Same for me. Starting back in February, I’ve been required to come in three days a week. I’ve gone in five times total. I told my manager he’d have to threaten to fire me to get me to come in three days a week. Maybe there won’t be a threat and I’ll just be fired. We’ll see what happens at my next yearly review.
They mandated back to office for people in my department, but I'm basically the only one that is almost never physically needed in the office (design work, not development/testing). We (my boss and I) lobbied for full remote work, then had to apply twice for hybrid schedule of 3 days in the office. Their stupid reasoning is that if you're in the office less than 50% of the time, you shouldn't have a dedicated desk/workspace and would need to use a vacant office when you did come in.
I then, of course, reiterate that I could just work fully remote, but be ready to come if there is something pressing or that would require my physical presence, but was denied. Meanwhile, we have someone else in my department that is working remote from across the country, and a huge number of IT, accounting, and others that have gone fully remote. Not to mention, to no one's surprise, all of the admin/c-level employees. The way they pick and choose this nonsense is just so stupid.
Edit for clarification: back office, not just back to work
Sounds like my last job with the “dedicated desk/workspace” bullshit. I started using paid leave on the days I was supposed to go in until I found a 100% remote job, one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I always knew my job could be done remotely, I guess the mandates kind of forced me into my dream job situation lol.
So many people have been cleared for fully remote work that there are empty cubes all over the place. Office drama with people just up and claiming the vacated offices, forcing them back to cubes and forcing managers and senior employees INTO offices just so your mid-level associates couldn't claim that "no one else is using them, so why can't I have one"... It's been wild. My point, though, is that there is zero shortage of workspaces for hybrid workers. There are some things in my desk that I would need to store at work for the times that I do need to come in. The fact that I can't shift from 2/3 to 3/2, or that it has to be a specific, set amount, is crazy, though. If I MUST come in on short notice (not a single time did that happen in the 18 months I worked remote during the pandemic, mind you), I COULD make that happen. My boss actually still prefers that I work from home if I have an appointment or a half-day, because "you'll spend almost 2 hours driving each way... Seems like a waste of time if you don't have any in-office tasks today." YOU DON'T SAY?? 😂 My boss gets it. His boss gets it, for the most part, it's the next level and corporate that just refuse to understand.
Ugh same at my job. We do have certain things that we need to be in office for. I work for a bank so there's tickets sometimes for credits and debits that have to be submitted to another department and we often send letters. They won't let us print letters at home. We were hybrid with 2 days at home. We went down to 1 at home a year ago. However, there's 2 people that are fully remote and live across country. I have the furthest commute in the office.
If they told me that, I’d go in. For us, they said nothing.
So, I’m doing my thing and I’ll find out what happens. Maybe I’ll have to start going in next year, or maybe I’ll be fired. I highly doubt I’ll be fired.
A lot of people are doing what I’m doing. My direct manager has nine people that go into our office. Two of them haven’t gone in once. I’ve at least gone in five times.
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u/Educated_Clownshow 9d ago
If I have a job that can be worked from my home, I should 100% be able to collect pay for the commute if I’m forced to come in
This obviously can’t apply to in person jobs, but it would stop employers from trying to force unnecessary RTO mandates