Company announces 3 days in office after being fully remote for 4 years, employee spends 3+ hours commuting

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
May 14, 2026 9:00 PM EDT

The shift from remote to in-person can be jarring. 

When you've spent a long time working from home 100% of the time, the shift to having to show up to the office every day can be an unexpected one. Any major shift in a routine can be upsetting. It can mean having to change your whole perspective and outlook on the world. It can mean changing the way you approach your everyday tasks. It's nothing to sneeze at. But sometimes you've just gotta do what the boss asks of you and nothing more. You put in the bare minimum so you can still reap what little you've sown from the situation. But you still get the right to complain, no matter where you are in life. That right stays with you forever. 

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  • A woman commutes on a train holding her purse
    via Unsplash+ (Fellipe Ditadi)

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

  • My company just announced 3 days in office starting next month. I've been fully remote for 4 years and I genuinely don't know how people did this every day.

    I did a trial run this week because my manager asked me to come in for a planning session. One day. I figured it would be fine.
    via Ecliptic_Fang
  • Left home at 7:40 to make it by 9. Sat in traffic for 55 minutes to cover 18 miles. Got there, found the office is now open plan, my old desk is gone, I'm supposed to use a "hot desk" which means dragging myself to a different spot each time and hoping the monitors work. The ones I got had one with a slightly flickering screen I was staring at for six hours. My neck still hurts.
    via Ecliptic_Fang
  • Lunch was either the sad office kitchen or a $17 sandwich from the place downstairs, I went with the sandwich because I needed to get out of the building for twenty minutes just to feel like a person. Got back, sat through two more hours of meetings that absolutely could have been a call, then drove home in 70 minutes because apparently 5:30pm traffic is worse than 7:40am traffic.
    via Ecliptic_Fang
  • Total time spent commuting and getting ready: about 3 hours. Total time doing actual work: roughly the same as any remote day, maybe slightly less because open plan offices are loud and I spent the first hour unable to focus because someone nearby was on a call with no headphones.
    via Ecliptic_Fang
  • The 3 day mandate kicks in next month. I've already started looking at what a job change would involve. Not making any moves yet, just doing the math. But that one day reminded me exactly what I traded away when I went remote and I'm not sure I'm willing to trade it back for a flickering monitor and a $17 sandwitch.
    via Ecliptic_Fang

  • That's the pain that this worker was experiencing after they were forced to return to the office after years away. They were suddenly confronted with all the things that can be annoying about commuting to a workplace and having to do their day's work around other people. It's never as convenient as you want it to be, and sometimes it can put you in such a bad mood that you consider quitting. It can seem arbitrary, the power they have over you as an employee, and you probably want some way around that. It can be disheartening to feel like you don't have any agency over your own life, which happens all too often when you're at the whim of a company. That's what happened here. Sometimes there is power in complaint, though, and we have to remind ourselves that we're not in it alone. There are plenty of people out there who feel the exact same way that we do, and it's our job to find them. So scroll on to read this worker's story and then let us know what you think about it in the comments. 

  • Commenters gave their takes and opinions on this issue.

    Routine-Education572 Nightmare. I've been WFH for 20 years now. Not even intentionally at first but then very intentionally for the last 10 years.
    via Routine-Education572
  • A tired woman holds her fingers to her temples at the office
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

  • Other things in the list (small but they build up): - rainy days, snowy days. (commute, gear, being damp) - office temp too hot or too cold - food smells - shared bathroom - that one person that can't
    via Routine-Education572
  • stop talking - suckier dinners (no more putting in a pot roast at 2pm) - all-talk-no-music morning radio (I'm a radio listener...) - clothes (deciding what to wear, wearing them, washing them more) I'm spoiled. But all of it just drains life force
    via Routine-Education572
  • Assumption No515 Been doing HVAC work for years and honestly the open office thing would drive me nuts too. Working from home spoils you - no commute, your own setup, actual quiet when you need to focus
    via AssumptionNo515
  • That $17 sandwich for lunch is criminal though, I'd probably start bringing lunch from home after first week
    via AssumptionNo515
  • justkindahangingout This is usually steps before layoffs. Be prepared for the worst
    via justkindahangingout
  • just321askin I feel you. S ks. Get ready for 5 days RTO within the next year. I was also fully remote for four years, then they mandated RTO 3 days a week. A year later it was a 5 days RTO mandate. This is every company's new strategy to get back to full time RTO.
    via just321askin
  • dialectic14 it's not about efficiency. it's about control and some managers have confessed, it's about trying to get a certain percent of employees to quit so they don't have to go through the legal/HR work of justifying layoffs and paying unemployment
    via dialectic14
  • Runnermother90 Do you have to do the full day in the office? My company is doing. 2 days a week RTO and my manager said to just go in the hours. that work for you (and avoid rush hour). So I'm doing 9:30 - 2pm most days to avoid rush hour and get my kids on/off the bus.
    via Runnermother90
  • Prudent_Trainer_573 I go in 3 days a week (soon. to be 4) only to be on Teams calls all day. We truly live in the silliest of times.
    via Prudent_Trainer_573
  • CallMeSisyphus I've been remote since 2008 - long before all the cool kids were doing it. And while I can't afford to retire in place, I will ABSOLUTELY sell my house and all my possessions and go live in a van down by the river before I'll RTO.
    via CallMeSisyphus
  • meldanell Unfortunately, I am in the office five days a week. Traffic has gotten so much worse with all these RTO mandates.
    via meldanell
  • cluttrdmind Hot desking is a slap in the face. Somebody else's slimy fingerprints and crumbs on everything (gag), schlepping your office stuff in and out every single day. And a three hour round trip!? No way. I
    via cluttrdmind
  • would be so unproductive. I've worked where all I had was a single desk in a big old line with 500 other single desks and it was still better than hot desking.
    via cluttrdmind
  • Do they have any kind of rule about how far away from the office you live? Often times if it's more than 20 or 30 or 40 miles they will exempt you from the policy.
    via cluttrdmind
  • bo174 So, the change will use up 9 hours per week, or 36 hours per month, close to a work- week every month. That's insane, from a productivity perspective. They're losing about three work-months per year, that could otherwise be put to productive purposes. Nuts.
    via bo174
  • mettarific The thing about this whole return to office thing is, the offices are dramatically worse that they were before WFH. Ugh, I'm sorry you're going through this.
    via mettarific
  • soup_engine honestly one office day already drains me more than a full work week minsan people forget it's not just "going to the office," it's the
    via soup_engine
  • commute, prep time, noise, food expenses, and losing hours of your day. if productivity's the same or worse, i get why you're questioning if it's worth going back.
    via soup_engine

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antiwork workplace-stories toxic-workplace job bosses work coworkers working toxic-work-environment
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