Return to the office? These workers quit instead.

As more companies crack down on remote work, employees are pushing back with walkouts and resignations

By Danielle Abril
Updated September 21, 2023 at 2:27 p.m. EDT | Published September 21, 2023 at 10:10 a.m. EDT



Rowan Rosenthal, a former principal product designer for Grindr, says their only option was to quit their job after the company's return-to-office mandate. (Mary Inhea Kang for The Washington Post)

When Rowan Rosenthal heard about Grindr’s return-to-office mandate during a virtual town hall meeting in August, anxiety, confusion and anger set in. The principal product designer lived within a 25-minute bike ride from the company’s Brooklyn office but instead was required to report to one in Los Angeles, where Rosenthal’s department was assigned. This doesn’t make sense and there’s no way this will happen, Rosenthal thought.

But it did happen. And two weeks later, Rosenthal realized that despite loving the work, the only option that made sense was to quit. That was also the case for about 45 percent of Grindr’s 178 employees, workers say. ... “Honestly I felt betrayed,” said Rosenthal, who worked at Grindr for nearly three years. “I’ve poured my whole heart into advocating for the product and its users, and this is how it ends?”

As more companies enforce their office mandates, some workers are choosing to quit instead of complying and returning to the office. Even companies at the forefront of remote work during the pandemic such as Facebook parent Meta, Google, Amazon and Zoom are getting stricter about office returns. They say workers are more productive, collaborative and engaged in-person. Indeed, the percentage of remote workers in America’s workforce is declining — from 17.9 percent in 2021 to 15.2 percent in 2022, according to the latest census data.

Workers say their reasons for quitting include everything from family to commuting expenses to being required to relocate. And many workers worry that people like those with disabilities or who are primary caregivers may be left behind due to their inability to successfully work from the office.

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By Danielle Abril
Danielle Abril covers technology and its impact on workers across industries for The Washington Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/DanielleDigest