Quote from a colleague who retired with her full pension last year and then went looking for a job this year:
For anyone who needs to hear this, there is no reason to stay on a team that is making you miserable. Opportunities abound.
There is a climate of desperation among employers because of a scarcity of folks with high level skills.
She left our group because our management has become "challenging". However, as boneheaded as they are, they have not mandated RTO.
Of course, we're a non-profit that doesn't invest in rental properties. The only thing our CEO has said related to RTO (early in the pandemic) was why the hell are we paying so much for office space if people can do the same job from home?
edit:
I guess if you don't have high-level skills, you are still kind of fucked, but you can do what everyone else does and work the shitty jobs until you have the skills and experience, then jump ship. I think MedMD might be hiring soon.
I work for a big corporation that most people have probably never heard of. Our CEO recently said something to the effect of "We've managed to recruit talent from all over the world because we're flexible. Most of these companies that are doing RTO mandates are not doing well and we're more than happy to take advantage of their bad business decisions."
If you're an executive who's pushing RTO, just know that you're gift wrapping your best talent and shipping them straight to your competitors. It might save you a little money now but it's going to cost you a fortune in the long term.
Kind of assumed the executives pushing RTO aren't concerned about long term company welfare. They want a minor quarterly bump so they can exit with their golden parachute.