I need to vent about a feeling of return to office. My current gig is at a law firm. I do tech stuff for lawyers. The firm has instituted a 3 in/2 out hybrid/return to office situation. Whenever I go in I feel like I’m just window dressing to justify the property. 2/3 of my team is in Texas and my other team member is in Rhode Island. The people I’m supposed to support, the lawyers, are almost never in the office. Moreover all the work I do for them is either over email, IM, or on the phone/zoom meetings. Also, a lot of them are in offices across the freaking country.

To add to this, according to my boss the COO said he’d fire anyone not meeting the 3 days in requirement regardless of reason.

Now I spend ~2 hours a day, 3 days a week, to sit and scowl at excel in khakis in a broom closet. It’s not going into the office that is the frustrating part, it’s that I’m not anymore productive when I’m under fluorescent. I’m there because C suite thinks it encourages collaboration (I think no one has told me why). But when the people I’m working with aren’t in and don’t engage with me in person, what’s the point?