We were having a “surprise ” all-hands today, and HR proudly announced that starting next month, everyone must come in three days a week “to rebuild team spirit ”. I asked if they’d be covering commuting costs since gas and train prices doubled this year. The HR rep laughed and said, “ That’s part of being a team player ”. So I turned off my camera, opened my email, and sent my resignation letter right there. my manager pinged me two minutes later asking if I was serious. I said, “ Dead serious. I already found a remote job that values my time ”.
Best lunch break ever.

He joined, stayed silent for 40 minutes, then messaged me privately saying “ wow, you all actually talk a lot”. Yeah, because we don’t spend half the day pretending to be busy or whispering in cubicles. We work, we chat, we joke, we actually like each other. The irony is that we built a stronger team * without * being forced to share air conditioning. Maybe connection isn’t about location, just respect.

Thought you all would get a kick out of this story. I am still laughing.

So earlier this year our company got bought out which brought some big changes. Culture changed overnight with more micro managing etc... We were told to expect an RTO requirement some time this year. I live over 2 hours away from the office so that was a no go. I started putting out resume's and last month I went through the interview process and got an offer from a great company. It is a hybrid instead of full remote but only 2 days in a week and is only a few minutes away from my house.

My plan was to put in my 2 weeks at the end of this week and offer any assistance to make the transition smooth until I leave. Was at the company for a decade plus so wanted to leave the right way. I was going to time it where I would have a week off before the new job started.

Log in on Tuesday and there is a "business update" meeting on my calendar. I get on an my boss and HR tell me an RTO mandate is in place starting next month. Since I live out of the footprint I can choose to come in or accept a severance package as I will not be allowed to work remote. They offered me a 7 month severance package plus bonus payout and gave me 24 hours to consider.

I couldn't believe it. I was days away from giving them my 2 weeks and had another job lined up and now I am being given 7 months pay (before taxes) on my way out the door. If it had been a few days later I would have quit and they probably just let me walk.

Now I have 3 weeks off before I start new job with a nice pay raise and a nice check coming next month.

I work for a company owned by a large holding company. They recently came out with a hybrid RTO mandate for those living within 50 miles of an office. Fortunately for me, I dont even have an office in my state. My coworker was not so lucky, having to add a 40 mile commute each way three days a week.

Just today, my coworker let me know that they got a new job. New job pays better, has better growth opportunities, and is fully remote a few states away. I couldn't be happier for her, she really deserved it.

Well not even 2 hours hours later I get pulled into a leadership meeting with our holding group. They were excited to announce a new acquisition, which of course is the company my coworker just left for.

Well this is where it gets weird. The newly acquired company will be under the same RTO mandate as the rest of their companies. The mandate says if your within 50 miles of an office, ANY office owned by the holding company, you must come in 3 days a week.

The aquisition will likely take some time, but once fully integrated, my new coworker will be living the hell fueled nightmare of having to return to work at the office she just quit, even though she doesn't work there anymore.

Spending my morning deciding how and when to break the news to her. These corporate policies are insane.

We’ve been remote for over two years, and somehow my manager still doesn’t get it. Last Friday at 6 PM, she sends a calendar invite titled “Team bonding time!”, right when everyone was about to log off. The call starts with awkward small talk, then she pulls out a PowerPoint quiz about company values. People were clearly muted, pretending to have “mic issues.” One guy actually turned off his camera and started cooking mid-call. After 20 painful minutes, she says “I don’t feel much engagement here,” and schedules another one for next week. I swear, nothing kills morale faster than forced fun.

this one still doesn't feel real.

i've been remote for almost 3 years. my dentist is 5 minutes from my house. i had a cleaning scheduled for 2pm on a Wednesday. i blocked my calendar, told my team i'd be offline from 1:45 to 3, finished every deliverable that was due that day before noon.

went to the dentist. came back. answered a few emails. normal day.

two days later my manager sends me a message saying my "availability gap" was flagged by our workforce management system and he needs to "document it." i explained it was a dentist appointment during a blocked calendar slot. he said he understood but the system flagged it and he has to follow the process.

so now i have a written note in my file because i went to the dentist during working hours. something that anyone in an office does literally all the time without even telling their manager.

the crazy part is nobody needed me during that hour. nobody tried to reach me. the flag was automatic. the software noticed i wasn't active for 70 minutes and generated an alert.

this isn't about the dentist. this is about being monitored by software that treats any break in activity as suspicious. even when you tell everyone in advance. even when nothing is affected.

ended up putting together a quick page in Gamma showing everything i completed that day with timestamps just to have documentation that work was done, which feels absolutely ridiculous but apparently that's where we are now.

i don't know what to do with this. do i push back? do i just eat it and move on? it feels so small and so insane at the same time.

Amazon's RTO mandates (Return to Office) are apparently "hampering recruiting efforts", according to internal documents.

RTO is "limiting the ability to find 'high-demand talent, like those with GenAI skills."

It gets worse...

"Some Amazon recruiters told Business Insider that, starting last year, they saw an increase in candidates declining job offers specifically because of RTO. Those people were open to lower pay from other companies in exchange for the flexibility to work remotely."

And the cherry on top...

"Oracle, for example, has hired away more than 600 Amazon employees in the past 2 years because Amazon's strict RTO policy has made poaching easier."

Lastly, Amazon is now monitoring phone for employees' $50 monthly reimbursement.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how you lose your employees to companies the look long-term...by treating their employees like adults.

Just a funny story and reminder to use your work computer for work only.

