We are only 3 weeks into this ridiculous RTO policy and I am completely burnt out. Anyone else feeling the same? I don’t know how I’m going to manage this indefinitely. I have no energy once I leave that place, my household chores are going untouched, and I barely have the energy to cook dinner for myself. Surely this isn’t the American dream?…
18 replies (most recent on top)
I bet they come for layoff information and not to listen to people complain about things that aren't going to change no matter how much they gripe. If you want therapy, see a shrink.
I sit there all day. Hop on a couple of zoom calls. Don't talk to anyone in person - since work is so spread out geographically. I even talk to people in the same building, on zoom. Just filled the gas tank again today and paid $70. The serving size at flik seems to be getting smaller. I guess it's 'healthy' to eat less but I wish I could pay less for it. So, I think I am done - I will take my bonus and bow out year end. The only reason I took this lower paying job was for 1 week on 3 weeks off that then got moved to on-off. And now this ... I don't know what outcome are we hoping for besides checked out employees and attrition.
100 years before COVID you'd be lucky to live to 50. 100 years before COVID we didn't have this office culture. 100 years before COVID most were very poor and subsisting on farms and factory floors. Would you like to go back to that? What's all this progress and Internet for? Surely not to make our lives more comfortable, right?
@OP don't call me Shirley
It’s perfectly fine and normal to complain. This is an anonymous site and it’s healthy to vent in a safe space. If complaining triggers you, get off of this forum and take a break for your mental health.
Also I’m so sure you’ve never complained about something you couldn’t control.
Great.
So then the choices for those who are none the less still whining about RTO are:
- Get a new job which is fully remote, if that aspect of work is so imperative to you.
- Get a new job which offers a hybrid schedule which is acceptable to you.
- Accept that the employer sets your schedule and work requirements, so if you choose to stay in the job you have now, you're going to also have to accept that it isn't fully remote or even hybrid to your ideal preference.
- Become self-employed where you set your own schedule and WFH F/T except when meeting F2F with clients.
- Become unemployed and be a b-m.
Those are the choices.
The point is, choose what works for you, and STFU about what you can't control.
You can NOT control whatever an employer decides what your work schedule or required in-office % of work time within that schedule will be.
Clearly the employer here doesn't GAF about what the employees' preferences are, re: RTO/WFH.
Whining and complaining isn't going to make them change their minds or bend their rules for you!
Work somewhere else, or work for yourself, if you want to have the final say in how much if any time you spend in someone else's office during your work days!
GenXer here, working in corporate over 25 years. Also worked at Fidelity prior to the pandemic.
Yes we did go to the office on a daily basis (though that is NOT true specifically at Fidelity in the late 2010s, people didn’t come in all 5 days), but there was flexibility. Also, you doorknobs, housing AND gas were much more affordable, so you could live closer to the office and not spend all your income on a commute. Childcare was more affordable too in the 80s when my boomer parents needed it. Things ARE different now, and with the rise of videoconferencing and solid WiFi, there is no need to be in an office 40 hours a week. A lot has changed socioeconomically and technologically that makes your argument about how this is what we did in the past sound very d-mb and out of touch. Hybrid was awesome. Flexibility was great.
WHOOOOOOSH!
@br As mentioned below, just because it’s what everyone did back then, does not equal what we have to do now. Times have changed. WIFI is a wonderful thing. God forbid we progress in life. JFC.
Boomers, Generation Jones, and GenXers have already put in multiple decades of work involving physically going into the office every weekday. Decades and decades of this. Because sometimes, you just have to su*k it up, and do what needs to be done. That's life. That's adulting. Don't like it? Tough. They didn't like it either, but they got sh!t done.
They paid their dues, and have now either crossed the finish line into retirement, or are close to it, after busting their a55es, sacrificing, doing without now so they can reap rewards later, in order to reach their goals.
You soft little lazya55 lightweights have no idea what it is to truly hustle and grind.
You have had it so easy, and yet still complain that things aren't soft and easy enough to your liking.
As if the world needs to contort itself to the point of breaking, in order to accommodate your babyish whining and illogically delusional demands... HA!
What are you going to do when sh!t really hits the fan?
Have you ever had to fend for yourself in life all on your own, with no backup plan and no safety net?
If such truly dire misfortunes should happen, you'd be completely lost without a clue, spinning in futile circles then floating off into the fetid sewer of broken dreams.
Adios, amigos.
It's either that, or learn to swim.
YOUR choice!
@a5 hey, since you love living in the past so much, why don't you trade your car in for a horse and buggy and take a train or boat the next time you need to fly somewhere? Aren't technology, inventions, and innovation wonderful?!
Boomers feisty these days as misery loves company.
Welcome to Adulthood.
Also, be glad that you live in the USA, where YOU ARE FREE to move to another job, another town, another city, and/or another state.
You are also free to start your own business.
If you don't like your schedule or station in life, DO something (legal and constructive) about it!
Whining and putting on the helpless victim routine is for losers.
Get a grip, grow up, and find something better if you don't like where you are in life.
@a5 you again. Do you just sit on this site all day and just be contrarian. Just because you had to do things the hard way coming into the office doesn’t mean that it makes any sense for us to be in there looking at screens when our teams are not colocated. Take the early retirement and live your life rather than enjoying other people’s suffering.
@a5 found the 80 year old!
@a5 That is not even a little true. My business unit has always allowed at least 2 WFH days. Just because something is how “we have always done it,” doesn’t mean that it’s the future. It’s 2026- I respond to emails all day from people all over the country. Why do I have to do this from their office building instead of mine? Be the change, not a sheep.
ya, not like this is how we did things for 100 years before Covid. Seriously dude...grow a pair,