Excuses are made for HR, but (assuming the story is accurate) it is a s****y practice IMHO.
Early on, the Glassdoor site was valuable to learn about this stuff, but over time it became apparent that site was being curated/co-opted.
I recall back in the day when potential employees were told that traveling for business was rarely done, only to find out later they needed to be away on business several times a year. This sounds similar, other than the fact we really didn’t have remote work days as a part of our employment.
I had a 1yearend $7k bonus on taking a job. Yearend no bonus. Ran home and got my Signed (by previous HR person) signon
Bonus letter! Next week all was well.
Get stuff in Writing!
I once took a job that HR said was one thing - technical writing, but the on-the-ground was a totally different thing - as close as I can describe was forensic accounting.
I went back to the HR folks and told then I was rescinding my acceptance of the job...
They seemed *confused*.
My reply was “Of I had accepted the job, I would say I quit.
Hence my recension of the acceptance. This owing to your dishonesty in the job description.”
Frustrating to say the least....as I had a bud from a former gig put in a good word for me.
That happened to me once in 2014. When I left after 5 monte I told them I would not be refunding my signing bonus because they didn’t live up to their end of the bargain. I forwarded them the email the contain the promises of the man that hired me. I never heard one complaint from them.
My friend had a big poster of a cowboy on his office wall. “There were a helluva lot of things they didn’t tell me when I hired on with this outfit”.
That’s why I’m 100% remote or no deal. They know right up front, I’m not coming into the office.
I would have been scared off by “flaming red fag.”
My Navy recruiter did the same thing to me.
Get a company car and charge for the drive time.
It is like one of my customers insists I clean up after myself when I use their machines on their projects. I’ll be happy to sweep the floors at my full billing rate. If they insist I drive out of town or travel, I am happy to sit on my butt at full billing rate.