A few weeks ago I asked my work if I could work fully remote so that my wife and I could move out state to not only escape increasingly unlivable pricing, but to be near family in the wake of my soon to be first kid. They have officially denied it with something along the lines of “if we let one person do it, we have to let them all do it.” And I'm just thinking “let them all do it then??”
Currently, their policy has us coming into the office every Monday + the first Tuesday of the month. They recently changed it starting July and we will need to be in the office for a mandatory 2 days a week. Typical arbitrary reasons like 'cooperation' and 'culture.' Except what do I get for making a 22 mile (one way) commute to the office? I sit down with my team of 4 (including myself) and barely engage with anyone. Outside of my team, there are maybe 3-4 other people in our immediate area, half of whom don't seem to show up most of the time. I walk to other sections of the office and it's like a ghost town.
There is not a single aspect of my position that can't just be done at home. When we come in, we don't get any extra work done or hold meetings to discuss things. We all keep our heads down and get our work done. If anything, I feel like we talk more over chat while at home. Many people at the company have voiced that they don't want to be there, but the company doesn't care. Note that my actual boss and even our department manager don't care if I work remote; it's the bigwigs who I never actually see in the office except maybe once a month. On top of that, we all frequently make excuses to not come into the office anyway (feeling sick, car broke, got an appointment, etc.) and no one bats an eye. So most of us aren't even there every other week and they still want everyone to come in.
What's even more annoying is that my company has an office in the state I want move to. I offered to compromise by making a drive to that office 1-2 times a month if it would satiate upper management. Unfortunately, the immediate area surrounding that office is too expensive for me to live in, so it would be an even longer drive to work. Still, the answer was “no.”
I thought about threatening to quit to put pressure on them, but it's too much of a gamble so close to my child being born. My team almost single-handedly manages the backend of the entire HR/Payroll systems for the company and we are crunching hard on various projects while they refuse to hire anyone new. I would absolutely screw them over, if even for a short while, if I left now. But if they did not retain me, it's a huge hassle to try and find a new job that is both fully remote and pays the same or more that I make now. So I guess I will continue to live somewhere I hate and use the next year or so to find something with less stupid rules. The joys of working for an old school employer.
/end rant