#Workers were asked to return to the office but quit instead

People are going for broke over staying remote.

As the coronavirus pandemic’s stranglehold on humanity ebbs and society reopens, many bosses are asking that, after a year of working from home, employees now return to the office. But some are refusing to go. 

“I had just had it,” 33-year-old Georgia resident Portia Twidt told Bloomberg of her decision to quit her job as a research compliance specialist last month after management began increasingly pushing her to go to in-person meetings at the office. Twidt had taken the position in February because it was remote, but her inbox became full of requests that she attend various meetings in real life. Instead, she easily found a new job that allowed her to stay remote and quit her current job.

“They feel like we’re not working if they can’t see us,” she said of her former bosses. “It’s a boomer power-play.”

A 1,000-person poll done in May by Morning Consult on behalf of Bloomberg News found that nearly half of US adults are of the same mindset: 39 percent said they’d consider quitting their jobs if their employers didn’t allow them some remote work flexibility. 

“Remote work and hybrid are here to stay,” Sara Sutton, CEO of job-service platform FlexJobs, told Bloomberg. 

In December, when 30-year-old Netherlands-based software developer Jimme Hendrix’s job began preparing for a February office return, he also decided to quit rather than go back to office life. 

“During COVID I really started to see how much I enjoyed working from home,” Hendrix, who now freelances and helps his girlfriend with her art business, told Bloomberg. “I can just do whatever I want around the house, like a quick chore didn’t have to wait until like 8 p.m. anymore, or I can go for a quick walk.”

In April, when the IT company Gene Garland works for told staff to begin coming back to the office, two of his colleagues promptly resigned, the 24-year-old Virginia resident told Bloomberg. “Bro, they said no more teleworking and my co-workers started QUITTING,” he tweeted at the time.