I’ve accepted today my my firm is willing to lose significant talent to micromanage in office work. After prioritizing my career the last 5 years and plenty of unpaid overtime developing presentation decks to teach others software we use, producing renderings and VR content for clients that haven’t paid for it, etc. Most of this development on my time and not the company’s dime because often enough I’ve not been staffed on it. In the beginning I was brainwashed into thinking I had to do all of this last minute late night work for client decks in order to get my goal promotion. I also felt my colleagues tasking me were supportive and in it with me at the time as they’d be present with me most late work nights.
Covid hit and in the beginning of it my firm was renovating a new office to move into, so in a way it worked as we could cut or old office lease short I guess and work remote. Two years pass and I love remote working as I could still get what I had done but find a better balance in my life and not endure the 2 hour commute each day with rush hour that honestly killed me.
We finally start filtering back into our new “agile” workplace office post pandemic a few months ago. Not many flock in, and our CEO eventually mandates 3 days in the office since not many are coming in as they have a tracking software we are forced to sign into “to ensure we keep track of potential Covid exposures.” They definitely aren’t using it to track who isn’t coming in the office LOL.
So last month I get a call from the same director who would task me with late night tasks and is my mentor to some respect asking why I’m not coming in the office 3 days a week (only been coming in about once a week). No one in my firm received a similar call even though I’m certainly not the only one not following the protocol. I explain, I haven’t purchased a new car since I was rear ended, my mom has been sick, I’m getting my work done effectively, and everyone in the office is just taking teams calls anyways. She responds “Well you were able to still do all that in the office in a timely and effective manner pre-pandemic.” Which I immediately argue back the midnight work nights for last minute presentations I was not staffed for that I was stuck with. Zero rebuttal. I go a step further and explain I’m also practicing our firms 2030 climate change vision by reducing my personal carbon footprint to only coming into the office once a week. She realizes I’m not budging and ends the call.
Today we attend our firms monthly meeting in person and results for my firms “3 day in office” survey are discussed by management. To say that survey was cherry picked was an understatement as a handful enjoy the in office culture and most of others feel forced to come in. The managing director softly threatens if they don’t see more people in three days a week leadership might revert back to the 5 day work week. And they would feel “pretty bad if we lost a progressive hybrid workflow after working remote because of this.” They continue talking about more ways of getting people in the office, one person who lives across the office exclaims “in office yoga”, another said food, etc. You get the idea. I quietly walk back to my desk and focus on my deadlines as nothing I would have to say would make any difference. Shortly after the discussion concludes I’m approached by my mentor exclaiming “You heard that OP, 3 days a week!”
And without missing a beat I retort “I heard it, thank you. But it doesn’t mean I’m changing my schedule.” She tries to discuss with me why a bit further, and I give the same reasons, and the conversation is dropped. This is a hill I’m willing to die on or at least slide down into a new career if needs be.