The pandemic taught us so many things about ourselves, about other people and about how it is actually not necessary to physically go to work if it involves sitting in front of your computer all day.
It showed companies that they don’t need those huge office spaces and that they could save some money if they would downsize as there will always be a group of people who prefer working from home and what is more, they can search for talent in other areas of the city, the country or even overseas as location doesn’t matter anymore.
However, there are companies who are eager to make their workers return to the offices as soon as possible, sometimes even ignoring that the pandemic is slowing down for a while just to come back even stronger.
But employees got used to working from home, not needing to commute or sit surrounded by colleagues, so if they are being forced to return to the office, they just quit. As this Redditor and his colleagues did when they were presented with a plan of getting rid of remote work.
More info: Reddit
This CEO told his employees that they should go work somewhere else if they want to work from home and they did
Image credits: Shane Adams (not the actual photo)
The Original Poster (OP) by the username Icerman used to work as a team lead in a company that developed apps. Like many companies, this one allowed their employees to work from home since the start of the pandemic when it was clear that it was a serious problem.
There were people who joined the company during this time and they haven’t even been to the office as there was no need and it was safer that way. Some people in the OP’s team were not even in the same city and worked from so far away, they were in different time zones.
When the pandemic started, the company allowed their employees to work from home and hired people from places where they don't even have offices
Image credits: Icerman
The employees weren’t worried because everyone thought that this was how work would proceed in the future. But at the end of the summer of last year, the executives of the company decided that it was about time to make a plan to return to the office.
The people who were hired to work remotely were told they didn’t have to worry about working from the office as the policy would be flexible but eventually they realized that this was not the case and they were expected to move to a city with an office within a year.
But in the middle of the pandemic, they created a plan to gradually return to their offices
Image credits: Icerman
People were not enthusiastic about it at all. The CEO told them that it would be beneficial for the company’s spirit. But there were people who didn’t want to move with the whole family when the easiest solution would be to just let them continue to work remotely.
The CEO was relentless and didn’t care about their employees’ worries and suggestions. They that suggested people just leave the company if they like working from home, so much as it will not be happening there. Little did they know that the workers would take that to heart.
For those who were unhappy about this decision, the CEO suggested they just go find another job
Image credits: Icerman
Even though changing a job is stressful, the employees of this company seriously considered the suggestion. After this announcement, the atmosphere in the company was really sad as it was evident people were leaving. There were no people chatting in Slack channels or joining company meetings so the intention to keep the company's spirit led to killing it completely.
Another reason why people didn’t hesitate to leave was that they were underpaid and they realized that. So it was completely clear that the company was doing what they thought was best for them and not their workers.
The CEO didn't care if their employees would have to move with their whole families and were promised a flexible policy about working from home
Image credits: Icerman
The OP said that their team initially had 8 people and only 2 decided to stay and comply with the new policy. Icerman has knowledge that the company is still looking for new people and are struggling to keep things going.
If you’re curious what happened to the OP, he reveals that he found a job that paid more, required less time and was not as stressful, so it really worked out for the best.
So the employees took the suggestion seriously and began leaving one by one to better places
Image credits: Icerman
Many more people are doing the same, actually. Maybe the company had other problems that would have prompted workers to leave and the obligatory work from the office was the last straw. However, companies are experiencing what has been called The Great Resignation.
The term was coined by Anthony Klotz, an organizational psychologist and professor at Texas A&M University who predicted that people would quit their jobs in large numbers if they were forced to return to offices.
A Morning Consult survey showed that almost half of respondents with an office job that now work from home said they would consider quitting if their employers tried to make them return to the office before they felt it was safe to do so.
Image credits: Icerman
The OP also left and turns out being forced to do that led him to finding a better-paying job with less stress
Image credits: Icerman
So employers should think before suggesting their workers quit and before trying to force them to return, as the story of Icerman may not be an isolated event.
Other redditors were happy that the OP is now in a better place in his career and thought that their coworkers were right to quit if they felt that working from an office was not for them. What is your take on the story? Do you think this will become common and do you think that companies will adjust their working from the office policies? Let us know in the comments!
People in the comments expressed how they can't understand why companies do that and thought the company deserved the mass quitting
