tl;dr The executive made it impossible to stay at the company and my manager is lying to upper management to buy me some time.
I'm in software and my team is spread across 5 time zones so we can more easily provide the support the company needs. Productivity skyrocketed when we started working from home, so our VP decided we should make it permanent and he closed offices that had a low number of employees, including mine.
He has since moved on to another part of the company and a new VP is in. The new guy wants to make his mark and decided that everyone has to go back to the office, no exceptions. We have to be there on Monday and “there will be no discussion about this. Working in the office is required for all employees”. My old office was 20 minutes away. Now that it's closed, I would have to commute 17 hours. There is no offer of a relocation package, not that I would take it anyway.
I put in for time off so I can be paid while I interview elsewhere. My manager isn't stupid and knows exactly why I need vacation time the same day my exec basically says I will be fired. He says I can have the time off, but asked that I consider staying while he comes up with a plan.
The next day, he told me he met the exec and there is no way to convince him to let us stay at home. However, we can work on a shifted schedule to avoid rush hour and to provide the same support hours we used to in our old time zones. So now our entire team is now “officially” working on a shifted schedule that happens to never overlap with when the exec is in the office.
I asked my manager what his plan is when this blows up in our faces and he said (paraphrasing) VP is famous for not thinking things through or even paying attention for very long. Give it three weeks and he will find something shiny to chase. We can get away with this for years.
I kinda want to stick around and see what happens, but I need to be smart about this. I will still interview.