When Rowan Rosenthal heard about Grindr's return-to-office mandate during a virtual town hall meeting in August, anxiety, confusion and anger set in. The principal product designer lived within a 25-minute bike ride from the company's Brooklyn office but instead was required to report to one in Los Angeles, where Rosenthal's department was assigned. This doesn't make sense and there's no way this will happen, Rosenthal thought.
But it did happen. And two weeks later, Rosenthal realized that despite loving the work, the only option that made sense was to quit. That was also the case for about 45 percent of Grindr's 178 employees, workers say.