Home » Commentary » If I Was Hired as a Remote Worker, Can I Be Forced to Work In-Person?

Amanda DeMatteis: Hi, Josh.

Josh Goodbaum: Hi, Amanda. What are we talking about today?

DeMatteis: I thought we would talk about a potential client who gets an offer letter that is for at-will employment for a fully remote position. Potential client accepts this offer. They’re very excited about it. They start working for the employer, and a little ways in, the employer says, “Sorry, we changed our mind. We need you in the office every day.” Does that potential client have any legal rights?

Goodbaum: Amanda, I think the answer to this potential client is: It depends. And that’s a little bit tricky. Let me unpack that.

If you’re an at-will employee, your employer can lay you off for any reason or no reason at all, so long as it’s not an unlawful reason. But one of the potentially unlawful reasons might be that your employer is breaking a promise to you. There’s a cause of action called “promissory estoppel.” That means that, if your employer has made a promise – a firm and definite promise – and you reasonably relied on that promise, then you can, in certain circumstances, enforce the promise.

So if your employer sent you an offer letter that said “remote work,” and you quit your job and moved to a different state because of the offer of remote work, and then you start on day one and your employer says, “Hey, just kidding. It’s actually an in-person job,” I think you might have a decent promissory estoppel claim.

Likewise, if you think your employer has pulled a bait and switch on you, you might have a negligent misrepresentation claim. Negligent misrepresentation occurs where your employer essentially lied to you or misrepresented the facts to you in order to lure you into leaving your other job or leaving your home state and coming to them.

But if you had an offer letter that, four years ago, said “remote work,” and you’ve been working remotely for four years, and now your employer says, “You know what? Circumstances have changed. We have a different management structure. We think the organization cohesion is really important to bring everybody together in one office,” I think your employer is allowed to change their mind in that circumstance. And I don’t think any court is going to find that they violated any of your rights, merely because you have an offer letter that says the work is going to be remote.

DeMatteis: Couple takeaways here then, Josh. The first is timing really matters. If this promise is made to you, you reasonably rely on that promise, and then very short in time after your reliance on that promise, they retract, there may potentially be a cause of action there.

However, if you are one of these employees who, in the post-COVID days, has really grown accustomed to working from home, and your employer says to you, “You know what, Amanda? You know what, Josh? Things have changed. We need you in the office now,” years later, chances are that no remedies are available for that employee. Do you agree?

Goodbaum: I think that’s right. There might be an exception if the employee has a disability. That’s a bit of a different video, and we encourage you to check out our videos about reasonable accommodations. If you have a disability, there might be a way to have your employer allow you to work from home.

But barring a disability and barring a contract that is incredibly specific about your work location and ties your work location to a predetermined severance amount, which sometimes happens in executive contracts, then I think there’s probably very little that the employee can do outside of asking really nicely and just trying to leverage their good performance into getting their employer to make an exception for them.

DeMatteis: As with all things in employment law, timing matters, facts matter, the specific circumstances that you are in really matter. So if you have questions about these things, reach out to an employment lawyer. Tell them the situation, and hopefully they can help.

Thanks so much for watching. Take care.

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