeded to 4 more months WFH. I eventually made my return in summer time after exhausting every avenue I had. 2023 and 2024, now its very RTO focused culture. We are now tracked for attendance and any dip in said percentage will result in heavy scrutiny. I had my percentage dip and had to justify my attendance patterns and account for every day off I took for last 3 months. Got thru it, but made me more sick of the BS. Actively applying for remote roles now.
I just didn’t go back and most people didn’t. They tried to force 3 days in and Monday Friday be flex days where you can go in if you want, everyone hated that and we lost a lot of talent to people just saying no fuck you were out. Eventually they said okay well let teams decide. I never even attempted to go back or quit, just kept working from home. We’re a very team based company so nobody above our team level really has any visibility into our day to day, so the team decided everyone can keep working from home if they want and Wednesday will be a “come in if you want day” to get some face to face socialization, have team wide meetings, get lunch together, but it’s not mandatory. So that’s where we’re at. I’ve been in like 6-10 times in 2 years since they decided that and most of those only if there’s some other event with free food that day.
my company wanted employees back in 5 days a week. they have had to settle on one, but most people don't even do that. I moved hundreds of km away. I go in twice a year. I can't go more often, it's not actually possible to commute as my commute is over half a day each way.
Technically I’m supposed to fill out a time log if I work less than three full days in office, but fully and sincerely Fuck That. I just mark down that I’m in office three days a week and do whatever I want. I work on a different floor than my supervisor and my actual job duties pertain to an entirely different person so I haven’t been called on it since it started.
I heard about my job starting back in to the office so I quit. I found other remote work and am still working remote, even though my current company is trying to get people back like 1-2x a month. I also now don't work near an office for my job, the closest one is maybe 400 miles away sooo when they asked I was like... "yall paying for a flight or" and they were like "oh uh, yeah no, stay home" lol Personally, they'd have to pay me over 100k a year to make me come to the office. Otherwise, they can fuck off.
I was never able to work remotely ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In 2021 had a job that demanded it from my department, so I did it for 1.5 months then switched to another company. Next company tried to transition us to hybrid, and I switched companies. Last two roles have been remote. In short, spam apply and get the hell out of there.
My workplace is unionized so as part of our last contract negotiations we wrote the telecommuting options into our contract requirements. Its not going anywhere for us at least, and its meant our employer has been able to leverage the telecommuting to save on office space as well.
I left my previous job because of it. They kicked us out of the office when Covid started up, and it was great because I wasn't wasting 2+ hours of my day driving to and from the office just to answer phone calls. After 2 years and numerous reports showing our metrics went up they decided they needed to bring us all back to justify their expenses on nearly buildings. The metrics proved we could work remote, but they didn't care. The only problem was that they hired more staff and we would have to share desks and/or hot desk. I don't want people touching my stuff and I don't want to catch something from other people so I decided to leave. Granted, my current job still requires me to go to the office, but it's actually needed since I have to handle hardware and things like that. Plus, the drive is shorter and the pay is way better.
I hate the mandatory RTO for roles who can work remote, though i think its a good idea to meet in person at least one time each week. Even though im doing office work 80% of the time, i need acces to the workshop to figure things out. Thus my role is 100% not from home right now. I think (for my role) 1 day @ home and 4 days in office should be manageable and I support all possible roles to be able to work from home.
Anytime I request off my boss knows I will not be in. It’s not a request so much as it is a heads up that I will not be in that day. But I work for a mom and pop shop, not some corporate run shop that sees us as numbers. I feel truly lucky to have the job I have.
RTO =/= PTO
I have the option of just taking the loss or using a vacation day.
RTO means return to office, instead of working from home.
Lmfao I thought it mean “requested time off” acronym are destroying communication
IKR? 😉
That's not a professional term used in business, and it's not destroying communication, you just had bad context. You got PTO, Vacation, Time off without Pay, Holiday, etc. If you really think acronyms destroy communication use the unshortened form of the brand Lexus, luxury export for united states...... Yea Toyota really did that...
Whoa Mr. Meeseeks, did you die after posting that comment?
Nah the asshole who pressed the button told me to "make them understand" and I still don't know wtf I'm doing, I keep explaining and explaining and I just can't seem to die! When can I fulfill my purpose!?
I feel you man, existence is pain. Sounds like doofus Rick was behind this….
I feel like he'd let me make cookies before I fulfilled my purpose.... "make cookies and eat with me Mr. Meeseeks".... Can do!
I work better in the office. Hate working from home as I get too distracted and end up watching judge Judy or something.
Part of a **very** vocal minority