About 6 months ago I accepted a job remotely about 400km away from the HQ office. Id worked for this organisation about a year earlier and had/have a great reputation there, which is one of the reasons this latest role was offered to me. The context is id moved back to my hometown where id taken another job which didn't work out. I approached my previous director that id had a great relationship with…I asked if there was the scope to have me back. There was and the job was offered.
In my contract the wording states “you will work remotely with regular travel to HQ”. Id had several conversations with the boss that this travel was to be work funded.
Fast forward six months to now. The boss I've had a good relationship has moved on and I've been working successfully in the role remotely with all my travel so far funded by work. I got a call from my new boss yesterday saying that they are looking into having me pay my travel by myself as its getting too expensive for budgets. I rang HR and asked if my job was in jeopardy..they said it wasn't, but the travel was being looked into. I'm not sure if I believe them.
I'm freaking out as paying my own travel would come at significant cost to me. Also, why I'm performing well in the role I feel like my new boss would probably hire someone local if she could and might feel like she inherited me from the previous boss. I worry that they will centralize my role once more although I'm unsure if they can do that given my offer letter stipulates remote work. All in all it feels like they might be trying to make things uncomfortable for me and I worry for the future of my role. Any insights or advice would be appreciated.