Trying Not to Be Angry
I will never not be amazed at how obtuse corporations in America can be. My job has recently started to mandate RTO (Return to Office). The excuse was "well, we just think it'll lead to more collaboration", or whatever else these jackoffs try to obfuscate the real reason they're doing RTO. It's all about control and trying to do a little quiet firing.
This all came about around the time of some layoffs in the company. The CEO even came down to our floor to kick sand with the whole "Aw shucks, guys. I hate we had to do it" shtick. Talking about how they're "all about efficiency"... Bitch you just laid off some of our most seasoned people!
The company I work for has always been a little strange, and always rubbed me the wrong way. It became more obvious when the former CEO and the CEO of the parent company (whom was the former CEO's wife... its a whole thing, don't ask) announced they were getting a divorce. To the whole company. Why? Who knows. The real kicker? The former CEO was having an affair with my old director! WHAT!? I didn't even learn that last part until I came into office like 2 months after the event and it came up in a conversation with my friend/coworker.
So, the CEO of the parent company, the wife, steps in as acting CEO of the company I work for. This is when things started getting stupid.
I'll be honest, I've been trying to push the boundaries of this whole RTO mandate because I think it's dumb as hell. Hybrid scheduling I can manage, 2-3 days in-office, but this ever-encroaching step backwards in our progress since COVID pisses me off because it is so unnecessary.
For a few months I'd been taking public transportation, takes me roughly an 1.5 hours to get from my house to the office. I figured "I can work on the train, so why not count that as part of my work day?".
After the shooting happened, I tried to get an accommodation to work from home as I really didn't want to be in the city. To the surprise of no one, HR told me that wasn't an "approved reasonable accommodation". This is a major flaw within the whole ADA thing in America, the work gets to tell the person with the disability what THEY think is reasonable... you have a bunch of no-nothings with 0 background in the therapy/health sector trying to tell the person with the disability what is reasonable. Don't you think those terms should be set by, oh I don't know, the person with the damn disability?
The HR rep was like, "well you could take short term disability!", sure, I'll just take unpaid leave and just not feed my daughter. Of the list of accommodations, the only thing that would realistically make a difference was MAYBE a service dog, but I don't exactly need that for what was otherwise a temporary issue. Everything else didn't actually help with the root problem. But do these bean counters care? Nope, not in the slightest. My options were basically go f*** myself or go f*** myself.
So, this is my first week back. Its already off to a bad start. I left around my usual time to catch the train back home. Later that day I got a call from a manager I'm technically under about how he walked by my desk and didn't see me there. I told him I left to go work on my commute back home. This is where the title of this article is coming from.
There came this whole back and forth conversation about the "strict company policy" and whatever other nonsense. "Well, I can't let you do that and not for others", okay so why don't we just do it for everyone? "Well, yknow before COVID it was 5 days in office." yes, I'm aware, but we found a better way of doing things and SHOULD have evolved from it not regressed. "well, its CEO's company, she can do what she wants with it". Maybe, but her actions still impact us, and as the people doing the mass of the work here, we should have a say especially in the internal handling of things. Every excuse just pissed me off a little more, and it all is basically just "well, CEO wants it that way because she said so". It's like those parents that want children to behave a certain way, but they don't have an explanation as to why so it's just "cuz I said so".
So, I let it ALL out on him. I told him damn near exactly how I felt. I told him this policy was asinine, everyone on my team agrees and even so does my director. These top-down policies with 0 room for negotiation gives the impression that the company cares more about control and cares little about the well-being of the employees. This whole thing is turning managers into hall monitors like we are in friggen elementary school. I told him how we have continued to have company record profits every year, so to try and force in-office days for more productivity just makes 0 sense. Every excuse he tried to come back with I had one to counter that he couldn't.
The conversation ended with him letting me know he will pass along the feedback "up the chain", I let him know I'm not confident that it'll even be heard, but I appreciate it. I ensured him I understand he's just doing his job because he's getting pressure from the higher ups. We ended the conversation.
Now I'm here. In office. Writing this. Pissed. I'm trying not to be, I actually took a hit from my weed (now that I can take it medically) in the parking garage just to try and calm me down a bit and make this whole situation suck less. I can't do public transit anymore because I don't want to be home at 7pm. Which sucks because commuting is awful.
I want to do something, but I don't have a lot of confidence in trying to rally my coworkers. Half of the employees are big MAGA mouthbreathers, and the other half are, rightfully, scared of losing a major source of income with no safety net. So, the only thing I can do is continue to rebel, I come in for my full 8 hours and leave on the dot. I don't care about dressing "professional", I'm going to wear my baggy Levi 501s like it's the 90s, its technically not against dress code.
You might be thinking "man, this guy is just trying to be a shit stirrer". You're right. If I can be the one person willing to stick it to these corpos who don't care about the rest of us, then so be it. I've never been afraid to speak up, and I certainly won't be now. I'll still try to get conversations going, finding allies in this mess, maybe one day we can form a serious opposition, but until then it's malicious compliance.
It infuriates me how these people talk about how much executives want to claim they care about productivity they do things that completely go against the overwhelming data. They're like the parents that keep trying to justify spanking children. These CEOs talk with other fart-sniffing CEOs that have no clue and are just saying things with 0 backing. I'm tired of it.
Sorry that this is a little bit of a rant, but I wanted to get it off my chest. If you read all of that, thanks. Take care of yourself, do what you can to keep your peace, no job is worth the mental toll.
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