Companies Are Dragging People Back to the Office

“The issue is that fully remote work is isolating, I'm in the same position as op I.E almost fully remote for an airline, great perks and salary but very little interaction day to day, friends and gf are working 9-5 so they are not always available and considering a scale up offer for a lower salary but a much more interesting tech and more daily interaction with colleagues. It's difficult to think what it's like without experiencing it ngl And don't get me wrong I have hobbies, I”

“As someone that has started remote work since the pandemic, it has actually improved my productivity than working in the office. So much is going on when you are onsite, people approach you to ask questions, you get pulled into random activities, chattering all around. One of my gripes with remote work was with my previous company that required me to track my hours, write a summary what ive been doing EOD, and a weekly summary too, just to prove I was working, sure I am self-monitoring, but it t”

“It’s usually the manager following co rules. Don’t blame them. You don’t make your own rules till VP. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“Congratulations! [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“I run a small team and we're on the flexible side, no set hours, output-based, mostly remote. Honestly the thing that makes it work isn't the policy, it's that people have somewhere to go. A few of our folks work from coworking spaces a couple days a week on their own time because being fully home office turns out to be pretty lonely even when the work itself is fine. Managers who mandate eight hours in the seat usually get performative availability, not output. [re: How “lax” is you”

“This is my biggest fear with hybrid. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“We were full remote for years. Then it moved to 1 day in office, which was kinda fun and wasn't very strict. Now they want "at least 3 full days", despite us all sitting on Teams calls with clients and people who work in other states most of the day. This is despite my department producing the most revenue in company history and exceeding all of our goals... I just got a job at a company across the country, full remote. I start in 2 weeks. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or”

“I feel like it depends more on the manager than the company. As long as the work gets done, flexibility should matter more than just sitting in the office for fixed hours. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“Yes. But I have also worked my way up over 9 years and put myself in a position to be trusted. That said, I will work longer hours when needed. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“I was basically remote then got hit with an RTO 6 months later to an office that could only fit a certain number of people. So most others got to continue to work remote at their leisure if they weren't chosen. The decision seemed arbitrary. My team doesn't ever work together in person in the classic sense that our superiors constantly envision nor do we meet with anyone else outside of our team. We're all on our computers all day to the point where we only interact with one another”

“We have to work 8 hours even if they are “non productive “ , at home and in office. We get 2 remote days. Tue and Wed are mandatory office. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“Hybrid employee here. My company moved into a new office recently. Despite being a hybrid employee, they did not deem me worthy of an assigned permanent space. The office has reached capacity since, so even if I wanted to go I’d have to find a place to work. So to answer your question, this is as “lax” as it gets imo. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“I was hired 4 years ago and I was told hybrid with 2 days in office. I tried for less days in office after working there for about 2 months, but was told it had to be 2 days. This year I've been into the office 10 times total, about once a month. Management does not care and have not told me I need to be coming in more. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“Relaxed overall, but strict about the minimal requirements they do have. Everyone that is hybrid is required to be in office on Tuesdays. The building isn’t even open W-F. If people miss their in office day because something comes up it’s not a big deal, but if it’s a pattern it’s an issue. My employers take is that they have given a lot of grace in allowing folks to stay majority remote, so all they ask is that the minimal in office requirement is taken seriously. For those of us like myself th”

“Fairly strict officially, but incredibly flexible depending on team and management. Officially, we are full time in the office. Requesting a hybrid or full WFH schedule requires multiple levels of approval for me up to and including the CIO to sign off. That said, no one in my immediate team likes being sick and we all know sometimes you need to wait on a service technician or delivery person. I have never once been questioned for declaring I would work from home on a given day or couple of days”

“They require 3 days in office. I'm the exception though and still work fully remote [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“Last place was fully remote when I started. The mandated 2 days a week in. Very heavily enforced. I quite as I didn't want a 7 hour round trip twice a week. Many others did the same. Senseless. Now have a fully remote role at a great company. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“I manage a team that's supposed to be in office but I'm remote bc I moved during the remote days. We haven't been told a single thing since RTO. I don't have any reporting. I have 3 people in 3 different offices. No one ever has acknowledged RTO ever. I couldn't care less if people are in office. But so help me if someone eventually comes to me and says you're a bad manager bc your team isn't in office I'm going to be pissed. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybri”

