tl;dr – my company is fucking me over regarding working remotely even though they asked me to stay with them after I received a fully remote offer last year and assuring me working remotely wouldn’t be a problem
Currently work for a very large (250k+ employees) company which is forcing people back into the office. I’m an exceptional employee (not my words) and have been with them for 6 years.
Last September I received an offer at another company for full-time remote employment. The Friday before the Monday I was supposed to start my new role, a very senior person in my organization (this person is my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss, she reports to someone who reports to the COO of the entire firm – just for context) called me and asked me to stay with the company. I expressed that I would be willing to, but I need to be fully remote because of personal/familial reasons, they assured me HR would take care of it. I accepted their offer – spoiler: big mistake!
I sent a follow up email recapping everything we spoke about and included my offer letter. Another person from her org (senior-level) reached out to and asked me to formally apply for a position, which I interviewed for. During the interviews I expressed that a remote role was a priority for me and that I turned down a written offer on the behest of the very senior person mentioned above.
My new manager requested that HR create a remote position for me to fill, but the process took too long so HR themselves instructed my manager to onboard me and request a alternative work arrangement after I was in seat. All of this is documented.
Fast forward to this past week, HR is forcing my manager to put me on a performance improvement plan (PIP), with the path to green as returning to an office, otherwise I get the axe. So far my manager has refused to do that. I’ve escalated this as high as it will go (to the very senior person’s boss) requesting an exception based on the circumstances; I’m still waiting to hear back on whether or not they will grant it.
Is there anything I can realistically do? I’ve already started aggressively applying for new positions and I will force them to terminate if it comes to it so I get unemployment, at the very least.