Leadership forces all employees back to the office, only to have them Zoom each other from their desks: ‘I should have stayed in my sweatpants at home’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Aug 19, 2026 7:15 AM EDT

"This meeting could have been an email" has reached its final boss.

It's well known that most companies don't really care about wasting their employees' time for the false sense of productivity. What does that mean? Well, it means that even if companies know that they can save valuable time by turning some meetings into simple emails or allowing employees to work from home to avoid commute time, they still prefer to waste everyone's time for the sake of false productivity.

"Let's sit in this meeting room to discuss something that could have been a Slack message." "You need to drive to work every day for over an hour just so you could sit on an office chair for 9 hours and do the same thing you could have done from the comfort of your own bed", all so that your boss could see your pretty face and pretend like they actually know what you're doing all day.

If companies truly cared about productivity and getting work done, we know for a fact that employees would be much happier in the workplace, mostly because their workplaces would be their homes. Unless there is an actual, valid reason for someone to leave their house to work, say, they work as a pizza delivery person, working from home is just as good, if not better, for the company and the worker alike.

The employee who shared the story below on r/jobs is dealing with a company that has taken the demand to return to the office to the next level. Not only are they forced to work from an office after cancelling remote work, but what they end up doing in the office makes no sense whatsoever. Why make your employee arrive at the office, only for them to hop on a Zoom call with the people who are already physically there, and stare at each other's faces through a screen while sitting five feet apart from each other?

We hit a new low, folks.

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  • Employees working in an office.
    via Getty Images

    Employees working in an office.

    Not actual story subjects.

  • My boss forced us back to the office to Zoom each other.

    So our executive leadership cancelled remote work last month to rebuild team synergy and in-person culture. I woke up at 6 AM,
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • did my full makeup, put on slacks and heels and commuted forty-five minutes through heavy rain to get to my desk by 8:30.
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • i sat down in my freezing cubicle with my winter coat over my lap and put my headset on. My manager sits six feet across from me.
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • Our analyst sits three feet to my right. At 10 AM my manager sent out a Google Meet link so the four of us could do our daily check-in
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • while staring directly at our laptop webcams. We spent forty-five minutes talking to each other through microphones while making
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • awkward peripheral eye contact across our plastic desk dividers.
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • This is ABSOLUTELY mind- numbing theater. The office is so loud that we cannot take our headsets off without getting horrible
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • feedback echoes through the mics. I ruined my suede heels in the rainy parking lot just to do the exact same remote spreadsheets under
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • buzzing fluorescent lights. I should of stayed in my sweatpants at home. We destroyed our daily peace just to justify commercial
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • real estate leases. Why do executives pretend in- person culture exists when everything is just digital communication.
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • Workers on a Zoom call.
    via Getty Images

    Workers on a Zoom call.

    Model representation. 

  • dirtys ts Highly unlikely it was your boss. Unless he runs the whole show it was most likely the board.
    via dirtys**ts
  • Hyperslinky9 Reply All to the invite and start requesting a conference room be booked for meetings.
    via Hyperslinky9
  • Classic-Tell214 And let me guess you did not take a lunch. Or ate at your desk
    via Classic-Tell214
  • chiddychiddybngbng Your managers the idiot. No sense. They should be scheduling in person meetings in a room at the very bare minimum.
    via chiddychiddybngbng
  • Tanya-lil what a waste of time, it's like they want to justify the office space for the sake of it
    via Tanya-lil
  • KanataRef lol, my last job did the exact same thing, so I feel the pain (also roughly same commute). That said, we were in separate offices next to each other, but still.
    via KanataRef
  • sqnch They want people to start leaving to save money without having to sack them. "Company restructure" and "efficiencies" incoming.
    via sqnch

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boss return to office workplace-stories zoom employee manager job tales-from-the-workplace Office wfh workplace company
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