I think quitting is likely the most reasonable thing to do if you don't want to move back to the office, but the company does. I prefer to work in the office in close proximity to my colleagues. So, personally, I gravitate towards companies that want people in the office. People who don't like that should also try to pick places that work like that.

One of the issues is that some of us picked places that said they worked like that and they have been walking it back piece by piece. I accepted a job about a year ago that said all the right things about remote/hybrid and yet they’ve gone back on many of those statements. (E.g. people that live within 40 miles from an office need to go in even if they’re classified remote and nobody else in their team works in that office) I don’t live near any of their offices and fully expect I’ll be asked to move near one or lose my job eventually.

If you’re a “remote worker” per your contract, that shouldn’t be an issue for you… unless your company refused to put that in the contract?

It’s in my offer letter but it’s not a contract. The joys of “at will” employment.

I doubt my employer would do a Amazon/Grindr “move or else” on short notice but wouldn’t be surprised at a longer (6mo?) transition period.

Most people don't have leverage or the ability to negotiate.

And even if they did, the big orgs, your FAANGM types, set the scale; you're just working within it, to some degree.

Your choice is A) 190k TCO and a commute, or B) nothing... but no commute. or C) getting the market average for whatever is going in Big City Kentucky, which is like 80k for an IT role. And they might still force you to do hybrid.

RTO is dumb, but unless you're in the elite 5% of tech workers you're accepting whatever mgmt throws at you, or else you're hoping you're lucky enough to find a remote gig that's on par -- and that's rare.

Maybe I'm stupid but I'd much rather take the market average than commuting. I do realize many people are not like me tho.