I was recovering from burnout when my company announced return-to-office last year. Three days a week, center-office floor, open plan. I want to describe what happened because I think it's distinct from what people usually mean when they say burnout.
Regular burnout for me was about volume. Too much work, not enough time, feeling like I couldn't catch up. I fixed that partly by working remote. I could control my environment. No spontaneous interruptions. I could step outside between calls. I could eat lunch somewhere quiet. My nervous system got room to breathe.
RTO burnout hit differently. It wasn't the commute (it was 30 minutes). It was the constant micro-stimulation of an open-plan office. Other people's noise and phone calls. Being visible and therefore available and therefore rarely in a state of focused work. It was the loss of control over environment that I hadn't even realized I'd become dependent on for basic functionality.
By month two back in office I was more depleted after a 7-hour day than I had been after a 10-hour remote day. Not because the work was harder. Because regulating myself through the environment took energy that I didn't have to spare.
I ended up disclosing a mental health accommodation request and got partial remote approval. That process was uncomfortable but it worked. What I didn't expect was how much grief I felt. like the version of work that had let me actually recover was just gone and I had to relearn something from scratch.
If this sounds familiar: it's not weakness. Some people can tune out office noise. Some people can't. Both are real. And if you're mid-recovery from burnout, a sudden full RTO may set you back more than your employer knows or thinks about.