Small startup. Pre-pandemic, we had an office and it was flexible, I WFH 3 days a week. Office was 35 miles away, or 45 minutes. Doable since I commuted 3 days a week, and had flexible hrs so I'd get in by 11PM, leave 7, 7:30.
Now we're fully remote but leadership got a new WeWork type office 50 miles away. Execs, some senior mgrs, a couple of local engineers have been going in hybrid-style for the past year. Otherwise we're still fully remote, no official return to office plans. Even if they did, this new WeWork office is much smaller, and, half our company is now scattered across timezones in the US, as well as a sizeable chunk in India.
Well, they're flying in a few remote people for a week and also asked me to come in for 4 days so we can have some in person design sessions, brainstorming, etc… The problem is, its now 50 miles away vs 35, gas is a lot more $$$, and commute times to get to this new office are now 1 hr 15 min+ instead of 45 minutes one way.
The people flying in are getting their airfare and hotels expensed. They're staying somewhere walkable to the co-working office. On the other hand, I have to drive 100 miles each day = 400 miles on my car and gas money. 2.5 hrs lost commuting each day.
I'm still in the metro area so “local”. But that extra 15 miles turns into an extra 30 minutes as it goes near a heavily traffic'd/rush hour area.
Is that fair? If I lived on the other side of the country, I would get flown in, get a hotel a 5-10 minute walk away.