[shmatt]

There might be a slight disadvantage in the "Got RSUs in the early 2010's" group but for everyone else money still talks.

A box full of cash will convince many to come to the office a couple of times a week. It's still very hard to get FAANG expensive-city level compensation with a true promise that you will still be fully remote 1 year from now.

For the companies trying to pay startup wages plus demand in office, that will end badly

[RangerScience]

IANAL / California-centric -

There's a legal employment concept called "quit for cause", it's kind of the inverse of "fire for cause". In CA (and very much IANAL), if your contract is for remote work and you are required to RTO, that'd qualify as "cause". AFAICT you can tie this to other things, like "I can quit and keep the signing bonus", "I can quit and get my first year's stock", things like that - at least on a legal level. Negotiating that in (and enforcing it) are other questions.

[danaris]

From a NYS perspective: At least for the purposes of drawing unemployment, there's a similar concept here, "constructive dismissal". I know someone who had their job changed almost completely underneath them, into something that they had repeatedly stated was unacceptable to them. They quit, and were able to claim unemployment exactly as if they had been fired without cause.