Other than those who were remote even before the pandemic, we all worked in the office five days a week, every week. Sure, working from home is more convenient, but going back to the office isn’t some new, unheard-of concept. It’s how things were always done before the last few years. So why has it suddenly become such a massive problem for so many people?
30 replies (most recent on top)
Because Dell won't stick to what they tell their employees.
I went remote in 2018 because my entire department was told that there weren't enough seats in Round Rock 7 (which is closed now, so there are even fewer today). The only exceptions were granted to those at their desks 4 days a week. I'm an enterprise technology trainer and 40% of my classes were in a classroom, which automatically made me ineligible. Dell later announced a huge commitment to have classes all be fully remote minus a handful of exceptions and we refactored every class we teach to accommodate that change. When covid hit, it was business as usual.
During that time, internally and externally, leadership, including Michael, said this was the way of the future and that 'those who can't do remote aren't doing it right'. Dell's employees were hired remote, moved remote, and reshaped their lives and entire departments based on remote and today, none of my team even resides in the same state and some not even in the same country. There is no value-add to my job being onsite unless I can teach my students onsite and the departments we teach to are running so light on headcount, they can't even fill a class from a single location, nor do we even have the training rooms anymore to deliver them.
The announcement of Remote or Hybrid was a shock considering the above messaging. I chose Hybrid because remote seemed like a quick way out the door and my position is available in three pay grades, so throwing away growth opportunities for work I love is d-mb.
Over the next 6 months, I used our sole training room for remote classes since my department has limited seats and teaching remote is louder than they'd like among the cube farm. Then they kick me out, take my key to the room, and convert that into a 'director getaway' and conference room. Today, I'm delivering classes from home again and every 1x1 I ask my manager about a desk, the request is no further along process-wise than it was months ago. Clearly not a priority.
For what it's worth, Sales is the only confirmed 5-day RTO announcement I've heard, but that was months ago. Lots of rumors and a complete lack of transparency when you get above a certain level of leadership.
To summarize, Dell keeps yanking our chains while questioning 'why aren't you loyal' every year for that survey. They have talent they've invested a lot of money into (certs, education, etc) and they're doing everything to convince the talent to leave. I've been with Dell for a long time and never felt so in the dark about this company's vision or how it plans to get there. AI is not a vision.
My move (WA->AZ) was approved by HR and my manager prior to my move and documented in payroll.
I knew 6 months in advance so I did it as “by the books” as possible.
"I moved to a different state to work remotely"
Was that move approved with HR? A lot of people did that and it wasn't legal for one and violated the 29 day policy of working away from your local area. I even had people get caught up in tax evasion etc.
My team was WFH 3 days a week pre-pandemic and I moved to a different state to work remotely when Michael Dell repeatedly personally swore remote work was never going away & Dell was committed for the long haul (back in 2020-2022).
At this point I’ve assumed it’s best to never trust anything Dell says.
My team was wfh 3 days a week pre-pandemic.
5-day RTO would be worse than pre-pandemic.
Relevant when a 1-way commute is 1-1.5hrs.
I live 52 miles from the nearest office (that I’ve never worked out of. I’ve been remote for years before covid). Let’s do the math, assuming 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year. That’s 24,980 miles a year. Gas alone would be around $3500. Add in wear and tear, extra maintenance, another $2k. It takes around 1:15 each way to travel to the office, so 150 minutes a day. That’s 600 hours a year, the equivalent of 25 full days a year spent in the car.
And for what? My team is spread around the globe. The people from other teams I work with are spread around the globe. Not a single person I work with works in that office.
So you want me to waste thousands of dollars and 25 full days a year driving to go to an office none of my colleagues are in? For what??? In what logical world does that make sense?
The cost benefit analysis on this one just doesn’t add up. If I’m going to have my money and time wasted, you better provide good reasoning.
When my team went remote we were told to regard it as a pay raise and there's some truth to that. Not commuting saves me roughly $25/week on just gasoline based on today's gas prices or in the neighborhood of $1200 a year once PTO days are factored in. So if WFH should be treated as a raise, then RTO should be regarded as a pay cut right?
Also the office with its open floorplan is a noisy place, making it harder to have conversations with each other and customers. I've never once had a customer complain about background noise while working from home. I can't say the same about working in the office.
I went full remote during the pandemic , corporate approved. Got my $400 stipend and everything. Then they told us if you're within an hour, which I'm on the cusp of, we need to start coming in (gently). Then they made me hybrid unless I wanted to lose on promotions. Then they said 39 days a quarter mandatory. Now they're saying we have to come in 5 days mandatory.
That's my problem. They're backpedaling.
Remote worked fine when it suited corporate America.
Shove your office mandates, people still prefer working from home
https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/15/shove_your_mandates_people_still/
when competitors are starting to work 5 days in office, Dell employee are still arguing the 5-day RTO in the future. If I were HR, I would suggest MD to layof you all remotes.
They want me back 5 days a week and still keep having meetings with global teams early mornings and very late evenings? Yeah, sure, be my guest. 5 days a week equals to working hours schedule only. I won't even bother being online outside of 9 to 6.
Going in to an office, where you have to seek out a place to sit - likely not near anyone you know - only to be on Teams calls with people in other locations is so D-MB
Haven't been in office full time in over a decade, back then internet speed su-ked and we had desktops instead of laptops. The argue that we did it before doesn't take into account any changes to the workplace.
