So Your Boss Wants You Back in the Office — Is That Even Legal?

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]I've heard even instances recently where like people are being called back into the office. We've been working remote because of COVID and then post COVID there was kind of this grace period where people were still allowed to be at home and now seemingly everyone's being called back into the office and employers are trying to come up with ways to enforce that. One of the things, I don't know if it's a myth, but I've heard is that employers are tracking IP devices and logins to ensure that people are like on campus.

[00:00:29]How is that happening from like data tracking? Is that something that employers can do?

[00:00:33]>> Yeah, I haven't I don't know I don't have first hand knowledge about whether that's happening. I've also heard that that is happening, too. Um you know, again, when it comes to the return to work phenomenon cuz I agree it is a phenomenon. So a lot of the big tech companies especially in our area are are changing their policies and requiring either full-time in the office or part-time.

[00:00:51]There's various business justifications that they're giving for that. I think some firms just think that their employees are more productive if they're in there in person. Maybe they believe that work isn't happening the same way it should or their employees aren't as productive if they're working from home.

[00:01:05]I don't know, but but in general if they have a business justification for a policy change like that, it's not illegal.

[00:01:12]I mean, obviously it has a huge impact on the workforce and I I've been hearing a lot of different circumstances where workers are really poorly affected by that because they've moved away or and and generally the rule of thumb that I give when people when I'm talking to people is if there an employer is allowed to make a business choice, right? That doesn't that's not illegal on its face. But if it impacts a certain group of people in a protected class in a worse than others, then it could potentially be illegal. So one example in the return to work thing is if they if an employee has a disability for example that they need accommodation for at home and they've been working just fine at home for four years and then the employer makes a rule that they have to come into the office and that affects their disability.

[00:01:56]Um there might be something there. Or women who um who are women who are pregnant or or on maternity leave or folks who are taking care of of a sick family member at home, you know, you can see sort of how these policies might more adversely affect them than other people. Yeah.