Hired on to a fully remote team, and now, 3 years later they want me in the office or I’ll “resign”
I work for a large company. Like many of the others, they’ve started the “return to office,” drums some months back. My classification was “virtual,” as I was hired onto a team that was always virtual, regardless of the pandemic.
When they started the RTO (return to office) talk they targeted people/teams that had previously been in the office but went remote due to the pandemic. But we all suspected they’d come for everyone.
Sure enough this week they started having conversations with people designated as “virtual” about coming into the office.
I took this job because it was virtual, which allowed me to find a more relaxing balance in life. I can take my dogs out multiple times a day, each lunch outside with them, and not deal with traffic as I had been in the past decade.
In any case, I was told that unless they approve an exception (which is rare) I have essentially 90 days before they’d take that as a voluntary resignation.
I was candid and said that I didn’t plan to resign, but I’d consider it constructive dismissal, or work until they fired me. That is, unless, they were going to offer something for the resignation.
That shitty thing is that I took this job at lower pay due to some stock incentives that still have one more year to fully vest.
Anyways, just another good reminder that especially for these large companies you’re just a number. I’m happy I learned this years back and have been able to maximize my enjoyment and life balance during these last 3 years.
EDITs to Clarify
This job and team was remote years before the pandemic. This was not a covid-related shift. If this was simply a “they let me WFH for a while and now I have to go back,” situation I wouldn’t have made this post.
I would understand some people’s heartache, but I wouldn’t have had an expectation that being virtual was forever. This was a virtual role from day one.