That’s dumb. You get the capable people to quit first that way.
Yes, but those are the ones that get paid more. So you get rid of a big financial drain, and then you can hire cheaper people and dump more work onto them.
It works great, unfortunately.
Remember, the C-Suites of today don’t give two fucks about the company they’re ‘running’. They want line to go up so their pay goes up, and so they can use line-go-up to golden parachute to the next company where they repeat the process.
If execs want to reduce workforce size they should offer voluntary layoffs. Ya know, unless they’re scared of too many people leaving or something
If they lay off employees, they have to pay severance and/or unemployment. If the employees quit due to unreasonable mandates, they can be fired with “cause”.
They’ve been mass laying off people regardless. May as well give people the chance to leave on good terms.
Voluntary layoffs - probably the best form of layoffs if you ask me - still come with severance packages that have to be paid. Very few people will be interested in quitting just because you ask them, but a good many will do it if you sweeten the deal.
Basically we have 3 variants here:
Regular layoffs - have to pay severance + can select who leaves RTO stealth layoffs - don’t have to pay severance + can’t select who leaves Voluntary layoffs - have to pay severance + can’t select who leaves
Any morally bankrupt business would of course want a fourth variant where they get to select who leaves and don’t have to pay severance, but thankfully this option is generally not available to them.
Anyway, voluntary layoffs are the best out of a selection of bad choices for the workers, but come with the most downsides for the morally bankrupt business.
They also want to get rid of long-time, well paid staff to hire replacements for way less.
Umm, doest that fall into the realm of constructive dismissal?
It only works once…so what’s their plan now?
Ease on the rto rules until people are comfy and yank the chain again. Rinse and repeat every 5 years and you can continuously flush out the seniors for freshly graduated blood.
Corporate execs these days are not exactly known for their long term thinking. Doesn’t matter if the doors are flying off your airplanes tomorrow as long as the stock price goes up today.
Only has to work once, you pocket the savings on severance packages one time and then go back to regular layoffs.
Dystopian as all hell, but such is the corporate world.
A 12 o clock punch in the nuts daily
Just had to work once, next time they’ll cook up some other thing
Is it different if they fire you for not returning to work?
If they wanted to shed a chunk of workforce they’d be on the hook for a period of notice as well as some compensation, and the employees would be able to file for unemployment insurance once let go. If the employee quits because they refuse to come back to the office then the company is free of those obligations.
Depends on the individual curcumstances.
Not a lawyer, but have had way to many trainings on unemployment law over the years.
Circumstance 1: An employee moved further away from the office and can no longer feesibly make the commute to the office. Back to office mandates would be a change in the primary work location. The employee would qualify unemployment even if they “quit”. This is the same for people who started remotely.
Circumstance 2: The employee became the primary caregiver of children or a relative due to the flexibility allowed in working from home. A back to the office mandate would not allow them to continue this. The employee can argue for unemployment due to a change in the required work schedule (my wife successfully did this back in 2010).
Circumstance 3: This one is a bit harder. The employee has performed their job superbly from home. They clearly and openly (preferably in writing) have stated they will not work in the office. The company has a back to the office mandate and then fires the employee for not showing up. The employee can argue this was a creative firing and the employer is on the hook for unemployment. The employee must have evidence that managers were aware of their unwillingness to work from the office prior to the mandate.
You’re focused on the individual scale - check out the WARN act requirements for larger scale layoffs. A lot of the RTO mandates were a way to skirt notice and compensation requirements by getting large numbers of employees to quit on their own.
