My husbands job has recently mandated a return to office. But five months ago, they confirmed that IT would continue as WFH indefinitely. He was forced to ask due to us buying our first home. Housing prices in Ontario are out of control, so we were forced to look further and further from his office. Before he started looking he asked management if the WFH policy would change. He was told that he would be required in the office at most 4 times a year. We found the perfect house in a small town, but it is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours from the office. Before putting down an offer, he again asked management if this would be okay. They confirmed, even the head of IT confirmed that there were no problems.
One month ago, things started to change. Some higher up got it in their head that everyone needs to be in the office at least twice a week, purely because she works better in the office. This obviously is not going to work for him. He tried to speak with his manager and the head of IT who said that they would be working from home from now on. They were, of course, useless. He was told that if he couldn't come up with a medical exemption, he would have to quit.
So we spent the next month trying to get him a medical exemption. He has chronic back pain which makes it extremely painful to drive for more than 30 minutes. The last time he had to drive into the office he was out of commission for at least three days due to the pain. He was forced to drive back to the Toronto area multiple times to see his doctor, due to Ontarios crippling doctor shortage, which of course caused him immense pain. After over 500 dollars on travel and a 150 dollar form that the company insisted his doctor fill out, they denied his medical exemption.
Why did they deny it? Well, transportation is the employees responsibly of course! They didn't even try to accommodate him in any manner. Just an immediate denial. I am completely shell-shocked. He is less so. I just can't see why they would just outright refuse to accommodate his disability other than intentional malice. I'm sick to my stomach writing this. He has been with the company for five years and is considered their all star. The one who can fix any problem. Do they really not care at all? I guess so. Thanks for reading, I really needed to share this with people who would understand.
Edit from the husband: I have been working remotely full time for this company for over 3 years, and some of my colleagues at the company have been working remotely full time for over 10 years. I have spoken to other IT staff, and 50-75% of them are planning to quit instead of going back into the office. Also, the office we're being asked to return to is one that none of us have ever been to before, in an entirely new city.