A woman says she was tricked into applying for non-remote jobs

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it an increase in remote working. After years of being forced to go to an office five days a week, workers quickly took to the work-from-home approach. Inform the staff Increased productivity and increase efficiency while enjoying conveniences like shopping, being able to do other work, and more.

However, as the pandemic subsides and society returns to a semblance of normalcy, more employers are trying to call remote workers back into the office.

The reasons for this return to the office vary. Some employers report that workers are telecommuting less productive of office workers, a claim largely unsupported by the data. Others say that business owners simply want a return on investment Expensive office spaceBecause working remotely means that a lot of this space will not be used.

No matter the reason, remote workers don’t have it. Some workers simply He refused to return to the officewhile others are trying to find new work in a job that allows them to work remotely or offers a hybrid option.

However, these remote/hybrid job posts may not always be what they seem, as TikTok user Alexandra (@alexandra.steinmetz) explains in a video that has more than 106,000 views as of Friday.

@ alexandra. steinmetz #stitch With @humorousresources applying for jobs is a full time job. # deception # Oh, Lord ♬ original sound – alexandra steinmetz

In the video, Alexandra claims to have applied to two jobs in the past six months that are listed as “hybrid remote”.

In both cases, she was asked if she was willing to come to the office 5 days a week. The office is an hour away from where Alexandra lives.

“Either way, I told the person, ‘Okay,’ he says, ‘hybrid remote,’ so I’m definitely ready to drive a couple of days a week, but I thought I’d work from home part-time, too,” she recalls.

“No one came back to me after that,” she continues. And the other said, “Oh, you know, that was a mistake on our part. We’re really sorry for wasting your time. I’m going to repost.” [the job listing] And make sure the words “work from home” don’t pop up anymore.

“Reposted it the next day – and it still said ‘work from home,'” Alexandra concludes. “I don’t think it’s a grammar correction. I really think people are putting “remote”/”hybrid” for these jobs that aren’t “remote”/”hybrid” so they can get more applicants.”

What Alexandra describes is a phenomenon that has been around since the telecommuting boom. In June 2024, writer Alison Green wrote an article for slate It goes into detail on several instances of this exact situation, with employers lying about remote jobs in whole or in part.

“Some of this is due to employers who really mean ‘you can work partly from home’ but for some reason list these jobs as fully remote (probably due to the limitations of electronic application systems),” Green details. But other times, the job isn’t partly remote. Other employers will consider remote working for candidates who are not located near their office – but if you are, you are expected to come in every day.”

Green believes, as did Alexandra, that one of the reasons the employer did this was to attract more applicants.

There is also a distinct possibility that companies may not actually be hiring.

In last month’s article Wall Street JournalWriter Te-Ping Chen surveyed data from several companies that admitted they weren’t actually hiring despite having active job listings.

“In a survey of more than 1,000 hiring managers last summer, 27% reported having job openings for more than four months,” Chen explains. “Among those who said they advertised job openings that they weren’t actively trying to fill, nearly half said they kept the ads up to give the impression the company was growing…”

In the comments section of Alexandra’s video, users shared their own thoughts on the issue.

“They sure are. I have applied to dozens who say remote/hybrid and when I spoke to one they all said the job is not remote,” one user said.

Another added: “Remote-hybrid now means ‘you shouldn’t take time off, you can just work from home that day’ and ‘don’t show up if you’re sick, work from home instead’.”

“Companies are stepping up, acting as if the past few years didn’t happen,” one-third shared. “They overlooked that WFH was already successful and effective.”

We have reached out to Alexandra via email.