Work-from-home was supposed to mean flexibility, trust, and better balance. No commute, fewer interruptions, more control over your day. But for many people, remote work came with a different set of rules than the ones HR promised, and these stories show how quickly the dream can turn complicated.
- I was 4 days in, 1 day home.
Switched to a new position on the condition I can keep that schedule. The new boss was clearly upset since she had a much further commute and had to come in on Friday. She would constantly create meetings on Fridays, saying it was mandatory to come in.
When I would say Friday was my work-from-home day, she would say this was the only day that worked with everyone’s schedules, even though we had a rule to avoid meetings on Friday.
The same boss who would take vacations and would message me while on vacation to test if I was in the office (on my in-office days) and ask me for pointless tasks like go to the file cabinet and read me this number on this file. While she was in freakin China visiting her family!!
- I was working from home for 18 months without issue.
Being in CRE, they ordered everyone back in the office except for one day per week, and it had to be your approved day…
Realized one day all team members were out of the office for one reason or another, decided to not drive 45 mins each way and take an additional day home…because I’m an adult and do my job regardless of where it gets done. Got a call from my controller later that day asking where I was when she ended up going to the office later in the day. Was scolded for not being in the office when I was supposed to be and “simply wanted to know where I was”.I ended up leaving the job a few weeks later, could not take the micromanaging any longer after a long string of this type of thing. Ended up going fully remote for nearly 20k more. I will never go back to an office.
- I had an agreement with a new job to come in once every two weeks I was the only one on the team who was not married or did not have kids, so I was the one who was always asked to come into the office.
It made no sense.
The kicker was they would claim that they only asked us to come in twice a month but would schedule these team lunches every single week where we would sit and chitchat and they were so unproductive that the very next day our boss will tell us we would need to come into the office to get productivity up to recoup the time lost due to the team lunches (that would last like 3 hours).
I started coming into the office randomly at times when my teammates couldn’t bother me, and my boss complained that it technically doesn’t count because nobody “saw” me there.
- Had a narcissistic boss who would try to make me work remotely when I called in sick. Always something, even some token task, just because it made her feel in charge, or give her something to complain about if I didn’t comply.
“You know I live a 5 minute walk from the office. If I tell you I can’t make it in to work, it means I can’t do work!”
- I got laid off with 20,000 other people on a phone call.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page.
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