About month ago, I notified my employer that I was planning to move back to the East Coast in July to be closer to family, expecting that I would be able to continue working for them as a remote worker. I was hired with the condition that I go to the office from time to time. I barely go into the office and am fully able to do my tech job.
I have two co-workers, including my manager, who have moved away from the state and are fully remote. Because of this, I was surprised when were unwilling to let me be a fully remote employee and told me that it was “regrettable” and that “I would be missed.” They stated “tax reasons” and wanting to be a “tight knit company” as reasons for why they were unwilling to allow this.
A co-worker told me it was discussed in a meeting that HR was planning on asking me to resign. I'm confused because they're the ones who thinks this is a deal breaker. I could continue working remotely forever. My coworkers are telling me to not resign and to make them fire me because if I voluntarily quit, I will be giving up the ability to collect unemployment, which I want to do.
I'm not really sure how to go about this. Should I outright tell them that I want to collect unemployment so they're going to have to fire me? Any tips or tricks? I've searched Reddit for other situations like mine but I struggled to find this exact scenario. I appreciate any insight to this since I've never been in this situation before. Thank you!