Employee demands to be fired after company shifts from fully remote work to 3 days from the new office, boss agrees: 'I will not work a single day from this box'

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Nov 17, 2025 12:00 PM EST

Switching from working fully from an office to partially remote is the dream. Doing it the other way around… Not so much. 

Many companies these days are changing up their work policies and demanding employees come into the office more often, and the company in the story below is no different. They even got a new office so that employees can go in and physically work from one location together. 

Safe to say… Everyone hates it.

If I had to give up my fully work-from-home routine in favor of driving three days a week to a tiny, stuffy, and boxy office, I would have hated it too. How is working from a cubicle better for employees than the comfort of their own home? Who in their right mind forces that kind of change on their perfectly happy employees?

I'll tell you who–the upper management in the story below. Too bad they didn't see the backlash coming, because maybe then they would have thought twice about renting an office space nobody wants to go to. One of their employees even prefers to be fired rather than to work from that office three days a week.

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  • Employee standing in front of empty cubicle workspace
    via plherrera

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I just told my boss I'm not working from this soul-crushing new office. Fire me if you want.

    I've been fully remote for 3 years. Our department has had its best performance in a decade, and productivity is through the roof.
    via doversours
  • But in the last 3 months, upper management went from 'remote forever' to 'hybrid recommended' and now to 'everyone must be in the office 3 fixed days a week'.
    via doversours
  • I finally saw the new office today... It's a joke. Tiny 4x4 cubicles with walls so low you can see everyone, crammed into a basement-like building with almost no natural light.
    via doversours
  • I'm a manager with a team of 14 people. My day consists of literally 5 to 7 hours of back-to-back calls.
    via doversours
  • I'm constantly discussing sensitive project details, performance reviews, and budget numbers... Things the entire floor shouldn't overhear.
    via doversours
  • There's zero privacy. I went straight to my boss and told him he has two options: either you officially classify me as a remote employee, or make me hybrid, but I will not work a single day from this depressing box.
    via doversours
  • I told him if this is a requirement, then he should fire me immediately. All he did was calmly point to a cubicle a few desks down from mine...
    via doversours
  • It turned out to be his. And this is a senior manager at a huge corporation.
    via doversours
  • I mean, seriously, what are the people upstairs thinking? He told me he has no intention of working from there either and that he will register all the managers under him as hybrid but without any mandatory in-office days.
    via doversours
  • We'll see how long that lasts. If they push the issue again, I'm seriously leaving. Edit: The best approach in my eyes is to give people the option.
    via doversours
  • Some work better at home, some at the office. As much as it s <S, the job market S 'ks worse.
    via doversours
  • I'll stay calm with management and put on a happy face. In the meantime, I'll sharpen my resume using the ResumeKit tool to rewrite my resume, which is very effective. and start applying for new jobs.
    via doversours
  • The whole point of the hybrid shit is just to slow the roll to all be back in the office full time.
    via doversours
  • Cubicle workspace
    via D. Lentz

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • sabrinajestar For some godforsaken reason upper managers and CEOs love open floor plans. They are the absolute pits. I look back on the days when I had an actual cubicle as a lost golden age.
    via sabrinajestar
  • Triple_Nickel_325 Investors see underutilized real estate as a depreciating asset...it has very little to do with "team cohesion". Empty office buildings also affect surrounding businesses, hence why so many restaurants/gyms, etc. have been going under in recent years. I can almost guarantee that very few of your fellow employees (inc. managers and c-suite) actually want to be fully RTO...but the bills don't pay themselves, and we're neck-deep in an investor/employer's market right now.
    via Triple_Nickel_325
  • Silvus314 I may be preaching to the choir, but learn from my mistake (especially in this climate) Don't leave until you have a new gig lined up. I had a banging resume and it still took over 8 months after an unplanned move.
    via Silvus314
  • TallChadStud69 I wish I could get a remote job you're lucky.
    via TallChadStud69
  • yooperwoman Before agreeing to allow us to work remotely 1 day a week, the VP of my former department asked everyone in a meeting, "besides the commute, why do you want to work from home?" Everyone knew I was always cold in the office, so I said I would like to have more control over my work environment (which also didn't have windows nearby). What kind of moronic question is that, anyway? What do you mean, besides the commute? Isn't that bad enough? We can't help it if your family hates you, we
    via yooperwoman
  • Dazzling Vagabond That's why my last boss did. Got an RTO hybrid request, but no one wanted it. We went in like once a quarter for on site bbqs.
    via Dazzling_Vagabond
  • princessEh I work government and that's same set up for new office spaces, only execs and higher have an office. Use a break out/quiet room. We were 3 days hybrid and FT in office come Feb 1.
    via princessEh
  • baroquesun It took me 16 months to find a remote job after getting la d off. You're competing with the whole country now, and there are fewer and fewer remote jobs on top of there simply being fewer jobs altogether. Just know that before quitting. But I feel you--RTO is dumb.
    via baroquesun

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boss work from home workplace-stories remote work employee fired manager job tales-from-the-workplace Office overworked-employees workplace company resignation
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