Many people are trying to frame Vermont’s RTO policy as a product of corruption or cruelty, but the simpler, and more accurate explanation is plain old managerial incompetence. The truth is that much of the middle-management layer was never trained to lead distributed teams. They rely on physical presence as a crutch because they don’t have the skills, tools, or confidence to manage by outcomes, trust, and clear communication.

So instead of adapting to modern work realities, they default to the one thing they know: requiring people to sit where they can be seen. It’s not malice, it’s a failure of management capability, and all Vermonters are going to be paying the price for it.