Is it really a return-to-office policy if returning means packing up your entire life in 14 days?

Remote work has been a life-changing deal for many workers who had to commute hours to get to an office and then back home. I remember vividly when my job at the moment decided that all employees should be working from home, and that stayed until these days. But, as we know, working in an office has some advantages, and that’s why many companies are asking their employees to return, some full-time, and others on a hybrid schedule.

I have both experiences: I’ve worked full-time in an office, and also remotely. And what I can say is that every method has its perks and its downsides. There’s no perfect method and every company should chose the one that alins more with their goals and employees. But no one can expect their employees to go back to an office across the country on 14 days’ notice.

Yes, that happened to an employee who was hired in a permanently remote position and had stayed that way for almost three years. All of a sudden, he got an email from HR demanding that everyone be back at the office in 14 days, full-time. No questions asked. He panicked, of course. We all would. The worst part? At the end of the email, the company said that if someone couldn’t make it, it would be considered “voluntary job abandonment”.

This man called his manager, who pretended he wasn’t responsible and told him that his hands were tied and that there was nothing he could do. Now, who can expect their employees to move across the country with no financial help in two weeks? And all of that for a return to the office policy that wasn’t urgent until now. That’s why the employee considers this to be a ‘blatant backdoor layoff’. Sounds like a terrible and awful strategy, but in the end, it does make sense.

What would you do in this position? We could all advise him to look for another job, but that sometimes is not a possibility.