“Was told when being interviewed 3 days in office. Started and it was only two. Once my boss realized I got my work done well we moved to 1 day in office. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“Shout out to all my colleagues that endure a redundancy process earlier to now face an imposed back to the office policy. submitted by /u/Substantial_Client_3 [link] [comments]”

“Going from four 10s to mandatory 8x5 in-office would feel like getting hired at a differnt company. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“I’m remote. However my company has been pushing for RTO for a while now. The nearest office to me is 60+ miles. They sent out a couple emails saying RTO would be required of “everyone” 3 days a week (up from 2 days a week). They then shortly after sent another email that remote teams/individuals are not affected by the change but alluded to perhaps needing some kind of approval/review process of which office could/should be reported to. It’s honestly a mess but I’m happy I’m remote. My team is c”

“Remote work isn't dead. It's dropped quite a bit, but there are plenty of companies that are entrenched in remote work and don't have plans to end it anytime soon. The problem is that remote work is highly coveted. She needs to put in a lot of resumes. Usually something like healthcare or insurance is going to be her best industries to find a remote job. She'll have to apply for a lot of jobs and use the law of averages. LinkedIn does have legit job postings, but I wouldn't b”

“3 days in office mandatory with set time, full 9 hours. We go in to basically not speak to each other and have meetings on teams from feet away [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“It aligns with antiwork because the focus is on building structures and societies that work for people and communities, rather than for corporate interests. submitted by /u/footofwrath [link] [comments]”

“At least once a week full day in office. Rest of week remote. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“I work for a mostly remote UK company, we can’t have full time employees in the Republic of Ireland They have to be consultants [re: Experiences Working Remotely Outside Of Country You're *Supposed* To Be In]”

“It’s basically someone who goes to the office scans in, fills up their coffee mug, goes home and does their work. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“That setup sounds pretty reasonable, but I can see how too much flexibility can get abused if there’s no accountability. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“Because most companies aren’t going to fire a good worker because of a lack of office attendance. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“That’s the frustrating part, a good setup can disappear overnight just because management changes. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“Sounds like the office requirement got so loose it stopped being worth pretending. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“That kind of policy shift can completely change whether a job is worth keeping. Makes sense that losing the flexibility was the dealbreaker [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“My company is 4 days office as a rule, I have an approved change which is 3 days office. My boss has an approved change of 2 days in office because they live so far away. The attendance is tracked but not in hours, just did they attend Y/N. I have 8 direct reports and have never checked the report to see how often they are in because I actually just don’t care. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“My new role is hybrid but I only have to go to onsite if we have meetings. My manager said they’ve only had one meeting this year and won’t have another one until January. [re: How “lax” is your companies hybrid or remote environment?]”

“I’ve heard mixed things. Some people have pretty flexible hours with no set in office times, so they can come and go as they please as long as they get their work done and hit 40 hours a week. Others have much stricter managers who expect them to be in the office for the full 8 hours on their in-office days and won’t let them leave before 3 p.m. Some are also micromanaged, where it feels like their manager cares more about them being physically present than whether they’re actually getting their”

“They want control . But, my job is hybrid. The first 6 months I had to be fully in office for training. I cannot imagine learning a new job over a laptop. That’s just not how I learn. I like to be able to pull someone over or sit with them and do it together. But once I was trained , I was able to wfh 2x a week. However. This only works if others are in office. I had another job like that and the people who I needed training from were remote 3-4x week… so it kinda defeated the purpose of me bein”

“I worked remotely for a few years, but took a year-long break from the field due to personal circumstances. I can’t return to my past company because they’ve transitioned to only hiring hybrid workers, and it seems nearly impossible to get remote UX research jobs just by cold applying. Like thousands-tens of thousands of applicants per posting. I’m curious if there are remote research jobs that are more common outside of UXR that I’m not familiar with that I could start looking into. All of the”

“This is probaly the core issue: OP can’t want the remote job more than she does. [re: Wife is looking at remote work, any advice helps]”

“Working remote is an actual school set. Believe it or not, not everyone is disciplined to work from home. I can understand companies wanting someone to have remote work experience. [re: Is FlexJobs worth it?]”

