New RTO trick

My neighbor who works remotely moved his family of 6 to my neighborhood last year, sold their home in California and bought a large expensive home. Yesterday he told me that his employer gave him an ultimatum, return to the office and get paid his current salary or stay in Utah and get paid Utah wages. Well, he can’t make it on Utah wages since Utah doesn’t pay at all for what he does and he can’t afford to quit. He told me he will be forced to move back and return to the office. I asked him what about his home etc and he said they are just going to walk away, nothing is selling in our area. I told him to try to rent his home out but he said he couldn’t get enough rent to make the payment…..he also mentioned his HR department said this is the new trend. This is so crazy to me, what’s everyone’s thoughts?????