Return to Office Policies Have Tech Workers Considering Their Options
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
In the last couple of weeks, a surge of tech companies have reversed their COVID-era policies regarding work from home, prompting backlash from employees who are vehemently opposed to returning to the office.
In practice, it’s difficult to discern what rights workers who are being forced to transition from full-time at-home work back to the office actually have. Nearly all big tech companies aren’t unionized, so that further limits the rights their workers have when it comes to lobbying for schedule changes.
From the standpoint of executives returning to the office makes “collaborating and inventing easier and more effective,” as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy put it recently. Some executives also argue a return to in-person work could increase productivity.
But for employees, many of whom might not even be near their offices anymore – for the better part of two years at most companies, remote work was the standard and a number of people were hired fully remotely — asking that they return to in-person meetings seems like a betrayal. Especially since, many took advantage of the work-from-home policy to move to more affordable accommodations. Furthermore, many workers are concerned about preventing a new outbreak of coronavirus at work, the entire reason remote work happened in the first place.
So, if you’re an employee at a company that’s suddenly mandating a return to office work, what are your options?
The most popular route tech workers have taken so far is to speak up, loudly.
Last Friday, over 2,000 employees at Disney signed a petition to CEO Bob Iger protesting against its recent four-day in-person work week policy, which would begin in March. The Disney workers claimed the new in-office mandate would “slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages,” while also causing “irreparable knowledge loss” by pushing out talented people.
Another local tech company also getting heat for its sudden about-face on return-to-office policies is Activision Blizzard. The Santa Monica-based game maker said this week that it will require employees to work three days a week in-person, beginning in April. Employees were dismayed, and immediately responded: Blizzard was briefly trending on Twitter Friday as both workers and their supporters discussed the change.
One Activision Blizzard worker called the policy “an ultimatum.” And others have speculated that office return policies are their company’s way of initiating layoffs without actually laying people off, and being forced to pay severance. In short, the new in-person policy is actually part of a larger cost-cutting strategy.
For employees with a disability, you could file for a reasonable accommodation with your supervisor that explains why you are unable to return to in-person work. The Americans with Disabilities Act makes it illegal for governments, employers, schools and labor organizers to discriminate against workers with disabilities and often there’s an accommodation to be made. But, there are several factors to weigh here – including your individual relationship with your employers – before discussing with your boss.
Overall, the difficult decision lies with the workers to decide whether they stay at a company demanding less flexibility, or seek other opportunities. For those that do determine the return to office is not feasible, there might be one bright spot – a growing number of non-tech jobs are looking to hire highly qualified tech workers, and many are still accepting remote applicants.
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Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
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