“Do folks on indivual level ever care when their coworkers come and go? It's the attendance system (if exist) that will mark you up [re: What’s your unethical work advice?]”

“Control [re: Why is remote work despised by employers]”

“That’s BS😂 the people popping into the office are the most distracting individuals to ever exist. [re: Can we talk about how remote jobs are disappearing or turning “hybrid”?]”

“what? like all of them. probably 100,000 companies or more. what a weird question [re: Remote work that provides a laptop?]”

“I currently have a remote role as a Supervising Accountant. I’m supposed to be doing implementation testing but I haven’t done much of that. Then the big wigs announced that they were moving our corporate office to the city thats only 20 minutes away from my house. No one can tell me how this is going to affect me. Some background, I was a senior accountant and switced to the implmenation team to implement a new accounting software. The role was portrayed as something totally different than what”

“What if something happens and you need to work from home for a day or two? [re: Do you guys keep your personal email completely separate from anything work related?]”

“If you are sitting in an office you are visible all day. They want the same visibility if you are remote I personally wouldn’t take the job but I can see why they would request it [re: A Remote Employee Refused 160 Webcam Photos a Day. Her Employer Fired Her]”

“Sounds like they’re trying to recreate office surveilance with extra steps, not manage software work. [re: Does anybody else have a boss who requires you to be on call with them all day?]”

“That person might just not want the promotion and want the 2.5h with no increased responsibility. Wouldn't you say that's fair? [re: Why is remote work despised by employers]”

“It is shocking how sharp it can be man. [re: Why is remote work despised by employers]”

“If I have 20 hours work, I would just say I am busy with my workload and stay under the radar. I would never tell my manager either since who wants more work for same pay. [re: Why is remote work despised by employers]”

“Its a tool by an employer to minimize remote employees ability to do things other than their job. They gave her the option of coming into the office instead. Like ButterscotchAward said, remote employees love to brag about how much they do during the workday that's not work and then act indignant when companies do RTOs or things like this. [re: A Remote Employee Refused 160 Webcam Photos a Day. Her Employer Fired Her]”

“The caveat to this is for site accountants who work at plant/manufacturing sites. In a decade plus of working across industries, I've never done the following working remotely: taken hour+ lunches "coffee breaks" that end up being an hour after factoring in driving to a coffee shop, ordering, drinking coffee there, and then traveling back to the office had hour+ "quick" desk chats, that ended up being a non-question and not time sensitive I block my calendar with what nee”

“I dont understand it. Do they really think its less productive? submitted by /u/Motor_Reality_6 [link] [comments]”

“I've taken a new position within my company but it comes with me going from essentially 90% autonomy (my own office in my own building away from any management) for the past 15 years to an office where my manager will literally be behind my desk about 10 feet. I definitely considered this before taking the position but turning it down wasn't a good option. Have any of you been through something similar? How did you handle it, any tips? submitted by /u/Adorable-Drawing6161 [li”

“Dear employers, No one wants to move to your area for an on-site role that's only temporary/contract. Offer your role remotely, or permanently. Pick one, or be prepared to let it go unfilled for a year or more. I'm available for more advice at terriblejoblistings.com [re: Monthly Getting Started / Web Dev Career Thread]”

“It's just the other version of 'you need to be in the office'. If managers are too idiotic to measure output and by that see if work is getting done or not, they default to 'can i see them'. [re: A Remote Employee Refused 160 Webcam Photos a Day. Her Employer Fired Her]”

“I’m capitalism loving maniac. Genuinely love big corps, and even I am against this. 1) it’s their house, not job site, 2) remote work is not in-person work, just isn’t. If it’s about making sure they do their job, there are a million less mentally-affecting ways of measuring like KPI, and 3) if I’m having my camera on that much, they’re paying my mortgage [re: A Remote Employee Refused 160 Webcam Photos a Day. Her Employer Fired Her]”

“Been working remote in logistics for 5 years now and the answer really depends what you mean by "best" If you want money go for tech sales or software dev but the stress is real and they expect you available at weird hours sometimes. If you want chill then data entry or admin support is way more relaxed but the pay is not amazing I got into supply chain coordination and it fits me perfect cause I like knowing where everything is and when it's moving. Not glamorous but I have my sys”