Ever since the pandemic has begun to wane, they've been talking about getting us back in the office. The backlash was immediate, nobody wanted to go back. Hell, after 2 years working remote half of the company had moved away from office hubs with the expectation of being remote permanently. For some of those folks, there began to be whispers of move-back-or-quit ultimatums from leadership. So began our own Great Resignation.
In the presence of overwhelmingly negative feedback, Leadership deigned that we'd only be back in the office for *3 days* a week. They tried to sell us on the bullshit of how that was such a great concession and how lucky we were. The negative feedback and turnover continued. Field teams that were expected to appear in WeWork locations all left, and now all the teams I support are full of untenured rubes fresh out of college that can't sell for shit. My business has suffered as a result of corporate's heavy-handed choices regarding RTO.
To everybody's surprise, leadership conceded again, and now we only had to go back in the office two days a week, instead of 3. More bullshit about how lucky we were and yadda yadda. I figured I'd give it a shot, despite having bought a home 30 miles away and spending extra money on a house with a home office. Within the first week I was telling myself “fuck all this.” I was grumpy, I hated commuting, I hated sitting in a cube-farm for no reason beyond “we want everybody to collaborate and contribute to company culture.” I was 1000% done. Not even the promise of free lunches provided by partners helped make things better. The free lunches were usually shit anyways.
Fuck. All. That. So I polished up the resume, sent out feelers. I was interviewing and being hit up by LinkedIn recruiters within days. Had an offer letter from a partner within 2 weeks of starting the search with the same OTE, better PTO benefits, and most importantly permanent fully remote work. 2 others on my team are also about to put their 2wks in for similarly easy to find and lucrative positions.
It's an employee's market out there, folks. Don't take bullshit RTO policies when you don't need to, it's easy as fuck to find new and better employment.