I recently heard of two stories from friends who were hired as remote or hybrid employees, but later forced to come into the office full-time.
The first friend lives about 50 miles outside of the office and was hired as a remote employee. When the company announced RTO for employees living within a certain radius, he was included because his home fell within the zip code range. He now has to commute over an hour each way to come into the office.
The second friend was recently hired with the expectation of a hybrid schedule to come into the office twice a week. This was discussed and agreed upon by his direct manager and director. During his first week, HR decided to change this and forced all employees to RTO full-time.
IMO, in order to stay truly remote, look for companies that:
- the entire workforce works remote,
- have majority of senior leadership working remote and value working remote, or
- have at least 50% of the workforce working remote without easy access to an office