By definition, the most valuable people are the most easily-poachable. Did the company really do the math on that one? With lots of other places offering real WFH, how do they plan to retain anyone actually worthwhile?

I don't know. They said they know more people will leave and they're fine with that. I think many of the people who will leave will actually just retire sooner than they originally planned. I know at least one person doing that. Our industry will mostly be hybrid or in-office (finance) and our region has a terrible tech job market (in my opinion, in Philly region).

Either way I guess they dont have to worry about me leaving since I'm not worthwhile.

Not surprised it's the finance industry. Finance in particular seems to be super gung-ho about getting everyone back in the office. I was switching industries this job search and I decided to steer clear of the finance industry for that reason.

Yeah. Part of it is sort of around the data that some of the people have access to. The people with financial licenses are actually required by the SEC to be in the office and have specific controls in place. They have a waiver right now due to covid. Most of them are really hoping that the SEC realizes that it's been working without major problems for over a year and makes the rules more flexible.

Ah, good to know. Hopefully the SEC does end up relaxing those rules a bit.

our company actually encouraged people not to come back. they literally said that productivity went way up during covid and work at home. I suspect they also want to close offices to get savings there.