A middle manager is facing a unique corporate standoff after a senior employee flatly refused to follow a new Return-To-Office (RTO) mandate. Despite the manager successfully negotiating the requirement down from three days to two, one staffer is holding out, claiming that the commute, even though it’s only five minutes, takes away precious time from her mounting workload. The situation has left the manager in a bind: while he secretly agrees that the work can be done from home, he is now tasked with enforcing a policy from upper management that his team member is simply ignoring until things get “less busy.”
“Company is mandating RTO, but one employee is refusing and says ‘I’ll come in once things are less busy.’ What do I do?” the manager wrote on Reddit.
The 33-year-old manager said he has been in this role for about 3 months, and management has now implemented a return-to-office policy requiring 2 days a week in the office. The man claimed that the employers originally wanted employees to return to the office for three days a week, but the manager successfully negotiated it down to two days.
The team lead for a team of five, however, claimed that he was now struggling as one of the team members, a 60-year-old woman, bluntly refused to accept the mandate.
Though he agrees that her role doesn’t require an office presence, the decision to RTO was made by upper management.
“Her position is basically that returning to the office makes no sense because all of our work can be done remotely. Honestly, I agree with her that the work itself can be done remotely – but this decision is coming from above me, and there’s really nothing I can do beyond the compromises I already negotiated.”
Highlighting the employee’s stand, the manager continued, “She also argues that everyone is already overwhelmed with work, and commuting just takes away time that could be spent working. But she lives about a 5-minute drive from the office, and our office is located in the safest part of the city, so there really are not major logistical or safety barriers here. She told me she’d be willing to start coming in once ‘things get less busy’.”
The manager concluded the post by asking, “What would you do in this situation?”
What did social media say?
An individual commented, “Great comment. She is not treating you as a manager, as you don’t act like one.” Another expressed, “Three months in and you’re already negotiating down corporate mandates, which is good, but now you gotta actually enforce what you agreed to, or you’ve got nothing.”
A third posted, “You give them a verbal warning. Document it with HR that they are refusing the RTO mandate. You give them a little bit of time (two weeks or so). If they are still refusing the RTO mandate, you give them a written warning, also documented and coordinated with HR. If they still refuse to come to the office and are not taking you seriously, then you have all of the justification you need to fire them.”
A fourth wrote, “This. I had this case (an employee basically ignoring RTO policy). I restated the policy and expectation by mail to everyone. No improvement. So he got a verbal warning -> no improvement. After a written warning, he terminated on his own request. HR was involved and supported the process. You’ll need documentation (office attendance and any communication regarding this topic). Ignoring it makes you look weak to your own team. Other teams will also see what’s going on.”