Workplace expert shares that return-to-office mandates may be a layoff in disguise

There is quite a debate on the idea of working from home and office. While each has its pros and cons, there are also reasons why companies make decisions about the type of work to follow. While work-from-home is said to be financially smarter for companies, several companies are opting for work-from-office and calling employees back to their workplaces. Dan Schawbel (@danschawbel), an author and workplace expert, shared key insights on the matter. He posted a video about his input on the return-to-office mandates that several companies are adopting. 

Schawbel mentioned in a video that a telecommunications company is calling over 60,000 employees back to work from the office. “60,000 of the managers must report to one of their nine offices at least three days a week,” Schawbel said, giving a gist of the situation. He mentioned that wherever these managers were, they had to come to the office locations to work or would have to quit. He referred to an article where one of the managers anonymously said that this tactic was “a layoff wolf in sheep's clothing.” The expert, without a doubt, mentioned that he agreed with the manager and explained why. Schawbel said that this tactic had been used since quite some time, when he began learning about workplace trends and behaviors.

“Companies don’t want to communicate that they’re doing a layoff publicly,” the expert said. Revealing reasons, Schawbel said, “It might make them look bad and affect their stock price.” Schawbel then revealed that to maintain their reputation, companies would rather suddenly lay people off by forcing workers to return to the office. While many work-from-home jobs are remote, it is unlikely that people will be able to relocate due to the mandate, causing them to quit or be laid off. With over 4k likes, several employees agreed with the expert and pitched in their views about the whole scenario. @lprs86 said, “My company is forcing a hybrid, but if you’re remote, you can stay but you don’t get to move up to a new role.”

@usersonflower619 said, “I’m one of these workers and it’s very sad. They hired us remotely and are now forcing folks to move and offering relocation funds.” Schawbel posted another video where he shared that the same company that called the RTO mandate did a layoff. “Now we finally know why AT&T was focusing on getting employees back to the office. It’s because they were going to use that to conduct layoffs,” the expert said. He mentioned that the idea was to “force people to quit their jobs and not have to pay them severance.”

Schawbel also astonishingly mentioned that the company got rid of its head of HR to start fresh and “not keep any evidence.” Several companies are adopting this criteria to cut back on their employees shrewdly and safely. While it may be a form of manipulation, it is a strategy that seems to be working for several companies. It is a reminder to employees to watch out if they’re being called back to their workplaces. @michaelsoresch2 said, “These companies think of us as just numbers.” @blkpearl78 said, “That was the soft-hard layoff without having a real layoff.”