Employee Doesn’t Know How To Respond to an Overly Excited Email Announcing RTO: ‘I have a whole system at home: two monitors, good headphones, my coffee setup, my dog asleep under my desk. None of that is coming with me’

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Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Aug 27, 2026 1:45 PM EDT

Are we really that excited to return to the office?

Every week, a new scary RTO Reddit story emerges from the internet's trenches. We've finally gotten used to our work-from-home routines, only for them to come and take them away from us.

Now, all of a sudden, we have to think about traffic, vehicles, public transportation, fees, getting dressed elegantly, sharing with other people, preparing your food the day before and putting it in a lunchbox, and a long list of unwanted etcéteras.

I really don't understand why this is such a common tendency when everybody is having such a good time at home. Maybe they could offer the possibility for those who would rather go to an office (yes, they exist, and sometimes, I'm one of them) because it helps with time management, getting out of your house more often, and interacting with other people, basically.

At least for this employee, it will only be three days at the office. When all of the working-from-home thing started, I thought it was going to change the world so fundamentally that a lot of people would move out of big cities and the world would reorganize itself, and in some way it did, but right now there is definitely something pulling us back to old habits. Should we conform? And also, am I the only one who doesn't want to return to the office at all?

At least for me, going to the office should be reserved for days when you need to get out of the house a little and interact, something like that, at your own pace, but well, we'd have to restructure the entire economy of the world to do that, wouldn't we?

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  • New Mail

    2 Fa BL NEW News Mail BBC Ne
    via Brett Jordan

    When the RTO mail comes

    Image for illustrative purposes

     

  • Our RTO mandate starts Monday and my manager just sent a "so excited to see everyone!" email and I genuinely don't know how to respond

    We got the official 3 days a week in office announcement back in March. I've been remote since 2021. I live 34 miles from the office. I did the math and this is going to add roughly 6 hours of
    via Ok_Soft_8207
  • commute time to my week, plus parking is $18 a day which nobody is covering. I've said nothing publicly because there's nothing to say. The decision was made somewhere above
    via Ok_Soft_8207
  • my manager's head, she didn't have input, I actually like her as a person and I'm not going to make her life harder. So I've just been quietly dreading Monday. Then this afternoon she sends a
    via Ok_Soft_8207

  • Going back

    Cheezburger Image 10659159808
    via Jan Baborák

    Returning back to the office on monday

    Actor performance of story events

  • team email that says "so excited to finally see everyone's faces!! the office has been renovated and it looks amazing, this is going to be such a great change for the team :)"
    via Ok_Soft_8207
  • I stared at it for a while. I don't think she's being fake exactly. I think she's trying to make the best of it and keep morale up which, fair. But something about that email made the whole thing feel more real
    via Ok_Soft_8207
  • in a way that the official HR announcement didn't. I've been remote long enough that I genuinely don't remember how to do a full work day in an office. Like I don't know where I'm supposed to eat lunch.
    via Ok_Soft_8207
  • I don't know how loud I'm allowed to be on calls. I have a whole system at home, two monitors, good headphones, my coffee setup, my dog asleep under my desk. None of that is coming with me.
    via Ok_Soft_8207
  • Anyway. "Can't wait to see you too!" is what I wrote back. Sent it. Closed my laptop. Took the dog for a walk. Monday is going to be a lot.
    via Ok_Soft_8207

  • Last chance

    Cheezburger Image 10659161088
    via Andriyko Podilnyk

    Walking the dog for the last time

    Stock photo unrelated



     

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