Reader: I got a new job last fall at a tech company that aggressively marketed itself as a “remote-first, globally distributed company.” I have been in the workforce for a decade, and I am good at what I do.
Things had been going great until leadership announced last week that all employees — even those hired to be remote — will now be required to go in to the office three days a week. Currently, this applies only to employees at their West Coast headquarters, but they are planning to open an office in my East Coast city in the next month or two, which would give me a 45-minute commute. Employees in smaller cities will be able to continue working remotely. They have provided us with no additional information. It seems to have been a very haphazard decision.
My offer letter clearly says that my position would be remote, and this is nonnegotiable for me. I was only interested in positions that were permanently, 100 percent remote, and I would not have considered this role otherwise. I suffer from severe anxiety and OCD, which are significantly exacerbated in an office setting. My mental health and performance have vastly improved during the past three years of working remotely.
This feels like a bait-and-switch. What are my options? Am I entitled to severance? I would be eligible for unemployment benefits if I were laid off, but not if I quit, right?
Karla: It is baffling that a company touting itself as remote-first would backpedal on that business model in a matter of months. Either your employer miscalculated how well it could operate with an all-remote workforce, or remote-first was a promise it never intended to keep long-term.
A thi
