And that's the issue at play here, isn't it? The hiring was done when work was remote, paying SV rates for that, then the company decides to move the goalposts and now there's this weird justification being played to side with the company.

Take off your company-man hat, does it make sense to you as a worker?

AFAIK, the default expectation at most places was that the pandemic wasn't permanent and eventually people would be back in person.

> Take off your company-man hat, does it make sense to you as a worker?

I don't tend to analyze things along "class struggle" lines. Obviously, as a worker, I would prefer to make as much money and have as good of work conditions as possible, but I don't necessarily think any deviation from that is "unfair".