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Comment by hunglee2 | Hacker News Reader

this individual case exposes a fault line the remote work promise - what if the employer changes its approach? Unless a commitment to remote is written into the employees contract or in the state legislature that it cannot be changed once advertised, then we can see many more such instances of remote jobs creeping back to the office, with the employee being liable if they don't obey

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Every job I've ever had (in the US) has been an at-will contract, meaning both I and the employer could end it at any time for any reason. This seems to be the norm in the US. So if a company decides they want me to come to the office, and I refuse, either one of us can end the agreement over that. This has always been the case. For me, in the interview process, I make it clear that I am a remote only employee and if the company ever wants me in the office, we'll have to part ways.

Edit: European countries tend to have more legal protection against companies being able to fire workers at will. I wonder if this is why so many of my European friends that have corporate jobs seem to have a hard time convincing their employers to let them work remotely.

Not legal advice. n=1

A colleague (infosec engineer) took a remote job. I told them to bake into the offer letter it was fully remote. Employer agreed after strongly pushing back, desperate for talent. Employer told them it was no longer remote. Employment attorney called their counsel by way of HR regarding the change in employment terms and constructive dismissal. Role remained remote. Financial services employer. Get it in writing, trust no one’s word, companies are not your friend.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal

It would definitely be constructive dismissal, but in most circumstances constructive dismissal is only illegal if being fired normally would be.

I have a feeling this wouldn't work if it were an at-will contract. But I'd also never agree to a job if the employer was hesitant about being remote.

It wouldn’t. To me most arbitrator’s would look at a change from remote to in office in a similar vein to “the office moved across town”. Pre-pandemic, no one would question whether a company had the right to change the physical location of the office, and you would either adjust to the new office location…or quit because the new commute or location became problematic for you.

Your location was here, and now it’s here.

The role in question I mentioned above is an at will W2 role.

The only reliable way is to have the clause negotiated into a union contract which also has a "just cause" termination clause.

One more reason to for tech workers to start organizing.

It's an interesting point for sure. My current job's offer letter explicitly said "spike021 will be working from $spike021_address". But I wonder if that's considered legally-binding for the company. I signed it and it's an agreement of sorts. But I'm not so sure.

sounds like a contract to me. doesn't mean they can'fire you for a made-up reason though if you don't.

I think the point is not so they can't fire you, it's so you can collect unemployment if they do. The employer can't just claim you quit.

They dont need to make up a reason. No longer liking the terms of the contract is a perfectly valid and legal reason to end it.

Most employment contracts all either party to terminate at any time.

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