Employee meets no colleagues when told to return to office, starts working remotely again and gets a raise: 'I decided to just stop'

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Jun 10, 2026 7:45 PM EDT

What's the benefit of office work if there is nobody else around to work with?

A large proportion of jobs that exist today can be done comfortably outside of a formal workplace, but that doesn't stop employers from deciding that their email-sending, spreadsheet-analyzing workers absolutely must be back in the office for one reason or another. They have to make those high rental costs worth it, and also make it easier to spy on you.

One of the biggest complaints many employees have about the modern workplace is that there is such a large demand to return to the office after long periods of successfully being able to do their job at home. No doubt about it, there can be some genuine benefits to working directly with coworkers in this manner, but it can hardly be argued to be necessary in a lot of cases. Still, many companies are not interested in giving their workers a choice.

Countless employees in this position dream that they could sneak in an odd WFH day or week without facing punishment for it. The flexibility and lack of commute truly take so much of the stress off working, after all, and most people do not want to feel like their entire lives are dedicated to their jobs.

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  • A model representing an employee lying on a couch and working from home on his laptop
    via Clay Banks (Unsplash+)

    A model representing an employee lying on a couch and working from home on his laptop

  • An employee had worked from home for their job for several years, and had been told that there would be an expectation for them to return to the office at some point when they secured the role. Sure enough, it was eventually requested that they start working from the office.

    While they initially complied, they were baffled to find that none of their colleagues seemed to be in the same position as they were. After working in an empty office for some time, they decided to move away from the workplace and start working from home again. The company didn't seem to notice, and even rewarded them with a raise.

  • I stopped going to the office and they gave me a raise.

    I got my corporate job during Co id, I was personally told to move to the state the office was in since the expectation was eventually I'd be in office. So I did. A year after I moved they sent the email, I started going to the office, but the rest of my team was still remote so I was working all alone in a big and literally empty building. It was dystopian.
    via Anynon1
  • To top it off we have mandatory and frequent overtime, so the commute plus random graveyard shifts were wearing on both my time and health. After about a year of going to the office without meeting a single
    via Anynon1
  • coworker, I decided to just stop going, and they never said anything. In the end to save on cash I decided to move back to my hometown which is out of state and has a much lower cost of living
    via Anynon1
  • It's been a year since I've been to the office, and not only have they not noticed (or maybe just not said anything), but these guys actually gave me a raise Imao. They are so full of sh. Singling people out to go to office while everyone else is "exempt" is
    via Anynon1
  • laughable. Don't get me wrong I'm glad I got a raise, but it just goes to show how much bulls can do this stuff remote RTO is if you
    via Anynon1
  • A representation of a couch in a living room with a laptop placed on the coffee table in front of it
    via Clay Banks (Unsplash+)

    A representation of a couch in a living room with a laptop placed on the coffee table in front of it

  • kayz251 Tbh RTO is all about control. I work woth nothing but boomers in upper management. They are still under the impression that if they dont see you, you are not working. We send millions of
    via kayz251
  • dollars on buildings when everything we do is cloud based. We dont have in person meeting but webex with the people in the same building. Its a joke.
    via kayz251
  • Status-Fold7144 If you moved to another state | hope you told HR so they could process taxes properly. This could be a major issue at tax time if your failed to do that
    via Status-Fold7144
  • Forymanarysanar Shouldn't have went into office anyway Personally, if I'd be called into office, I'd rather quit and get another office job than return to office in my current job.
    via Forymanarysanar
  • zeno0771 After about a year of going to the office without meeting a single coworker Are you sure you didn't stumble into the Backrooms?
    via zeno0771
  • seanwd11 The one thing I learned quite quickly is the two tiered justice system that seemingly exists in every workplace.
    via seanwd11
  • There are 'rules' and then there are rules. The people that don't understand this think it's a conspiracy, and it kind of is, but it's a conspiracy of 'who you know' combined with 'how you do'.
    via seanwd11
  • Beetlejuice_me Did you change the address with HR and if so, they still didn't notice? I love it.
    via Beetlejuice_me
  • Autumnwind37 Did you pick up Jennifer Aniston to watch Kung Fu?
    via Autumnwind37
  • MonkAndCanatella It's possible you're good at your job and they don't wanna stir sh up. If you sucked they would probably use that as an excuse to fire you
    via MonkAndCanatella
  • WhippingSh tties • 1d ago Tbh, it sounds pretty kick a to have an entire office to myself and never meet another coworker, I think I would prefer that over remote.
    via WhippingShtties

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