Remote Worker Quits In The Middle Of A Meeting After Being Told Everyone Has To Return To The Office To 'Build Team Spirit'
As more companies force their workers to return to the office, employees are deciding it's just not worth it to them.
PR Image Factory | Shutterstock Remote work is becoming more and more of a rarity as companies implement return-to-office (RTO) mandates in increasing numbers. Many employees have felt blindsided by their workplaces returning to in-office work quite suddenly.
Remote work obviously offers a lot of benefits and perks that employees don’t want to give up. So, when some companies attempt to force their workers back into the office, many employees are giving up their jobs in exchange for their freedom. One remote worker chose to do this after HR informed them and their co-workers that they’d be moving to a hybrid work model, all to “build team spirit.”
A remote worker quit mid-meeting over an RTO mandate.
They posted on the r/remotework subreddit to describe the bizarre meeting they were part of. “We were having a ‘surprise’ all-hands [meeting] today, and HR proudly announced that starting next month, everyone must come in three days a week ‘to rebuild team spirit,’” they said.
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Their mind automatically went to the very real inconveniences this would cause, and they weren’t afraid to bring them up. “I asked if they’d be covering commuting costs since gas and train prices doubled this year,” they continued. “The HR rep laughed and said, ‘That’s part of being a team player.’”
That was certainly not the answer they were looking for. “So I turned off my camera, opened my email, and sent my resignation letter right there,” they admitted. “My manager pinged me two minutes later, asking if I was serious. I said, ‘Dead serious.’”
Remote work actually makes employees more productive, but managers don’t see it that way.
A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health noted, “Generally, employees find working from home productive, albeit managers are often concerned about maintaining job performance at least on the same level as office work.” A report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed that remote work does make employees more productive.
However, this hasn’t stopped employers from calling their workers back into the office and arguing that they actually get more done when they’re all at one central location. As Forbes contributor Jack Kelly explained, “It’s all about facetime. When your manager sees you, he feels that you’re being productive, even if you’re just searching Amazon for bargain deals.”
It does seem like there might be an aspect of control and micromanagement that affects opinions about remote work. Bosses want to be able to see their employees to know that they’re getting their work done. When they can’t see them, they feel like they don’t really know how they’re spending their time, even if they’re getting all of their work done.
Even though there are benefits to remote work, opportunities for it are decreasing.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that about 27.5% of American employees were working from home at least some of the time in August and September of 2022. That number has surely decreased as RTO mandates have become increasingly common. The government seems to be leading the charge, with the Trump administration calling government employees who had been working remotely back into their offices.
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According to NPR’s Scott Maucione, “The Trump administration’s memo claims that telework has degraded government services and made it difficult to supervise workers.” With even the federal government claiming that remote work does not work, it’s easy for private employers to do the same.
Building team spirit is admittedly a new excuse for making employees work in the office, but it’s not surprising. An employer could easily argue that their employees are not connected and on the same page because they all work from home, where communication doesn’t come as naturally. That doesn’t take away the fact that controlling workers with RTO mandates feels wrong, and a little bit like their employers are playing the role of babysitter instead of boss.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
