Company forces hardworking remote employee to return to the office; employee does half as much work in the office as he did when working from home: 'I probably put 10-12 hours of work in per day, because I could squeeze it in anywhere.'

He was the poster child for successful work-from-home employees, and they took it away from him. 

Spring 2021 was probably one of the most productive times in my entire life. I was a junior in college and had 18 credit hours, which is a lot more than I had in basically any other semester. I had an in-person part-time job as a library security guard, but otherwise I did all my work from home. I woke up early to finish assignments and stayed up late to read. I attended all my classes from the comfort of my couch and got a ton of work done every day. I had to! I was in six classes! Not having to transport myself to and from campus gave me so much more time to study. I wasn't really allowed to have a social life, so I didn't mind spending all my evenings on schoolwork instead of hanging out with my friends. 

I wonder if a work-from-home structure like that could work for me today. Maybe I was only able to work so hard because I had literally nothing else going on in my life, and I had to hyperfocus on school to maintain my sanity. I also think my giant workload had something to do with the intensity with which I grinded. It also has something to do with who I am as a person. Someone else might have faced the same circumstances and floundered, but I was able to rise to the occasion.