During the big IT skills shortage in Sydney, I found myself unexpectedly unemployed after the firm I worked for at the time asked me to falsify some financial data, which I was not prepared to do.
A recruiting agent persuaded me to re-train as a technical support agent and subject matter expert for one of the specialist software packages I had been using in my previous role, and so I fell into IT by mistake.
After a few years, I persuaded my boss that I could do my job just as well from sunny Queensland (given that most of my clients weren't in Sydney, or even Australia), and so I became a full-time remote worker.
After a happy decade working within a short stroll of the beach, my employer was acquired by a multinational corporation, and my boss rang me to say that the new overlords required all staff to work at the office at least three days a week. He offered me the choice of a paid relocation back to Sydney, or a sizable payout; I took the money.
Less than a year after this, Covid struck, and everyone was told to work from home. My old boss rang me and begged me to return to my previous role; But by that time I had spent a chunk of the cash on re-training - as a heavy truck driver. As a food delivery worker, I was one of a tiny number of people who were permitted to leave home during the lockdowns, and driving trucks is great fun (particularly in a spookily deserted city). I wouldn't go back to IT for any amount of money, nor would I trust any assurance that working from home would be permanently allowed if I did.
I have since decided that while the driving is fun, the loading and unloading is hard graft (and I am not as young as I used to be), so now I am a bus driver - the freight loads itself. I have never been happier in my work. I meet interesting people every day, get to tour the city looking at the sights, and am practically impossible to micromanage (but still have immediate support from my employer a mere radio call away). We have a very strong union, and regular pay increases that are linked to inflation.
The moral of the story is not to let your work become a straitjacket. There's always something different you could do to earn a crust, and employers rely on your fear of the unknown to slowly erode your willingness to push back against their increasingly unreasonable demands.
I rejected an RTO mandate before most people left the office in the first place; And it was the best decision I ever made.
