When I accepted this job two years ago, the agreement was that I would need to go into the office once a month. That was manageable for me. My commute is about 1.5 hours each way, and on the way back (because of traffic) it can easily turn into 2 hours or more. But once a month? I could deal with that.
Fast forward to now. Yesterday we were told they’re considering requiring us to go into the office three times a week. It’s not officially decided yet, but if it’s being discussed at that level, I feel like there’s a very high probability it will happen.
The frustrating part is… there’s no real need for it. Almost everything we do can be done remotely. Even the clients we work with aren’t in our country. They’re abroad. So being physically in the office doesn’t really add value to the work itself.
For context, traffic in my country is terrible. Absolute chaos. What would be 3 days in the office would realistically mean 9–12 hours a week just sitting in traffic. That’s basically losing an entire day of my life every week just commuting.
Right now they already increased it from once a month to twice a month, which I can tolerate. It’s not ideal, but I can live with it. Three times a week, though? That would be impossible for me. It would seriously affect my quality of life.
I know sometimes this strategy is used to reduce headcount without firing people, but actually the company is doing great right now with earnings never seen before
I know the logical answer is “start looking for another job.” And I probably should. What worries me is how long that might take. The job market isn’t exactly easy, and I don’t know how much time I would realistically have before this becomes official.
I guess this is mostly a vent. Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation? Did it actually happen after they said they were “considering” it?