PrimalWrath t1_j9t3ozy wrote on February 24, 2023 at 10:51 AM

My wife is currently going through almost this exact same scenario in the UK. Copy/pasted from a post I made a few weeks ago:

It started with shallow platitudes about "getting back to normal" and it being "easier to vibe with each other". Apparently the CEO gave a rare appearance one day and he didn't like how empty the office was. Two or three days a week in office were then required.

Then company-wide weekly updates stopped being delivered online and are now in-person only, with no justification, despite employees from smaller branches being too far away to attend them. Now she is required to attend a fouth day each week to account for this deliberate contrivance.

When she raised concerns about this trajectory, and asked the justification for it, she was pressured by upper-middle management to essentially not question it and to limit such "outbursts" in future. It was strongly implied that her career progression would be impacted if she didn't, though she suspects it has been already.

She's privately been approached by colleagues and told that they share her concerns, but they feel unable to voice them. They seem to want her to continue fighting it but she's pretty much decided to not rock the boat any further while she looks for another job to move on to.

Interestingly, it seems that some of her more extroverted colleagues who do prefer to work in the office, and do so five days a week, seem to have been almost personally offended by my wife's questioning of the policy, and her interactions with them have been noticeably frosty since. I can see that divide among workers factoring into the success of the current attempts to rollback WFH rights.

altcastle t1_j9ua24c wrote on February 24, 2023 at 4:39 PM

People who want things to go back to pre-COVID times seem kind of like a cult. If you challenge the ludicrous things, you get frowned at and labeled not a team player.

jdowgsidorg t1_j9vklgb wrote on February 24, 2023 at 9:36 PM

This is true on both sides… as is standard with any polarisation the extremists are extreme and vocal about pushing their position, while the vast majority don’t comment because it’s obvious that this doesn’t have to be one-size-fits-all.

Some people and jobs benefit from WFH, others benefit from collocating. Lots of people seem to have difficulty understanding that not all jobs are just like their job or just don’t care because they have a preference and want that to prevail for everyone.

I think we’re seeing a selection bias in posters talking about their employers - the ones that are going fully hybrid or remote don’t result in as many posts.

Zren8989 t1_j9vzg8a wrote on February 24, 2023 at 11:18 PM

The commute is the biggest issue imo, it's wasteful as all hell here in the states. Makes no sense to drive half an hour or more just to sit in an office that is less comfortable than my home. Not to mention the added cost. Thankfully my job has always been fully remote and will not be changing.

sillusions t1_j9vcpbf wrote on February 24, 2023 at 8:45 PM

Those people in your last paragraph suck. I am super extroverted. I thought I’d never want to work from home. Now, I could never go back into an office. It is not my job’s responsibility to socialize me. I can make my own plans with people that actually want to see me, not people who are forced into an office.

If you’re an extrovert, do the work yourself to make friends.

ConfirmedCynic t1_j9vxbik wrote on February 24, 2023 at 11:02 PM

Society is ruled by extroverts. 96 percent of managers are extroverts, according to one study. They're reasserting their control and arranging things to suit themselves as always.