Ask HN: Anyone left their job because of RTO?

Rumours has it, our company is planning RTO. I've been working remote for over a decade and not planning to go back to the office.

I was wondering if anyone here went through this and actually left because RTO was enforced. How did you go through it all? appreciate any feedback.

I feel your pain. The market is bleak at the moment.

I checked linkedin a few times and it seems remote jobs are decreasing for some reason.

RTO - return to office

Ian Goodfellow, of the GAN fame, left Apple and rejoined Google DeepMind because of Apple’s mandatory RTO policy.

I recently (within the last year) left Apple. 3 days in the office is mandatory for everyone except those with explicit work from home designations registered within the HR system. Anyone with a desk assigned in an office is required to badge at that office on their org's chosen 3 days per week. Most orgs chose T-W-Th.

The difficulty is that folks that had agreements with their management prior to Covid about flexible working arrangements were nullified with Apple's RTO. So, if M and F was your arrangement prior to Covid and your org chose T-W-Th, too bad. Badge-swipes are being tracked and upper management is applying pressure to managers to get their people in the office, regardless of individuals' needs.

So, yeah, it's technically hybrid, but extremely rigid.

Going full time remote is also significantly harder now, as it must be approved by an SVP on an individual basis.

Any of this may have changed in the months since I left, but I've not heard of anything changing from my colleagues that are still there.