Years ago, by sheer luck, I managed to land a high paying (IT) networking job at a high speed trading company in London. I had worked there for slightly over 7 years when my mother in law got cancer and my wife wanted to return to our home country to take care of her. I stayed behind because I was allowed to work from home 2 days a week. So I spent first 3 days of each week in UK and 4 in my home country. The 8 short flights a month were easily doable. This went on for half a year.
Trouble started when they hired a new hotshot MBA manager who saw that I wasn't flexible enough with my home office days. He started organising team building activities and “all hands meetings” for Thursdays/Fridays and would always point out that I'm not there being a part of the team. My colleagues always had my back but he was incessant.
One day he and an HR lady sat me down and I was forced to explain the reason for my inflexibility. The very next day they explained that I wasn't in a remote job, home office days meant that I'd be available in office if needed – none of this was in my contract. They offered to make me redundant as this was apparently better for me than firing me or me quitting and I'd get more money from the (UK) government. I was stunned by this because my contract (which predated his and HR lady's by a few years) specifically stated that in this case I'd get 6 months full pay! So I tentatively agreed, took the paperwork to a solicitor and signed it a few days later.
The story doesn't end here. My country's unemployment support for the first 3 months is 90% of my average previous year's salary, followed by 60% for 9 months. This amounted to truly ridiculous money especially with the extra 6 months' redundancy payment. My 1 year sabbatical was only sweetened by the news that he was let go for getting rid of me (so expensively).