Hey there! I totally get where you’re coming from. It can be frustrating when it feels like there’s no push back on Return to Office (RTO) policies. It’s definitely important for employees to have a say in decisions that directly impact our work-life balance.
Have you considered gathering feedback from your colleagues and presenting it to management? Sometimes, a collective voice can make a big impact.
Also, think about suggesting alternative solutions that could benefit both the company and the employees. Maybe a hybrid work model or flexible scheduling could be a win-win situation.
Remember, open and constructive communication is key! Your input is valuable as a member of the team, and it’s important to make sure your perspective is heard.
Hang in there and keep advocating for what you believe in! You’ve got this! 💪🏼
This has not been my experience at all. We lost several very tenured employees when RTO was announced.
Because the job market is very bad. I can’t risk upsetting my employer and having to interview for jobs right now
The unionized NYT software engineers [recently did a strike to push back against RTO](https://www.axios.com/2023/10/30/nyt-tech-workers-walk-out).
I don’t care about it. If I get a couple days WFH to run some errands, I am happy.
The pushback is that you quit. They want that, because then they don’t owe you unemployment or severance. “Unregretted attrition”
When my manager and I discussed it I told him he’d have my resignation if I had to RTO. It hasn’t been brought up since. I’m far from the only person in my company or the wider industry taking that position, plenty of people leave when a company mandates RTO. Some people either aren’t willing to risk it or don’t care enough about it to do so.
My former employer (giant corporation) lost all the senior developers in my department when they announced RTO. They are still unwilling to budge on 3-days-a-week hybrid so they are just perpetually hiring for open positions that never get filled. When I left we were down from like 20 devs to 3-4 junior devs and a senior guy on a visa who couldn’t leave. I’m sure they’ll hire more college kids in the coming years but still struggle with retention.
While this was happening a ton of middle managers above the developer level also quit, also for remote work. I had like half a dozen bosses in a few months. When I left, they had put some 20 year lifer guy above me to head things and I got to hear him yell on the phone about hiring and retention problems every day for hours. It was such a shitshow.
You’re showing your age with this question. Who can afford to be jobless in this economy? You push back by quitting and your employer offers no severance. Most Americans are in the situation where if they miss a month’s worth of pay then they’ll be in financial disarray.
There is.
Sure we aren’t rioting in the street, but compliance is really low.
Worker shortage = worker leverage. Worker oversupply = employer leverage.
The IT worker shortage that occurred during covid was unprecedented and employers had to abide by the market. The market has begun to swing the other way as interest rates have there desired effect: cutbacks/layoffs
There is some push back. But right now it’s an employer’s market. We got all these benefits during the last employee’s market. Tides will shift at some point.
Dumb question; how does RTO work if you’re a remote worker hired in a remote location? For example my teammate is one of the most senior people on my team but he lives several states away from the nearest office. I live an hour away from my office but literally no one in my entire department is zoned to this office.
I’m indifferent. I like not having to commute into the office but I’m not going to quit my job over it.
10% of people in my org have quit. I have two babies so I shut up and do what I’m told.
My company allows me ultimate flexibility. We have an office with lots of perks, and are allowed to come in as often as we want. I’ve been going in 3 days a week just because. It’s nice to have somewhere to go sometimes.
We were pushing back RTO, the problem is that the market got worse and people got afraid of being jobless
We’ve pushed back for years at this point.
My company is still 100% WFH
I think there is a lot of push back which is why there are still a lot of fully remote employees and many companies are doing partial back to the office.
However, for companies, it’s about trade offs. If they force people back to the office, they might lose some employees. If they are willing to accept that, then it’s very easy to force people back to the office.
Especially in a climate where people are being laid off, and there is a larger pool of engineering candidates more companies may be willing to accept the risk of losing employees by forcing people back to the office.
If you want to work remote, best thing you can do is find companies that are more accepting of it.
I think the truth is that the only reason that remote happened in the first place (aside from COVID obviously) is that there was such a need for developers that the companies felt like they had to acquiesce. Now that the market is shifting back, I think that a lot of it is just companies reestablishing dominance in a market that they feel got away from them.
Someone at my company told me that they were ecstatic about the layoffs because that meant that they didn’t have to try to keep up with the disgusting salaries/perks anymore (their words).
People who are used to controlling everything REALLY don’t like it when there is a swing in the balance. We are going to see a continued overcorrection despite the fact that virtually all evidence suggests that people are actually more productive when working from home.
There is is push back by way of people quitting and finding a new job. The issue is there are SWEs that don’t care about RTO or it’s not a priority want over having a job. So enough SWEs will RTO or take an in-office job that it does not affect the company enough for them to change their behavior.
