Company allows high-performing employees to work from home, forces everyone to return to office when underperforming employees complain: 'Because others are underperforming, we have to return to office full time.'

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Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Feb 21, 2026 12:00 PM EST

They should've used working from home as a reward in the first place. 

How should a company motivate its employees to perform well? You might think that employees should be intrinsically motivated to do well just for the sake of doing well and promoting the company, but we all know that's not always how it works. If you think that way, you're probably not a very good manager. Most employees are motivated to do their job competently because they want to stay employed, but putting food on the table doesn't motivate them to go above and beyond. Intrinsically motivated employees might work hard regardless of the results, but they are also motivated by a desire to rise in the company's ranks, advance their careers, and earn more money. If they don't think hard work will achieve those things, they will probably look for a new job where hard work is rewarded. 

Companies don't always reward their employees publicly for their hard work. They certainly don't announce it when one employee gets a raise while others don't, because that breeds resentment. They might give someone a verbal shoutout or announce that they've gotten a promotion in front of the other employees, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you give one employee more vacation time than another as a reward for hard work, you have to be discreet about that. You don't want coworkers resenting one another for getting more benefits, even if it's based on the merits of their work. It does not motivate underperforming employees to improve. 

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  • A work-from-home employee working in her kitchen while eating a pizza
    via Stephanie Berbec (Unsplash+)

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

  • The underperforming employees in this story were rightfully angry that their coworkers got to work from home while they had to work in the office. The company decided that now every employee has to work in the office, and everyone is mad. 

  • Whiners cause a return to office for everyone

    So, at the moment, my team works from home most of the time, we do 3 days a month in the office, because work from home privileges are preformace based.
    via u/Yakusaka
  • My team has over 105% performance EVERY month. Other teams in my department don't. It goes as following: over 105%, 3 days at the office, 95-105%, a week at the office, 85 - 95% two weeks, under 85% no work from home.
    via u/Yakusaka
  • Other teams mostly have under 80% perfomance, and they complained about my team working from home.
    via u/Yakusaka
  • Group of unsuccessful business people and badly managed company
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

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

  • And the higher ups and the HR decided that performance based work from home is bad for the "team spirit", "cohesion", "synergy" and other HR buzzwords, so now, because OTHERS are underperforming, we have to return to office full time.
    via u/Yakusaka
  • And as a team, we all agreed that our performance should match theirs, for "team spirit"...
    via u/Yakusaka
  • Screw them. My team busts their to get the performance enough to work from home.
    via u/Yakusaka
  • Now? No way in h I. Enjoy your "team spirit" folks....
    via u/Yakusaka
  • View from below successful business people putting their hands together
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

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

  • originatr I can 100% empathize with you're frustration on this but that performance based RTO plan is bulls..... More than likely, if that's the path you guys were on, it was only a matter of time before you guys were all gonna be 5days RTO anyway. This seems more like an out for the higher ups to blame "underperformers". I wouldn't take the bait.
    via u/originatr
  • fourlittlebees I don't even have to ask if this is in the U.S. That stellar management thinking is exactly the type you expect here.
    via u/fourlittlebees
  • Yakusaka Original Poster's Reply As a matter of fact, NO. It's in EU.
    via u/Yakusaka
  • originatr Yes... workplace "accidents" do happen. And I obviously don't work there, so I can't know for sure. What I'm trying to say is...even massive companies are pushing 5- day RTO right now. It's not wild to think your higher-ups were already considering full RTO and just used that complaint as the convenient moment to pull the trigger Blaming one coworker might feel satisfying, but leadership. decisions like this usually aren't that reactive...
    via u/originatr
  • Yakusaka Original Poster's Reply It's just frustration.... And I don't understand how is lowering someones performance better forcthe company. It is clearly visible that our in office performance, on the days we have to be in office are nowhere near our average daily performance....
    via u/Yakusaka
  • anyfox7 If the company wants team spirit and cohesion then join a union. Bosses create workplaces designed for infighting and competition among their subordinates to maintain control, last thing they want is real organization to fight for each other against them. This is the new word: Solidarity.
    via u/anyfox7
  • Yakusaka Original Poster's Reply Dude, our union actually supported this sh....
    via u/Yakusaka
  • PavlovsPanties Time to stop going above and beyond then if it doesn't matter anyways. Why would you bother if it doesn't give any benefits?
    via u/PavlovsPanties
  • maydayvoter11 HR is filled with the stupidest people imaginable.
    via u/maydayvoter11
  • Turbojelly Seems to me like your company just made it clear thst they prefer office work over productive work. Would be a masdive shame of your team had a massive drop in performance after returning to work.
    via u/Turbojelly
  • Sotilis I guess performin under 80% is the goal, so other people won't think that it's unfair that your team has high percentage
    via u/Sotilis
  • Paranoidnl It's way easier to bring people to their level than to rise to yours.
    via u/Paranoidnl
  • FakeDoctorMeatCoat They prioritized their worst employees. Look elsewhere. Let them keep their duds and tell them that's exactly why you're leaving.
    via u/FakeDoctorMeatCoat

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complaining competition work from home return to office employee coworkers human resources performance company team
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