Companies issuing return to office orders continue to dominate the headlines in 2025, as more companies like JPMorgan, Ford and even TikTok are mandating their employees to return to work from the office [1].
The move is causing disruptions across industries, but on a personal level, many employees who were hired during the pandemic in a fully-remote capacity are now caught in a double-bind. Can their companies enforce an RTO order if they were hired under a remote agreement?
This is the situation Jake, 46, faces. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and works for a Silicon Valley tech firm. When he was hired in 2022, his offer letter stated that he would be fully remote. Now, his company has issued a sweeping return to office mandate, but he doesn’t know where that leaves him. Is he obliged to move to California? Should he simply cut his losses and find a new job? Will that even be possible in this economy?
Here’s what’s possible, including his legal rights.
Jake’s company has advised their employees that if they fail to comply with the RTO mandate by the start of next year, they will be fired. While this may seem like a poor — or even discriminatory — reason for firing an employee, it’s unfortunately perfectly legal [2]. Most states in the U.S. operate on an at-will employment law, which means employers can terminate their employees for any legal reason, at any time in their employment, without facing liabilities [3]. It also means that a company can...
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