It never gets any easier letting someone go

[R18Civic]

I thought this was 100% going to be about an ex.

 

[dishdude]

I thought this was 100% going to be about an ex.

I thought someone passed away, no joke.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

MANY companies are violating the employees contract and firing employees for this.

Problem is this. Back in COVID, many jobs were offered as remote. They were fully remote. No need to work in the office. No need to be near the office. No need to live in or near the city. Millions of these workers moved out of the cities, to the suburbs for a lower cost of living, and a better place to raise a family.

Now 5 years later, they are renigging on these contracts, changing the terms, and requiring people to work in a local office. Even though they live thousands of miles away and their offer never required in person working at a local office.

I'm not saying that's the case in the original post, but I have heard of this happening all over the country to remote workers.

This happened to about 60 former co-workers.

 

[SOUNDMAN5000]

Yea, I had the thought my 1st wife sure never had a problem letting someone go...

Seriously, that same can be said for my last job of 20 years and me letting my employer go. I gave it all I had but the day the boss upset me once again with his crazy BS disrespect, to the point I had chest pains, I handed him my keys and walked away. I had never taken a sick day and only 4 weekends ( so called vacations ) off in 20 years!

It was not just a job but my life, my identity, it has truly set me back and the hardest thing I have ever done except Divorce but I'm still alive, had I stayed I'm not so sure as stress and BS kills.

 

[KrisZ]

You likely have done the guy a favor. If he’s truly good, he should not have any problems finding another job that is WFH and likely more pay.

 

[SeaJay]

MANY companies are violating the employees contract and firing employees for this.

Unless it was a written employment contract signed by both sides, it really is just the terms of the employment at the time of hiring. These things are usually subject to change by the employer at any time thereafter.

 

[Vil_Riker]

WFH has been a lifesaver for my functional area. We have had a chronic shortage of talent but after changing policy , we have been able to hire talent from all over the country. The key is to monitor key performance metrics so that W gets done.

 

[IndyIan]

Even when they deserve it, it's hard.

This one definitely didn't deserve it, great worker, very knowledgeable.

But senior management decreed no more remote employees, come heck or high water.

Hopefully we don't get heck from it in the form of, some broken system nobody knows how to fix.

Yep, sounds like they will do fine and get another WFH, or something nearby. Depends on the type of job of course, but I think some employers are shooting themselves in the foot, losing good employees who know they can get another WFH job pretty easily.
The ones who will come in, many of them don't have any better options?

 

[Brons2]

MANY companies are violating the employees contract and firing employees for this.

Problem is this. Back in COVID, many jobs were offered as remote. They were fully remote. No need to work in the office. No need to be near the office. No need to live in or near the city. Millions of these workers moved out of the cities, to the suburbs for a lower cost of living, and a better place to raise a family.

Now 5 years later, they are renigging on these contracts, changing the terms, and requiring people to work in a local office. Even though they live thousands of miles away and their offer never required in person working at a local office.

I'm not saying that's the case in the original post, but I have heard of this happening all over the country to remote workers.

Said contractor was never officially offered remote work, nobody was, it was just a byproduct of the pandemic.

Everyone else was recalled to the office and came back, he didn't. We made exceptions for a while but senior management got tired of it. The end.

That said there's nothing this person did that couldn't be done remotely. I'm having to pick up his slack this week until I back-fill his position. Such is life.

 

[Brons2]

Depends on the employee. If there good and do there work from home then who cares. If not it’s a management issue.

If there not doing there work they likely weren’t doing much in the office either. It’s a management fallacy. I watched lots of people in office go to meeting after meeting and accomplish nothing.

Amen to this.

I've seen meetings cripple even otherwise productive employees.

 

[Sedin26]

Amen to this.

I've seen meetings cripple even otherwise productive employees.

This is one of the greatest benefits of working at home. Before 2020, people at my company constantly held meetings and wasted time. Magically, when everyone was working at home, that slowed down drastically. Work kept getting done well and people were productive.

I’ve found it hasn’t swung back the other way - people have determined that it’s not necessary.

 

[OVERKILL]

Well, if management told people to move to different time zones while WFH, only to ask them to move back to the original time zone so they could work onsite.....that's total BS on the company's part.

Scott

Government kind of did that here. When Trudles was in power apparently WFH was handed out like lollies. We are about 3hrs from Ottawa and our neighbour, who was studying abroad, rented out her house to two WFH government employees. We had them beside us for several years, but when Carney got elected, he changed the terms and everyone was back to the office, so they had to move back to Ottawa.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Well, if the company mandated a return to office and this guy decided not to do so then it is on him.
Shame to have to discharge someone who is productive and valuable, but asking folks to actually come to work doesn't seem too outrageous.
The guy made a choice and the employer called his bluff.

A previous job of mine learned the hard way that you can't revoke that privilege from good earners.
CEO didn't want work from home for his salespeople. He had us measure every possible metric on the salespeople. Hands down, they all produced significantly more sales and leads on days they were working from home.

What we saw was they would start working when they would normally hop in the car to drive into the office. And they would often work through lunch. Then keep working until the time they'd normally arrive home after the commute. That's an extra 1.5-3 hours a day of work out of these people.

He was just opposed to it. So he revoked it. 6 out of the top 10 sales people hopped ship to another firm in town.

 

[crashz]

My wife was hired in 2022 as a remote worker. Most of her colleagues too. If they return to the office (3hrs away for us) she will need to find another job.

My work now doesn't require it, but as a Project Manager, I occasionally worked from home. If I had a bid to price out or proposal to write I would do it at home. I could start early, get in the zone, crank some music and get it done without interruptions. As long as I didn't have any meetings, I was far more productive at home than in the office.

OP- was this an employee or a W9 contractor? Maybe this was his way of working there until it was no longer beneficial for him. He may already have significant contract work to keep him busy which may be a reason why he would refuse to go to the office. It would cut into his revenue too much.

 

[bdc101]

When I was in the Air Force I could NOT tell my squadron commander….. or wing commander what I wanted or not want to do.

Even in a criminal organization like an outlaw motorcycle cycle gang there will be rank and file chain of command.

You don’t follow the rules you’re out.

I have worked with a lot of ex-military types and many of them are like this. They come into private companies and cluelessly try running them like they are the military. Some of them are not but they seem to be the exception and not the norm.

 

[KrisZ]

He was just opposed to it. So he revoked it. 6 out of the top 10 sales people hopped ship to another firm in town.

Yup, and then he gets a fat bonus, pushes the existing employees to try and make up the slack and declares they will start using AI to “improve productivity”, which is not a hard to achieve goal when you lose a bunch of good people.

He will get praises all around and more bonuses for his “vision”.