Forced return to office when hired as permanent remote
Companies are issuing impossible deadlines to relocate multiple states away at the employee's expense, completely ignoring initial offer letters that explicitly promised permanent remote work. Management labels the inability to meet these sudden ultimatums as "voluntary job abandonment," though in some offices, employees who simply continue working from home face zero consequences.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Refusing to quit and forcing the company to fire you insteadDid this help you?
- 2Continuing to log in and work from home as normalDid this help you?
- 3Documenting all remote work and IT lockouts to prepare for unemployment claimsDid this help you?
- 4Refusing to sign any updated policy acknowledgmentsDid this help you?
- 5Avoiding putting any explicit refusal to commute in writingDid this help you?
- 6Updating resumes and applying for new jobsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I need a reality check because I'm sitting here shaking and feel like I'm being backed into a corner. I was hired roughly two and a half years ago as a senior compliance specialist. During the interview process and right in my initial offer letter it explicitly stated my position was permanent remote.”source ↗
“The worst part is the subtle threat at the bottom of the email stating that failure to report to the designated facility by the deadline will be processed as "voluntary job abandonment". They clearly know nobody can uproot their entire life and move three states over in two weeks on their own dime.”source ↗
“My company did that. A few quit, most came back into the office and some just kept working from home and no one did anything about it.”source ↗
“I worked in a small office a few years ago. Owners tried pushing return to office at least 2-3 days a week. Compliance was essentially 0. A couple of people chose to go into the office all along, but there was 0 change in behavior as a result of the policy.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 8How to catch up on work after extended leave
- 5Return to office feels like a massive pay cut
- 4How to deal with separation anxiety going back to work
- 3Why do Sunday nights cause so much anxiety about Monday?
- 2Will a two-year career break hurt my chances of returning to teaching?
- 3Is moving back in with parents worth the financial savings?