Yeah, it really sucked. He came in as part of an acquisition 7 or 8 years ago, and had been working remote for 10+ years from the same location. His kids were happy in school, his wife was happy in her job, they were involved in the local community. It just didn't make sense for them to move, financially or socially.
The odd thing was that for him, this happened about a year ago. I think the edict came down almost exactly one year ago; this article makes it sound more recent.
From what I hear it's more of a staged rollout of who they are dragging back to the office. So waves of people are being disrupted and often making the obvious choice that seeking other employment is the best option. Or worse people that have a local office but their 'team' is based far enough away that it still counts as relocate or die.
IBM has been dragging folks back to the office since 2009 (IIRC). They're not wrong about the benefits of colocation; it's just that they want the company to receive those benefits without compensating employees whatsoever.
Look, if you already offer work from home, forget about taking it away. That will just piss people off, make people unhappy, hate management, and be less productive.
The odd thing was that for him, this happened about a year ago. I think the edict came down almost exactly one year ago; this article makes it sound more recent.