I'll make this short. I work in Tech, and I know that puts me in a bit of a privileged position. Earlier this year I was hired for a big corporate ( probably among the largest in Europe ), with an agreement to work fully remote. So far I've never set foot in the office, nor I intend to. It's a waste of time and money, only to pretend I get along with whoever does the same job as me.
Last week company had a large quarterly all hands meeting, and out of the blue they announce the dreaded “return to office”, about 2 days per week, invoking some bullshit reasons like “remote is okay, but something is lost” and that we need to boost productivity and teamwork, company culture, and what have you, basically using all the buzzwords they could fetch out of their ass.
A few days after that, my team had a meeting to discuss how we're going to do it, which days are best, etc. When someone asked me my opinion I just sugar coated it and said “well I live kinda far from the office, and this will be a bit tricky for me”. My manager's manager started invoking all the bs reasons again, and I left it at that.
The very next day I get a random “Quick chat” meeting invite, with the only note being “good news”. They're giving me a 15% raise when I complete a year with the company, which is still like.. 3 or 4 months away. That's on top of the yearly salary review and bonus. It's a very decent raise, but also one that is suspiciously timed. Am I the only one thinking that they're just trying to throw money at me in hopes I accept the fucking miserable commute life?