COMP NEWS – Dell joins a long list of tech companies who have recently begun instating return-to-office mandates, but staff at the company are voicing their frustration over vague guidelines and unclear instructions.

Dell’s “return to office” mandate has left employees confused about which offices they can use and the future of their jobs – and concerned the initiative is a stealth layoff program that will disproportionately harm women at the IT giant.

 

As El Reg broke this month, Dell told employees they each needed to choose between resuming a hybrid work schedule – working from a corporate office part of the time – or continue working remotely. Those who chose to remain as remote workers were effectively making a career-limiting decision.

 

The implications of choosing to work remotely, we’re told, are: “1) no funding for team onsite meetings, even if a large portion of the team is flying in for the meeting from other Dell locations; 2) no career advancement; 3) no career movements; and 4) remote status will be considered when planning or organization changes – AKA workforce reductions.”

 

Another employee said: “Choosing to be remote does indeed put career advancement at a standstill. If you choose to accept a promotion after going remote, that comes with the requirement of being in office 39 days out of the quarter” and you have to reclassify yourself as hybrid. The employee continued: “Even if you choose to make a lateral career move, the same expectation applies. In-role promotions are possible, but rare enough to not be a realistic option.”

Some inside the company believe the RTO mandate is secretly a plan to lay off staff without paying severance.

“Many believe this is a plan to force resignations so as to not pay severance packages,” our second source alleged. “Then once the dust settles there [may be] a relaxation of the policy.”

 

The other employee who spoke to us said the RTO mandate upends more than 15 years of accommodating remote work at Dell. Under that policy, articulated in a company memo [PDF] that appears to date from early 2021, 65 percent of Dell Technologies employees enjoyed flexible work arrangements. In 2020, founder Michael Dell suggested working from home would become a permanent fixture of life at Dell.

 

We’re told that for the last 15 years Dell has made workers’ location a matter for their managers to decide. That flexibility helped the biz to acquire quality talent and boosted employee loyalty.

To read more about Dell’s vague return-to-office mandate, click here.

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