That’s pretty much how my company works. We have an HQ in the DC area, and satellite offices in NYC, SF, Austin, Raleigh… I think that’s it so far. There is no mandate to go to any office outside of, you know, the occasional in-person meeting. Seems to work well enough, I have some folks I work with who live near an office and many will go to the office a day or two each week, I do have one coworker who lives in DC and he’s pretty much in the office every day. They do get free lunch most days, if I lived near there I’d be in the office here and there.
First day after Thanksgiving holiday, the office HVAC was out. Everybody was told to work from home. (I’m pretty sure that many of us got more done from home than they would have in the office.) Working in the office seems generally pretty pointless. 
1 Like
I learned the hard way that the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week is a quiet WFH day
1 Like
After ditching two-thirds of its office space and selling its Chicago headquarters, Allstate Corp. realized that even employees who prefer working remotely still need a place to gather with their coworkers from time to time.
They mean Zoom and Teams, right?
1 Like
Are they Beer Gardens or Strip Clubs?
Asking for a friend.
Compare cost of monthly rent to cost of a monthly event.
1 Like
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/remote-work-in-office-return-fired-f81b1c3c?mod=wknd_pos1
confidential
Here’s an archive of the story: https://archive.ph/TP7RP
top secret
Meet the People Who Refused to Go Back to the Office and Lost Their Jobs
These people are coming to terms with the fact that they might never work from home again
By
Dec. 11, 2024 9:00 pm ET
If you’re reading this from your home office, it’s time to consider whether you’re prepared to lose your job over a return-to-office mandate.
Companies are finally getting serious about in-person requirements, after years of lax enforcement. Amazon will require employees to report to offices five days a week beginning Jan. 2. Several other major employers, including UPS, JPMorgan Chase and Boeing, also have called at least some of their workers back to the office for the full five.
Outright firings for RTO noncompliance appear to be rare, or at least handled quietly, but the specter is real. Publicis Media in October terminated several dozen employees who flouted in-office requirements, according to multiple reports. The company declined to comment. Starbucks has warned its office employees they could be fired if they don’t show up three days a week, starting next month.
Businesses including Roblox and Grindr have offered severance packages to employees who decline to show up as often as required, while others, like Snap, have laid off workers while citing in-office targets.
In conversations with more than a dozen people who’ve gone through RTO-related job losses or believe one could be imminent, they said that being shown the exit isn’t the worst part. Harder to swallow is the realization that they might never again score a remote or hybrid work arrangement as good as the one they had.
Stephanie Pittman says she lost her remote job as the director of vendor management for a building-maintenance company last month. She had worked from her home in Wichita, Kan., since joining the California-based business last year.
ATTORNEY STEPHANIE PITTMAN HAS WORKED FROM HER HOME IN KANSAS FOR COMPANIES BASED IN CALIFORNIA AND WASHINGTON STATE. AFTER A RECENT LAYOFF, SHE SAYS IT IS HARD TO FIND ANOTHER REMOTE OPPORTUNITY.
The company started calling employees back to its headquarters and hiring people who could work in person. Pittman, a 51-year-old attorney, had taken the job to escape a previous employer’s back-to-the-office push and is anchored to Wichita by four children, her husband’s job as a judge, and aging parents who live a mile away.
Her old job is now posted as an on-site position. With part-time legal work as a contractor, Pittman has maintained her income in the month since her layoff, but the outlook for another high-paying remote job is discouraging. She’s gotten little traction on more than 100 applications so far.
“It’s just so frustrating, so demoralizing,” she says.
‘A BLOODBATH’
Many bosses believe they no longer have to put up with work-from-home holdouts, says Dan Kaplan, a senior client partner at consulting firm Korn Ferry.
“Behind closed doors there’s a view among CEOs that ‘I’m tired of this whining about coming back to work,’” he says. “‘We’ve compromised enough, and if you’re not meeting the minimum then we’re going to move on without you.’”
Though a lot of workers seemingly have little choice but to comply with RTO mandates, Kaplan predicts many will refuse anyway and foresees a “bloodbath” in 2025 with neither employers nor employees backing down. Some people are sitting on savings from the postpandemic boom and can afford to be jobless for a while; others are optimistic that the labor market will heat back up and re-empower them to negotiate flexible work arrangements.
