At the end of the day yesterday management sent out an email saying that they are going to start requiring us to come into the office three days a week. The email went on and on about how collaborating in person is important, how running into other people at work is beneficial, this will enhance the employee experience, and how it would make it easier to monitor risk. Multiple times they stated that this is the best decision for the company and the company’s goals. They very clearly made this decision only considering those at the top of the company and stakeholders and not the employees affected by it.
I’m livid. I was already stressing out about the two days a week I spend in office. Between those two days I waste a total of 5 hours on the commute and lunch hour that I’m forced to spend at work. It’s exhausting and I’m basically useless once I get home. Now they want to add on a third day and waste another 2.5 hours of my time??
On top of that, I literally cannot make this work. I work in office Monday and Tuesday, then work from home Wednesday-Friday. My husband is a blue collar worker and works Wednesday-Saturday. We have a toddler that we haven’t put in daycare because 1. We can’t afford it. 2. Daycare can be sketchy and we don’t feel comfortable leaving our child (who isn’t even old enough to speak up for himself yet) with strangers. 3. We don’t have anyone who can regularly watch him, even for money there have been no takers. 4. It has worked out to where my husband watches him on his days off and I watch him on my work from home days. I know a lot of people advise against this and some may come for me for it, but I don’t really have meetings or calls and on the rare occasion I do, they’re usually during nap time. I still get my work done and give my son attention since I just do back office work and it has worked out just fine. My coworkers do it too.
So what the heck am I supposed to do with my kid that third day a week?? In the email they said that providing us seven weeks notice should be plenty to make accommodations. But daycare waitlists take much longer than that. And most of them only provide full time care so I can’t just take my son for one day a week, or even three days a week. I will have to pay at least $1200 a month for full time care just for this one day a week. Or at least a nanny, which at minimum wage would still cost at least $600 a month for that one day a week. But I don’t think they’re going to pay us anymore to have to come in an extra day. I’m honestly going to have to quit or let them fire me for only coming in two days a week.
I’m so fed up with this bs. I got to work from home for two years and then the second I got back from maternity leave it was “Surprise! You’re back in office in two weeks.” I haven’t been able to get it together since. At first they advertised it as flexible. The goal was to let us swap out days if we needed to be home for something. But one month both my son and husband went to the hospital and I had the stomach flu and no more sick days. And so I told my boss I would have to switch my office days that week and got lectured about it.
Then the company had a contest for people to come up with ideas for what flexible work means to them and everyone was to vote on the ideas. The winner would get a gift card and the opportunity to sit down with leadership to discuss potentially implementing their ideas. “Let people work from home if they prefer” was the winning idea and nothing ever came of it.
Management lied to me about a promotion and gave it to my crappy coworker. I worked my butt off to do extra work, train people, take initiative, etc and had a glowing performance review and I was told I would be learning senior responsibilities, just to find out via email they gave it to someone else. They didn’t even replace that guy so now I get 50% of his responsibilities added on to the work I’m already doing, which already includes added responsibilities (even some senior responsibilities) that I’m not getting compensated for. I got skipped over for raises for several years. I’ve received no extra pay or promotion for my added workload. I constantly perform with 20%-50% more efficiency and productivity than the rest of my team, proven by my metrics. Every minute of my time is accounted for. Then I get threatened with a bad performance review for not taking on even more work but I’m also not allowed overtime. I’m so severely underpaid (according to professionals, not just my personal opinion) that I can’t afford how much my bills have increased anymore and I/my husband have had to pick up a second job/gig work to make ends meet. This means I have to stay up way too late and then somehow wake up on time and make the long drive to the office to get there on time and that’s been a struggle. I’m required to report if I have a second job, even if it’s just gig work, but I haven’t because I don’t want it held against me.