Remote working has become a recent trend, but companies are gradually seeking to restrict or even ban it. This has led to discontent among employees and some surprising anecdotes. In Europe, there’s a lot of turnover between jobs, which doesn’t benefit companies, and people are sending out their CVs en masse to various companies in a constant search for better opportunities. Alongside this, there is also the so-called silent resignation, which consists of doing the minimum at work so that you can’t be made redundant. This can be due to a variety of reasons: unsympathetic bosses who annoy employees; the company imposing a working model (e.g. forced return to the office, with no possibility of teleworking); or not seeing pay rises keep pace with inflation. Some companies have even been accused of lying to employees by offering teleworking as a way of attracting talent, and then ultimately forcing them back into the office.
Today we have the story of workers who joined a company on the assumption that they would work remotely. After going through the process and accepting the job, the company told them it was “not an option”. They left their jobs after learning of the hoax and told their story on Reddit. User u/meghanerd shared her story on the channel /antiwork, showing screenshots of conversations and text messages between her and her boss. They had made it clear during the hiring process that they wanted to work from home.
What’s more, she shared screenshots of written conversations with her boss that caused a stir on Reddit. In them, the manager can be seen saying that he works from home and gets back to the office at 12pm, at which time he wants all staff to come to his office to drop off “the papers written on the desk”.
Other companies in this situation
Reddit users sided with this employee, and others even shared similar experiences. One of them commented that, while looking for a job, he found many companies that “blatantly lied about their working arrangements”. He explains, “For example, I applied for a job that said only remote and some of its requirements were that I had to make coffee for the office, transport other employees to work and look after pets.” All this for a dental assistant job….
Another comment: “I left a job that was promised to me remotely with the requirement to go into the office one day a week – the office was 1.5 hours away. Only a week after starting, they tell you they’ve changed their working policy and you’ll have to start going to the office between 3 and 5 days a week.” The same user added: “A senior technician job, where everything I do is on a desktop PC, so everything can be done remotely, unless I’m physically setting up new equipment. It’s a three-hour drive a day to sit at a desk and do what I was doing at home.” The professional tendered his resignation, stating that his lies about teleworking were the main reason for his departure.
