Quitting Employee Defended for Refusing to be 'Forced' Back Into the Office

Internet commenters rallied behind one remote worker who quit their job instead of returning to the office.

In a viral Reddit post published on the popular r/antiwork forum, Redditor u/Recent_Bite3653 (otherwise referred to as the original poster, or OP) said they have enjoyed great success working from home and aren't willing to compromise their health to do lesser work in a cramped office building.

Titled, "Hitting send on my resignation letter," the post has received nearly 12,000 upvotes and 1,000 comments in the last day.

"My company has forced us back in office after [two] years of working remote," OP began, bluntly.

Continuing to explain that half of their team works in Canada, while the other half worked in Cincinnati, the original poster said they believed they would be granted a medical accomodation to keep working remotely.

Unfortunately, they were wrong.

"I have the highest productivity and second highest quality score on my team," OP wrote. "However, my accommodation [request] was denied.

"My manager, who is in Canada, sent me an email at [10:45 p.m.] last night asking for confirmation that I am going [to be] in office," OP continued. "I am responding with my resignation.

"Wish me luck," OP added.

This February, data published by Pew Research Center showed that nearly 60 percent of U.S. employees capable of working from home were doing just that.

Of those remote employees, Pew also reported that a whopping 78 percent said they would prefer to keep working from home, even after the pandemic.

However, a separate Microsoft survey of more than 30,000 workers revealed that 50 percent of company leaders already require, or plan to require all employees to revert back to full-time, in-person schedules by the end of 2022.

And earlier this month, there were more employees back working in offices than at any point since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Forbes.

But mandates to return to the office aren't always effective and some employees, similar to the original poster, have elected to seek employment elsewhere rather than trade in their home setups for cubicles and water coolers.

Throughout the comment section of the viral Reddit post, Redditors commended the original poster for standing their ground against their employer and questioned why so many others have chosen to force productive employees back into offices they so clearly have no interest in.

"It's amazing being remote for two years and they want you back," Redditor u/Wrong-Coffee commented. "I don't get these a**hole companies."

Redditor u/Jaded_Apple_8935, whose comment has received nearly 3,000 upvotes, issued a similar inquiry and recounted their experience with an employer insistent on returning to the office.

"I left a job about a year ago for this exact reason," they wrote. "I had been successfully working remotely for over a year and there was no reason to come back.

"I mostly felt great about letting my old employer know that I can find alternate employment and I don't need them," they continued. "I don't understand why companies do not grasp this concept, then cry about turnover."

In the post's top comment, which has also received nearly 3,000 upvotes, Redditor u/joeyblacky9999 advised the original poster to hold off on submitting their resignation, sparking further debate.

"Why resign?" they quipped. "Let them fire you instead. Which could take a year after threats of firing if you don't show up in office."

"Staying there and enduring abusive communication about returning to office and then getting fired sounds like hell to me," Redditor u/quizzicalmoose interjected. "There's nothing wrong with just stepping away from that and finding something better."

Newsweek reached out to u/Recent_Bite3653 for comment.