My husband and I work hybrid positions(mon/fri in office, all others wfh) for the same company. We’re on completely opposite schedules, he begins at 8am, I begin at 11am. Our job knows that we commute together and only have one car, so when we got moved to these schedules, we were told that we could be completely WFH until something changed. We’ve been fully WFH for a few months now.
Our job just hired 2 new people. Our boss is telling us that we need to be back in office, and that the new hires will be taking our desks, and we’ll be moved elsewhere, but we need to be in the office. We asked what was going on with the schedules, because clearly we can’t start our days at 8am and be in office until 8pm(not counting commute…). He told us that he’ll “Work something out with the schedules”, and is now asking our coworkers to swap shifts with us so we can commute together into the office. No one wants to change. Everyone is happy with their schedules.
My husband and I have been very open with our boss about our desire to stay WFH, even letting him know our lease is about to come up, and our landlord intends to raise the rent to a point we can’t afford(he raises it every year by a few hundred dollars). His suggestions? “Send your landlord an offer for 30% less! Send it soon so you can get the jump on him raising the rent! Tell him to take it or leave it since he’ll get that money anyways! He has to say yes.” or alternatively, my favorite solution, “Your parents live nearby, right? Move in with your parents so you can keep coming into work!”
We want to move to a cheaper state and buy a house. Our performance hasn’t slipped in being WFH. It’s actually better. We get more work done. Is there even anything we can do? This seems ridiculous.