3+ years ago, we all worked from the office. The majority of us were already living where we currently live, making the commute to the office everyday back then. Some of us live farther than others, but everyone accepted jobs at that location knowing what a commute would be like from our respective homes and we all made that commute for many months or even many years prior to the pandemic.
After three years of working remote, we are finally being called back to office and it's like the worst news ever for a lot of us.
My commute is going to be pretty shitty, but there are reasons I live where I do and when I moved here I knew that an eventual return to office would not be the best commute for me, but I knew eventually it would happen and I had to accept that fact. It's been a good 3 years where I've not really put a lot of wear and tear on my car. Not really had to spend a lot in gas money. Besides my time and work-life balance, the auto expenses is going to be the biggest change, and I don't think I need to mention that “cost of living” raises over the past 3 years were nowhere near what inflation has done. Guess I'm grateful we got them at all.
So it is what it is. I can't change it. But wait! People who live outside of a set distance parameter do NOT need to return to office. It's highly recommended, but not required of them. So they all get a pass where they get to stay home. They can sleep later and not deal with a commute. They don't have to spend more gas money… They don't have to worry about finding potential child care. Lots of employees with young children somehow made it work that they were able to keep the kids home while they were working so didn't have that added expense of child care. I have no idea how they were able to take care of their kids and work at the same time, but they did it. Now people who live close enough will have to scramble to find affordable day care while the people with exceptions won't have to worry about that.
It feels like a giant F you for being smart and living close enough to the office. “You did the smart thing and live close enough to your job so now you get to have ridiculous added expenses that these other people don't have to worry about.”
My position is basically referring back to my first paragraph. We all did our commutes pre-pandemic, so we should all be doing them again now. If we're being mandated to return, then everyone should be mandated. Not just some of us. This is going to make the currently low morale even lower.