New manager fires on-site team member and orders remote worker to work on-site instead: 'I said no'

Being the longest-standing member of your workgroup usually means that you have memories of how things "used" to be… Possessing memories of the "before times" that probably stretch back long before even your manager worked here. The problem with this is organizations almost always trend in a negative direction when it comes to working conditions and benefits for workers; after all, there are only two ways to maximize profit, and cutting costs is far easier than increasing revenue generation. As a result, you'll remember when things used to be better: When your team had more staff, was less overworked, and when you could actually take time off and generally enjoyed working there. New workers joining without the knowledge of how things used to be just accept the new worse conditions, further solidifying the new policies. 

That's sort of what this remote worker witnessed happening in a more rapid fashion as their team that once had five to seven members working on site dwindled down to just two other on-site members on the team, leaving the final remaining members overworked and burned out. Luckily, the remote worker managed to remain somewhat isolated from the increasing workload demands that their on-site team members had been experiencing since it was physically impossible for them to pick up that work. Enter a new manager who foolishly misread this situation, firing one of the two remaining stressed workers on-site, with their solution being that the remote worker should be a "team player" and work on-site instead.

The frustrated worker shared their experience with this popular online workplace community, detailing their experience and feelings. Readers shared their thoughts in the comments and offered their advice.