Management has issued an ultimatum: return to office or get fired. I’m calling their bluff.
Some backstory:
I’ve been at my company for just under 4 years. When I first got the job I was told that they valued “flexible schedules” and “work-life balance”. I was told I’d be able to work from home, that my in-office hours wouldn’t be tracked, and that if I was meeting deadlines and expectations there wouldn’t be an issue. This all turned out to be complete bullshit.
If I sat at my desk at 8:32, if I left work at 5:15, if I took an hour lunch, if I worked a single day from home; I would get check-ins from my boss, my boss’s boss, and sometimes an email from HR to remind me of the company’s “expectations.” I resolved to stay at the company for 2 yrs for my resume and then I’d leave. That is, until COVID hit.
For the last 2 years I haven’t stepped foot in the office and it’s been fantastic. The flexibility I was promised 4 years ago is finally a reality, and “official company policy” that was being communicated to employees was that post-COVID we would be in “the new normal.” The smartest thing I’ve done over the last two years was take every new corporate policy with a grain of salt, preparing all the while for the day when I’d be forced to return to my pre-COVID arrangement of time-tracking.
Over the last two years my group has lost about 20% of employees. They’ve all gone onto better places and as a result I’ve gotten raises that I believed were commensurate with the additional responsibilities I’ve been asked to take on.
One of the new responsibilities is helping backfill the vacated positions; meeting with recruiters, interviewing candidates, the whole deal. In this time I’ve come to realize that workers have tons of options, and simply aren’t willing to put up with the kind of wishy-washy bullshit my company offers. In the 1.5 yrs I’ve been leading the recruitment efforts, we’ve hired one person. When management asks why we’re having such a hard time attracting talent I’m honest with them: we don’t offer enough money, we aren’t firm on our work from home policy, and all of our competitors are stepping up and offer those things. Management is unwilling to budge on their positions, and seems to think we’ll be able to backfill positions in no time.
So here’s the fun part:
Last week all employees were told that the official return to office date is March 28th. Despite the “flexibility” and “new normal” communications we’ve been getting, all employees will be expected in-office 5 days a week, no exceptions.
Well, over the last 2 years my responsibilities have, let’s say, ballooned. I currently am directly responsible for roughly $2 billion in assets, and am literally the only person at the company leading 4 processes that are integral to operations. The kinds of things that if they aren’t performed on a quarterly basis with set deadlines, the company will face fines, lose clients, and suffer catastrophic losses.
On Friday of last week I sent an email to my boss and my team letting them all know that I will not be returning to the office on March 28th, and that I will be continuing to work from home. I encouraged everyone on my team to do the same.
Almost immediately my boss called me directly to tell me I would be fired if I didn’t return to the office, that they’d easily find a replacement, and that any team member that tried to do the same would be fired too.
If I get fired it’ll be a domino effect. 3 coworkers at my level have told me they’d leave if I got fired. This would put the company in an even bigger hole than the one their already in. Roughly 8 billion dollars unmanaged, and at the end of the quarter, too. Just in time for all those important deadlines to start rolling in.
So I say let them fire me. Let them miss filing deadlines, reporting requirements, and client mandates. If they go through with it they have to pay me severance and unemployment. I know the job market and what’s out there — I’ve been offered several jobs over the last 2 years, all of which are similarly compensated with full WFH policies. I refuse to be bullied into compliance, and I’m happy that it’s come to this; it’s the first time in my entire career where I’ve felt empowered.
If you have the ability to force their hand I say do it. Hold these assholes to account. Fight for yourself however you can. They don’t know how fucked they’ll be if they lose us, and it’s high time we show them.
Tl:dr — company is saying they’ll fire me if I don’t return to the office. If they fire me they’re absolutely fucked. I say fuck ‘em!