CEO Mandates Employees Work in the Office 5 Days a Week, Despite The Fact That he Never Works in the Office

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Jul 9, 2026 12:30 PM EDT

Rules for thee, but not for me.

Your daily commute can greatly impact your feelings about your job. If you don't like your job, but only have to walk five minutes to get to it, that might make you like it more. If you love your job but have to travel three hours round-trip to get to it, you might start to resent the wear and tear the commute puts on your body and project that negative feeling onto your job.

It's pretty frustrating to go from having no commute to having any commute. Even if you have a 30-minute commute, which in the grand scheme of things is pretty short, it's still one hour of your day that you could've spent doing anything else if you worked at home. You can get a lot more done around the house if you don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to get to work on time. In most cases, having a commute shouldn't be a reason to leave your job, because chances are, in this "return to office" era, you're not going to find a new job that doesn't require any time spent in the office, unless you're in high demand because you're extremely good at what you do.

The employee in this story is angry because he has a new, long daily commute because of a return-to-office policy his CEO implemented, and the CEO refuses to play by his own rules.

*A happy CEO works from home at his apartment in the city while his suburban employees commute to the office five days a week.*
*_{The image is a representation of the story and does not depict the real CEO.}*

My new CEO mandated a return to office, but doesn't follow it.

We used to be a happy, remote-friendly company... then we hired a new CEO. Within his first month, he mandated five days a week RTO.

My biggest gripe? He's almost never actually in the office. I figured he was traveling or in off-site meetings, but I spoke to his EA (who is here five days a week), and she

said that about 80% of the time he could come in, he chooses to WFH. He also lives in the city while many of us live in the suburbs and commute an hour or more.

*A suburban area far from the city center makes commuting more difficult for residents.*
*_{The neighborhood pictured here is not the same as the one in the story.}*

*A commuter drives to work from the suburbs, while his CEO, who lives in the city, sits at home and works from his bed.*
*_{Descriptions and photos are fictionalizations of real scenarios.}*

constantdaydream44 This is my supervisor. She hates wfh but comes in 1-2 days a week

saltyoursalad In other words, she loves wfh

akp55 call him out. if he isn't out visiting customers or drumming up business he needs to be in the office as well. or double down and just start working from home, when asked why, be honest and say well if the CEO is working from there 80% of the time, why should the rest of us come in to the office as well.

Shadow_MelD_Rune_Car Calling him out publicly could backfire, but documenting his absence and asking HR whether the policy applies to executives would put the hypocrisy on record.

Flat Sea4409 Sounds like they hired him to be the bad guy. A former employer of mine loved to hire new C-suite to bring in the changes the Board was too cowardly to implement themselves.

Going2beBANNEDanyway Rules for thee not for me. Welcome to corporate America.

J_Knish Businesses are not a democracy. Calling out the CEO gets you nothing at best and fired at worst.

improbablesky When you set the rules, you also get to decide if they apply to you. It's stupid but true.

Double-treble-nc14 Which is why some bosses are managers and not leaders.

False_Ad_2744 Moral of the story...become the CEO.

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CEO Mandates Employees Work in the Office 5 Days a Week, Despite The Fact That he Never Works in the Office

Rules for thee, but not for me.

My new CEO mandated a return to office, but doesn't follow it.

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