Pros
Co-workers are good people including my direct manager. The department director is a great person: caring and helpful above and beyond any other director I've met. Company offers some extras I didn't have at my previous employer I worked at like student loan payment assistance. Even though I work remote, the department has meetings together and with other teams to keep us all connected. Regularly surveys us and seemed receptive to feedback once upon a time...
Cons
I applied to this position because it was remote. On January 2nd 2024, I will now be required to go into the office three days a week just because I live within 25 miles of one. This isn't only about returning to the office but how it was announced: coldly and with no sense of compassion. The reasons provided are meaningless fluff like "collaboration" and to align with industry standards. To provide context, I'd understand more if I was returning with an entire team but I'm not. Many of us are not. We are returning to the office to sit in the office the exact same way we sit at home except now alongside people we don't even work with and collaborating remotely with the "lucky" folks who don't live near an office. They are "lucky" because there's clear indication of mobility impact if you don't live near an office. Around the same time our ability to buy PTO was revoked. Although base PTO was adjusted, only newbies benefit while the rest of us get one extra day while losing four others we could've previously bought. Then we were told to give feedback on the latest survey results which previously praised work life balance. Of course we praised it before you did this to us! There's literally no reason to send most of us back to office to do the exact same job we're doing now. I've never done a 180 from being so happy and heard to feeling stressed and depressed, unable to sleep and crying every day. The benefits of remote work can't be understated. I would've rated this company a five literally two months ago.