- Felicia, 53, quits her job after being asked to show up in person five days a week.
- For over a year, she worked a perfect balance of 3 days at home and 2 days at the office.
- But she would rather find a low-paying job than stick with it for five days.
Felicia doesn’t sell even when she returns to the office.
After receiving calls five days a week, she quit her job altogether. She would rather stop paying six figures than be in the office every day.
“I know how I work. I don’t have to be in the office to work,” she told Insider. ”
Felicia is a 53-year-old administrator from Arizona. The insider confirmed her last name, employment, and salary, but she asked for them to be withheld to protect her privacy.
The era of full remote work may be coming to an end as companies tighten their belts.of The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently Nearly 73% of businesses in September offered little or no remote work, up from 60% in 2021. Large companies, including those that have laid off, have mandated reinstatement of workers. come back or get fired.
But Felicia sees herself. For a year and a half, her office had her hybrid model. Her 3 days at her home and her 2 days at her office. She described it as a perfect work-life balance.
“I was able to get more work done when I had hybrid days,” she said of the days spent at home. She added that she couldn’t keep up with the workload because there were “interruptions”.
But just a month or so after having to work completely face-to-face, Felicia submitted her resignation. She said she likes being able to focus quietly when she’s working virtually, flipping the switch and meeting her colleagues in person on her office days. has been coming back for a while and she feels like she hasn’t seen her team much.
One day, while sitting in traffic, she realized it was time to go. “Just sitting there thinking, oh my god, the meeting is coming up and I feel like I’m stuck on this,” she said. Why am I doing this to myself if I’m not even?”
Managers focused on efficiency and tension want to see proof that their employees are working.
Even after years of remote work, some managers are overly concerned about their remote employees not working. This is a phenomenon known as “productivity paranoia.”
Felicia said there is a perception among managers at her company that hybrid employees are not working. “I often heard, ‘Oh, you guys only worked two days a week and had three days off,'” she said. “And no, that doesn’t seem to be true. We got most of the work done when we were three people working from home.”
She says some others she knows at work have moved on to more remote or hybrid jobs, and what seems like their freedom is causing her to lose the balance she had and her retirement. He added that he urged
“I got to a point where it just didn’t work out,” she said. I searched.”
Felicia said she is looking for a position that offers similar flexibility, even if it pays less.
“The payoff is the stress of driving and traffic and being on the road five days a week versus being able to do the exact same job and more from the convenience of a hybrid option,” she said. .
Felicia believes a less flexible return-to-work mandate could hurt productivity and lead to turnover, especially among workers who are happy with their jobs but who don’t want to be in the office.
“You’re going to lose them anyway,” she said.
Are you, or are you considering quitting your job because of your return-to-office obligations? Contact this reporter at: jkaplan@insider.com.