Work-from-home was supposed to mean flexibility, trust, and better balance. No commute, fewer interruptions, more control over your day. But for many people, remote work came with a different set of rules than the ones HR promised, and these stories show how quickly the dream can turn complicated.

I was 4 days in, 1 day home.
Switched to a new position on the condition I can keep that schedule. The new boss was clearly upset since she had a much further commute and had to come in on Friday. She would constantly create meetings on Fridays, saying it was mandatory to come in.

When I would say Friday was my work-from-home day, she would say this was the only day that worked with everyone’s schedules, even though we had a rule to avoid meetings on Friday.
The same boss who would take vacations and would message me while on vacation to test if I was in the office (on my in-office days) and ask me for pointless tasks like go to the file cabinet and read me this number on this file. While she was in freakin China visiting her family!!

I was working from home for 18 months without issue.
Being in CRE, they ordered everyone back in the office except for one day per week, and it had to be your approved day…
Realized one day all team members were out of the office for one reason or another, decided to not drive 45 mins each way and take an additional day home…because I’m an adult and do my job regardless of where it gets done. Got a call from my controller later that day asking where I was when she ended up going to the office later in the day. Was scolded for not being in the office when I was supposed to be and “simply wanted to know where I was”.

I ended up leaving the job a few weeks later, could not take the micromanaging any longer after a long string of this type of thing. Ended up going fully remote for nearly 20k more. I will never go back to an office.

I had an agreement with a new job to come in once every two weeks I was the only one on the team who was not married or did not have kids, so I was the one who was always asked to come into the office.
It made no sense.
The kicker was they would claim that they only asked us to come in twice a month but would schedule these team lunches every single week where we would sit and chitchat and they were so unproductive that the very next day our boss will tell us we would need to come into the office to get productivity up to recoup the time lost due to the team lunches (that would last like 3 hours).
I started coming into the office randomly at times when my teammates couldn’t bother me, and my boss complained that it technically doesn’t count because nobody “saw” me there.

Had a narcissistic boss who would try to make me work remotely when I called in sick. Always something, even some token task, just because it made her feel in charge, or give her something to complain about if I didn’t comply.
“You know I live a 5 minute walk from the office. If I tell you I can’t make it in to work, it means I can’t do work!”
I got laid off with 20,000 other people on a phone call.

Worst thing I had experience.

I recently started a new job at a company that advertises a hybrid working model. I was told during my interview and when I was hired that we would be operating on a three-day-a-week in-office, two-day-from-home requirement, with potentially needing more in-office time at the beginning during training.
I’ve been here for almost three months now, and getting days to work from home has been a battle for not just me, but the entire team. For context, the entirety of the office except our team seems to be working from home two days a week, if not more.
My team members who have been here for 2+ years have just recently been “allowed” to work from home one day a week. My direct boss wants the whole team to have WFH days, but her boss is VERY old school and gets angry when we do. If one of us is home, the boss’s boss will make a show of going to their desk and loudly complaining that they’re not in.

I took a week off and set my status to “on leave.” I still brought my laptop, just in case.
By day two, I had three messages asking “quick questions.” By day four, I was joining a meeting from a hotel room because it felt easier than pushing back.
When I got back, my manager thanked me for being “so responsive.”
That’s when I realized work-from-home hadn’t given me flexibility; it had quietly erased time off.
HR pitched remote work as freedom.
Work from anywhere, manage your own time, trust-based culture.
The first time I logged in from a café instead of my apartment, my manager asked why my background looked “different.” A week later, she suggested I keep my camera on more often so they could “see engagement.”
Apparently, working from home didn’t mean working from any home. It just meant working somewhere they could still watch.

I have been working from home for 2 years already. A few days before a big meeting, I asked to keep my camera off.
Personal reasons.
My boss replied, “Working from home doesn’t mean working from your pillow.” Fine.
Meeting day came. I logged in and waved hello. The room went dead silent.

Behind me was a hospital monitor, beeping softly. I was in a hospital bed, IV lines clearly visible. No explanation.
The client froze.

My boss laughed awkwardly and told me I could turn my camera off after all.
After the call, he said I was “unprofessional” and had embarrassed him. I reminded him I’d asked to keep my camera off. I just followed the rules.

I work remotely, and they installed a tracker on our laptops that logs everything.
One day I stepped away to make coffee and got an email saying I’d been “idle for 10 minutes” and would need to explain.
I replied that I could if she shared the full activity report for the whole team. After that, things went quiet. Later she called me, crying.

She admitted she knew I still had unused time off and that the tracker showed it. She said she was barely holding things together herself, trying to manage work with a newborn at home, and didn’t know how to handle all of it. She asked me not to escalate it or mention anything to coworkers.
The tracker stayed, but the emails stopped.
It was the first time I realized how much pressure was rolling downhill.

Working from home didn’t break work culture, it just exposed it.

When the boundaries disappear, so do a lot of protections people took for granted. If any of these stories felt familiar, you’re definitely not alone. nd if these stories sound familiar, you might also relate to this one about what happens when someone finally pushes back: My Boss Treated Me Like a Servant Until I Finally Pushed Back