Forced people to return to office for their own gains - Associate Director Manulife Employee Review

Upper management (you know who you are) forced everyone to come back to the office even though there was no reason to justify it. They say it's about synergy, productivity, and collaboration which is a complete lie and we all know it. There is no data to support that productivity is better when returning to the office. It's extremely insulting to all employees because it's saying the value of employees lies more in their presence in the office than in the tasks they perform. The worst part is that they are trying so hard to cover up the real reason instead of being transparent. Just say you need people to be back in the office because you have tax write-offs for your office lease and you have investments in commercial real estate. In addition, you are also trying to lay people off without paying people severance because you know people would quit over this RTO policy and if they don't comply you will fire them with minimum severance. This is an extremely scummy move. There was no negotiation or survey for anyone to even discuss whether or not we had a choice. It was just one meeting and everyone is now forced to come back to the office 3x a week. Props my colleagues who tried hard to fight the RTO policy.