When turning on my laptop this morning, we are supposed to shut down every night, I get an error message this morning. So I open an IT ticket.

I get an email from IT that they are going to jump into my computer and boom. They take control. Literally nothing visible changed.

So now I sit here and watch thrm do their thing, while sipping coffee

Yep.. you read that right. It’s a 1000km (600 mile) flight that takes about an hour. I’m killing the planet because some asshat upper management needs to justify their office space investment. Last week we had an “all hands” in office event.. there were not nearly enough desks for all the staff. Everyone still dials in for the Teams meetings and there is huge resistance to the RTO mandate. But “as a leader” I need to “lead by example” and they are doing random spot checks to see if you are in fact at the office. Needless to say.. I’m quitting this otherwise great job. Fuck RTO and I’ll let them know that is the only reason I’m leaving.

I honestly don’t know how people went back to the office after tasting remote work.

Like… I just made coffee in my kitchen, answered emails in sweatpants, threw in some laundry between meetings, and still got more done than I ever did sitting under fluorescent lights listening to someone in sales yell into their phone.

The wild part? My work quality improved. I sleep better, I eat better, and my “commute” is literally 30 seconds. The only downside is my cat thinks my keyboard is a pillow.

I’m not saying remote work is perfect (Zoom fatigue is real, and sometimes you forget how to socialize like a normal human), but for me? The trade-off is 100% worth it.

Anyone else feel like they became way too spoiled to ever go back to a cubicle?

I’m angry all the time now, everyone is noticing it. I try not to be but I’m just so irritated at everything and everyone because of the fact I’m driving 1.5 hour to sit in and office when I could do the same thing at home and save a lot of money and time. Needless to say, I’m looking for something new and I hope I can get something. If I can’t find something by February/March I’m going to try and get into the police academy. Office life is not for me, my brain is melting slowly each day while there. I give on word responses to everyone there and I don’t engage in any convos (most got the hint and don’t talk to me at all anymore which is awesome because I dont like or care for them) , I do what i need and then leave. I love my family so much so on my drive home I really try and get my anger out so I am not rude to my family because its not fair to them.

Last week IT installed a new “productivity tool” that supposedly helps managers understand “work patterns.” Turns out it’s just spyware that logs our mouse and keyboard activity. If you stop moving the cursor for 3 minutes, your status turns red and your manager gets a “low activity alert.” I was reading a 20-page report and suddenly got a message asking if I was “ having technical issues. ” No, Karen, I’m just using my eyes like a normal person. People are now spinning pens on their mousepads or setting their pets on the desk so the tracker doesn’t flag them. One guy even taped his mouse to a Roomba. I swear we’re turning into a parody of ourselves. Remote work was supposed to be about trust and flexibility, not digital babysitting.

Got an email this morning saying leadership wants “critical team members” to return to the office for visibility.

I literally monitor servers in three different countries. There’s nothing I can do from the office that I can’t do from my living room.

When I asked why, my manager said, “It’s about being seen working.” Man, I work in cybersecurity, if you can see me working, something’s already gone very wrong.

I'm still remote but they did a recent RTO with certain criteria and the poor project manager wrote this in chat and you can see on his Teams video that he's sitting in an open-design office with dozens of individuals also trying to conduct meetings near each other.

It sounds like a telemarketing office. How does this make any sense?? How could anyone without noise cancelling headphones and other worldly focus be able to do work like this?

Been remote for about two and a half years at this company and overall it's been fine. Good team, reasonable hours, no complaints about the work itself. Then about three weeks ago my internet went out in the morning, took maybe 25 minutes to come back, I logged in late and got a message from my manager later that day asking if everything was okay because I had a "delayed start."

I thought it was a coincidence at first, like maybe she just happened to notice. But then a coworker mentioned she got the same message on a day she had a doctors appointment and logged in at 9:22 instead of 9. Neither of us had told anyone we'd be slightly late, we just were. So apparently someone somewhere is watching Slack login times and flagging anything past a window we were never told existed

I checked my offer letter, my contract, the employee handbook. Nothing about monitoring login activity. Nothing about a required online time. My hours are listed as "flexible with core hours 10-3." I log on before 9 most days because I prefer it but I genuinely did not know this was being tracked. Still not sure how to bring it up without making it weird. Kind of just staring at the Slack icon every morning now to make sure I open it on time like some kind of digital time clock

Here is the full article:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-firm-must-pay-225-million-mom-whose-baby-died-was-denied-work-hom-rcna264321?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma&taid=69bc55cb9ac2060001303ea5&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

And they want people to have more babies.... 🤦‍♂️ btw

Write your representatives and demand remote work be codified into law and fight pollution. RTO mandates are Trump/Musk Dark MAGA Fascism. 

Just started a new job that was advertised as hybrid. Went through the whole interview process with the understanding it would be one day a week in the office, and I did my one day in the office went through onboarding and picked up my equipment and I've not been in since.

First hour in and my manager mentions almost as an aside that they haven't actually been in the office for months. The "hybrid" element is apparently something they'd "like" to implement at some point, but there's no timeline, no plan, and no pressure. It's full remote for the foreseeable.

I didn't negotiate this. It wasn't a selling point in the offer. I just happened to land in a team where nobody goes in. For context I'm coming from an in-person role so hybrid was a step up for me already, working from home is a bit of an adjustment, but I'm not exactly complaining.

Anyone else stumbled into remote work without actually asking for it? Feels like finding money in an old jacket.

Do you have any tips for someone new to remote work?