Boss Demands RTO Then Hosts a Google Meet With Everyone Sitting Right Next To Each Other: ‘We spent forty-five minutes talking to each other through microphones while making awkward peripheral eye contact across our plastic desk dividers’

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Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Aug 22, 2026 4:00 PM EDT

Work remotely but do it from the office?

Remote jobs have their lights and shadows. Some days you don't even get out of your pajamas, and you end up feeling like a giant slug. Some days you stop so many times to do random household chores that you end up working double time just because you couldn't stop getting distracted. But other days, when it's pouring rain outside, and you can stay in and work in your safe place without stepping in any mud puddle or having to look decent for other people, it feels like a blessing from above.

It's all a matter of learning how to handle it, finding equilibrium, and knowing that you'll eventually lose that equilibrium and have to find it again. Still, this is not a story about having a remote job but about losing one, and having to go back to the office, a thing that, sadly, is happening more and more these days.

Have you witnessed any dystopian scenarios just like this one after your forced RTOs? When are we going to accept that offices are over until the 'office culture' is so great we actually do want to go back? Do we really perform better as employees when we are at the office?

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  • 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, did my full makeup, put on slacks and heels and commuted
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • forty-five minutes through heavy rain to get to my desk by 8:30. i sat down in my freezing cubicle with my winter coat over my lap and put my headset on. My manager sits six feet
    via 7Wastel4nder

  • Empty desks liminal space

    Cheezburger Image 10657809920
    via blue sky

    The lonely cubicles

    Stock photo unrelated

  • across from me. 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 while staring directly at our
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • laptop webcams. We spent forty-five minutes talking to each other through microphones while making awkward peripheral eye contact across our plastic desk dividers.
    via 7Wastel4nder

  • Probably on an online meeting with somebody sitting next to him

    Cheezburger Image 10657808896
    via Rodrigo Rodrigues | WOLF Λ R T

    One employee at his cubicle

    Model portrayal

  • This is ABSOLUTELY mind-numbing theater. The office is so loud that we cannot take our headsets off without getting horrible feedback echoes through the mics. I ruined my suede heels in
    via 7Wastel4nder
  • the rainy parking lot just to do the exact same remote spreadsheets under 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

  • Morning zoom call

    9 9 9 9 O 4 A D F O H J KL Z X C v B N A M >>> > option command Эк command option
    via Chris Montgomery

    The zoom call

    Still frame for contextual reference only

  • Hyperslinky9 Reply All to the invite and start requesting a conference room be booked for meetings.
    via Hyperslinky9
  • sharkieshadooontt Dont you just love sitting in an open style high school cafeteria that is loud, and smells like BO and gross food.
    via sharkieshadooontt

  • To me, everything this employee describes can be improved; they can ask to use the conference room and join the meeting together from one computer so they avoid the ridiculousness of talking to each other through microphones while sitting side by side, or they can directly confront the manager and point out the elephant in the room. There are many things to attempt, but will this employee have the courage to try them? Or will she only rant about it on Reddit?

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Tags

workplace-stories remote work toxic-workplace work workplace toxic-work-environment
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