RTO – Passive Aggressive RIF?

I’ve seen it repeatedly, the same bs reasons for RTO. Increased collaboration, improved culture, etc. What I believe it really is; control, tax revenue for the city (cincinnati in this case), and attrition with zero cost to corporations. GE Aerospace went full remote in March 2020. It remained that way until I left to take an opportunity at Great American a few years ago. We had the option to be in office and I regularly took advantage of that bc I enjoy being in the office a couple days a week.

I was hired as a hybrid employee by Great American, 2 days/wk, and they announced this week that we are RTO and 4 days are required beginning early March. No mention of revisiting my “verbal contract” (we are at will), just a mandated change I’m required to follow! We have remote employees that will be required in office 4 days if they are within 50 miles of a site.

They recently spent 10s of millions to revamp our offices to align with hybrid work and now out of nowhere we are being forced back in office.

The work life balance a hybrid schedule provides is priceless and I just cannot wrap my head around this. I am a highly productive employee with a specialized skillset that is highly marketable, however, id prefer to stay where I am.

What are we doing in situations like this? Obviously they want to see attrition! Expense management is our main focus right now. I just dont think i can be happy under the “man’s” thumb again.