There is some evidence that the highest earners are starting to claw back leverage. Ladders, a job site for six-figure positions, reports 10.4% of roles that pay $250,000 or more were advertised as remote in the third quarter of this year, up from 8.8% in the second quarter.
Nathan Vance says he took a buyout from dating-app maker Grindr in April, rather than move within commuting distance of an office. He was hired as a remote employee and bought a house in Washington state in 2022—about 800 miles from the company’s nearest office, in San Francisco—believing he could work from home permanently. He didn’t want to move and figured the math was in his favor. Why give up a property he owns, with a mortgage around 3%, to pay exorbitant rent in the Bay Area?
Vance, 50, says he got three months’ severance and was able to collect unemployment for six months. Now he is dipping into savings and retirement accounts and estimates he has two months of runway left. He’s coming to grips with the possibility of having to relocate after all.
“I’m applying for jobs anywhere and everywhere that I think I have a shot because I’m at the point where I don’t really know what’s going to happen,” he says.
A Grindr spokeswoman says the company has increased head count by 44% in the past year while requiring employees to report to offices two days a week.
CAREER CHANGE
So much for the days of collecting a big-city salary in some far-flung retreat.
Just 8% of jobs posted on LinkedIn are remote, the company says, down from 18% in early 2022. Those roles are ultracompetitive, drawing 40% of applications submitted through LinkedIn. The job site Indeed reports the share of remote listings on its platform is also about 8% and says the posted salary ranges for remote positions have widened over the past year. That could indicate employers are trying to pay less for workers who live away from expensive coastal cities, though Indeed says there isn’t enough data to be sure.
Kendelyn Chilton joined Amazon during its 2021 hiring spree while living in Nashville, Tenn., where the company was building a new office. When Amazon paused constructionthe following year, at the same time Chilton was going through a divorce and eager for a change of scenery, she says she received permission to move closer to family in Baton Rouge, La. She’d been working from home full time anyway.
AFTER LOSING HER REMOTE TECH JOB, KENDELYN CHILTON, LEFT, GOT HER GENERAL CONTRACTOR’S LICENSE AND WENT INTO BUSINESS WITH HER FATHER.
As the company intensified its push to bring employees back to offices, she was laid off in July 2023. People in similar roles who could report to offices regularly were spared, she says. Amazon declined to comment on whether RTO compliance has factored into cuts.
Instead of searching in vain for another remote opportunity, Chilton, 32, decided to switch careers. She joined her father’s custom home-building business, spent about a year laying hardwood floors and installing insulation, and ultimately earned her general-contractor’s license. Her experience vetting job candidates helps her sniff out good and bad subcontractors, and she says she’s happier without the fear of an office callback or the anguish of a job hunt.
“So many people are looking down the barrel of never having their remote-work situation again,” she says. “I completely relate to that and feel bad for people in that position.”
2 Likes
So now she works from other people’s homes!!
Seems nice.
“Leave the boots on…”
2 Likes
Apparently Amazon’s full-time RTO mandate is being foiled by insufficient office space, further frustrating employees in impacted locations.
(Thankfully I’m still full-time WFH. The 300-mile monthly commute I had pre-pandemic wasn’t bad, but now that my office is over 3000 miles away…)
1 Like
The same thing happened at my prior firm when they did a strict 3 day RTO, ended up being delayed about 3+ months
1 Like
Dammit, Dan’s prior firm!!!
1 Like
Similar to the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week it would appear today is a unspoken WFH day at my office.
6 Likes
Dammit, Dan’s current ER’s unspoken RTO/WFH policies!!!
1 Like
Emergency room?
Should it be Emergency Medicine room???
Was contacted by two old associates in the past week.
One has a company using WFH as free layoffs. The company knew people were moving away under the expectation that WFH was there to stay. Now they are transitioning all but exceptional circumstances to at least hybrid, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t live near an office, you need to move or you’re considered to not be showing up to work.
Another is being transitioned from 2 days/week in-office to 3 days and finally decided to start looking around.
Oh, so they fixed the glitch!
1 Like
RN
Emergency Department.
Takes awhile to recategorize the meaning of ED.
1 Like