So my company is telling all people within a 50 mile radius of work that they have to now come in 2 days a week.

Currently seeing how it is effecting people who now has to spend an hour each day either way and the disappointment they have.

The manager is talking about how it is applying to them, how they aren't getting an exception, and people will have to get in line to get an exception.

People are talking about how it makes no sense since everyone does zoom, and one was saying how they are thinking of moving out of the area to be beyond the 50 mile radius.

The trouble that I see is that people took the job or continued to work the job ignoring other opportunities because it was remote. Now they are going to incur a cost of travel time and wear and tear on their car, as well as the loss of being home with their families.

There is no increased compensation for this, so in essence everyone is getting a pay cut.

I expect that retention of some employees might be difficult if they are hit by this, and maybe those loses are worth it for the value of greater office collaboration.

Something that might help with retention is to offer a bonus after 6 months to everyone that goes with this plan and comes in the office for 80% of the Tuesdays and Thursdays during that time period. It would keep people on board while they normalize going to office work again without just losing good people who are most capable of jumping ship. It also wouldn't be an ongoing cost to the business, and be seen as an expense to make this transition and not have to deal with the cost of rehiring. It could even be a layered bonus for those who decide to move closer.

Another perk that might be useful is actual offices with closing doors rather than cubicles and open office/bullpen seating. I have been in this field for long enough that I remember when that was the norm, and the change in office layouts, and losing the ability to have focused time in an office without distractions was part of the reason I switched to only remote positions roughly 10 years ago. A lot of engineers feel the same way (the correlation between software engineers and ADHD is pretty strong). It might be a good thing to advertise in job descriptions as well.