You want companies to change behavior then get enough SWEs to reject in-office jobs outright that the company cannot fill their hiring needs and make money. This is easier said that done though.
Because there’s no union or organizing in the industry. It’s all just individuals and there’s not enough leverage when it’s only a couple people quitting. Companies can limp along when enough people are stuck where they have to follow what the company tells them to do.
I reached out for referrals the day it was official I had to RTO. Last day was the first day back in the office and I was the only one with a smile on my face.
I’m doing my part. Every time I get an offer on linkedin that requires coming to office every week, I’m responding that this is unacceptable and I’m not interested.
Because workers don’t have the leverage right now. We did about 3 years ago but not currently. It’ll swing in the opposite direction and swing back again. Such is business.
My company announced 1day a week last November. I ignored the email and didn’t come to the office until April. No one batted an eye because I make the company a lot of money and solve problems.
I quit a job as a senior engineer because they pushed RTO when it was a truly dumb idea
I’m pushing back. I’m just a manager of one little team, but I’m fighting the fight.
There has been push back. My former company tried getting us to RTO more than 2 years ago now. I and several others left.
They tried to make me RTO in 2021.
My office building is a big place, so even during in-office days, I would wander around and work in interesting spots. I would also inform other people in the building that I’m sick with a strained voice. I also tended to be whiny about office equipment and accommodations. I would also keep my office door closed and locked nearly all the time, and the door required a key to open. I was also evasive about the days I’m in-office, supplying a percentage chart when asked.
Eventually, I struck a deal with management. They wanted my office with a window, I wanted full remote. They haven’t tried to bring me back since.
Push back is usually quiet.
The startup I worked for did a mandatory day in office and several devs simply told their manager “No, I’m not coming in. You can fire me if you’d like.”
Just because people aren’t loud about it doesn’t mean there’s no pushback.
Apple lost it’s top AI guy over this.
My company instituted RTO and in the middle of the announcing meeting I reached out to my manager letting them know I would be looking for employment elsewhere. Thankfully they said I was exempt.
Every recruiter that’s reached out (even for companies I deeply want to work for) has been informed that I’m 100% remote with the option of some days being hybrid. If they don’t have that option I thank them for reaching out, I’m humbled by them taking time out of their day, and let them know that I am not a great value add for the direction of the company.
Not giving up 6 figs in a super LCOL working 100% remotely for peanutes.
(I work for Google and am a member of the Alphabet Worker’s Union. I speak only for myself an my views don’t necessarily reflect those of my employer or the union.)
There is! It probably depends a lot on your specific employer, but at many companies, employees are organizing to resist onerous RTO orders. My union has been pretty effective at pushing back against the worst parts of my employer’s RTO plan, including winning concessions for people hired during the Covid pandemic with the understanding that they would be remote.
We have one of the most mature tech worker unions out there and we’re making real progress in improving working conditions, especially for Google’s army of contractors, but even for us it’s early days.
Talk to your coworkers. Organizing takes many forms. At its most basic, get together with them, figure out what your common RTO grievances are, and write a letter together with a single voice telling management what you’re unhappy about.
On their own, workers do what the management says. All together workers can do what’s best for themselves.
You need to do research on companies to figure out if the are long term WFH or going to RTO pivot. My company is actively selling major real estate (including moving the HQ from the Campus it has been at for the last like 40 years to the larger 20 year old one), and lowering capacity across all of our major campuses by like 25-50%. We are 100% flexible, with office space available whenever desired, but we also have a mandate that we do not require office attendance (so even when we have in person events, they are always optional).
My team has been doing a one day a month “Come to Work” day, where we get to spend some time together, and between 1/3 and 1/2 of the team attends. But we are 100% home based as the default now, and real estate being consolidated proves that we are not going back. We’re also doing by most metrics the best of any company in the industry, so nobody has anything to complain about.
Man I got a family to support. I’d start looking if they made me RTO, but I’m not gonna ‘refuse’ and risk getting fired. I’ll make my opinion known to some strategically, but that’s about it.
OP here having a panic attack about remote work completely evaporating while I’m having several recruiters a day contact me about remote positions and I don’t even have my looking for work settings turned on. The math ain’t mathin’.
The one thing I’ll note is most remote roles have an expectation of occasional travel, spend a week or two at their HQ per quarter or some chosen location etc. That seems very fair to me. You get a chance to meet your team and make some memories together, but 44-48 weeks out of the year you get to do your thing.
I live 7 minutes from the office and refuse to go in, I’m pushing back, y’all are just pushovers
# There is absolutely no collective/cross-company push for RTO or any thing related to work’s priveldges/rights. When it was “employees market”, y’all didn’t organize. Now you getting cooked.