First of all, I live and work in Europe, so this isn't something major and compared to the atrocities I see on this sub I don't really have a lot to complain, but I still want to share this.
When I was hired last year we were allowed to WFH for 2 days. Then another covid wave hit and they asked us to WFH as much as possible and they've pretty much let us decide where we work the last couple of months. Some came in full time, others took to a hybrid form of working. I went to the office one day per week.
Recently we received an email from HR of country A to come back to the office for 3 days per week. With current gas prices, no one was looking forward to that.
Now, I work and live in country A but I work for country B. My manager is working and living in country B and the colleague I work with the most is even situated in country C. I forwarded the email to my manager and asked them what I should do. I'm okay with coming in once a week, maybe twice if needed, but 3 times seemed excessive as I'm not even working together with those colleagues, except for a few side-projects for which I got the permission to work on but don't have anything to do with my job. My manager quickly replied “let's do 2 days” and I forwarded that email to HR.
Next week I come in, pass by HR and ask whether they've received my email. Reply: “yes, but I'm going to have to run it past our CEO…”. Sure… but he's not MY CEO.
Next thing I was worried about is that my coworkers might be a bit angry because they have to come in 3 days and I got an exception because I have a different manager. Guess what? They had already asked and received permission from THEIR manager to do 2 days too.
No more word from HR and the CEO
TL;DR: HR wanted us back 3 days, everyone does 2 days.