We realized our own top brass makes money off our commutes/travel. So by staying home it put a large dent into there bottom line. And that’s the real reason they want us back in the office.
I don't know anyone in my org that ever went in 5 days a week ever lol
Because the pandemic showed us that we didn't need to commute to an office or sit at a desk to be able to do our jobs well. We could live and travel anywhere we wanted to and still be high performers. Our CEO literally said that work is not a time or a place, but an outcome and it felt great to work for a company that was seemingly run by a human being. Yet, here we are, forced to go back to old ways that aren't innovative and they don't align with what we're selling our customers. Being forced back to an office that for a company this size doesn't even have a gym (God forbid we even hint at wanting on-site childcare, yikes!). What really rubs salt in the wound is that it has NOTHING to do with productivity or collaboration. It has everything to do with the wealthy wanting to take back control of our lives, and to hang on for dear life to their commercial real estate investments and tax incentives. That is what su-ks.
"Y'all sound like whiny, entitled employees. Su-k it up. "
Management speaks!
https://jillchristensenintl.com/what-michael-dell-says-leaders-are-doing-wrong/
Broken promise when hired
They said we will NEVER require mandatory time in office again. So I bought my first house in a small town further from the office with lower house prices. I didn't buy a new car when my old car died cause I was working at home. I didn't need two cars in my house. I arranged my life around my new work schedule at home. Now they change their minds and need me to change my whole life too? Nope. Deal breaker. I got a new job and it's remote. So my life can continue. What's worse is they told us in sales to tell our customers we aren't going back in office so do like we do, and buy more stuff... and we had record profits based on a lie. It makes me feel so sc-mmy just thinking about it. I'm sorry customers, I didn't know it was a lie when they told me it.
And further more, we haven't been full five days a week in office since 2009 when they handed out laptops. This isn't a return to pre pandemic. It's a full retcon of Dell history.
You need to realize that the entire point of RTO is to get some percentage of the workforce to quit and leave on their own without the need to pay severance. That's it.
Well, let’s break it down.
Costs for commuting, wear and tear and insurance have increased more than salaries.
No assigned work stations. We have to lug our own equipment back and forth.
No bonding activities. Go in, sit at a desk and work with your team over teams.
Cr-ppy over priced cafe food.
Commute in and home, waste up to 3hrs of your life and then do 8pm or later meetings, because we are global.
Get up at 4am to do a 5am meeting, because we are global. Then get ready and commute, waste over an hour in traffic.
On average Americans spend two weeks a year sitting in traffic getting to work. That’s two weeks of lost productivity.
Illness. The die hards who come in sick as dogs and spread it. That impacts insurance premiums. They wear it like a badge.
Stress-silent ki-ler.
I can keep going….
Bottom line, if you’re going to force people to commute back and forth, make sure their increases are in line with the cost of living.
And believe it or not, full time in the office actually went out over a decade ago.
They lied and reneged without any consideration of any agreement with their employees.
They downgraded every employee amenity from land to office space to regular janitorial staff.
And they will continue lying and reneging on everything they say. So trust is gone.
most are looking to get out. If dell had any conviction they would offer a VSP and let people chose accordingly
For me, it’s the complete reversal and denial of Dell’s history. Folks were remote before the pandemic, we had the connected workplace program before the pandemic, and there was even a goal to get more people remote and save on office space. Now that the Fortune 500 trend is to RTO as a form of quiet firing, Dell is eager to follow suit and claim that remote work was a mistake brought on by the pandemic. We have global teams who will be on the phone whether in the office or not. It’s not about culture or productivity, it’s about forcing attrition for the sake of an artificially better looking financial state.
The big deal is that many of realized that the technology, some developed by Dell, let us free up hours of the work day for ourselves. Not having to face the Mass Turnpike on a Monday morning, a dream.
In spite of MD’s declaration that remote work is the future we are being forced back into more crowded areas, cafeteria’s that offer fewer menus options, and open fewer hours. Get stuck on a problem and couldn’t get to lunch? Sorry the vending machines are over there.
One of the great stress relievers were onsite gyms, one with a pool. All closed. A workout before, during, or after the workday was a great stress reliever.
RTO? Why complain , you’re taking time from my life and forcing me to a less pleasant environment where I will sit in a cube of soul-su-king gray cloth making Zoom and Teams calls
The offices is far worse than they were when we used to be on the office. Shared work spaces less monitors, no cafeteria etc. if you want people to come back to the office, shouldn't you make the experience equal if not better than before. Would you trade in your car for an older model with less features?
Going to the office itself wouldn't be horrible if they made it a positive experience for people
RTO in the modern age is a shockingly stupid waste of time, money, resources, and capital. It increases environmental waste, land waste, time waste, contributes to smaller families, increases the financial burden on the middle class.
The only benefit is it props up the phony corporate real estate market and protects billionaires from an outdated business model from busting. Billionaires own the downtown sky scrapers and offices buildings that are no longer needed.
The government is now working to protect dead business models to prop up the interest of a few.
A good analogy would be billionaire executives of typewriter companies banding together with political parties to force a "back to the typewriter golden age".
The logic being "we used type writers years ago and it wasn't a problem so let's do it again".
The computer is exponentially more beneficial than the typewriter. If you want the government constantly manipulating the free market to keep billionaire donors rich at the expense of innovation you should fully support RTO.
How about closed and / or downsized offices that are no longer being reopened / expanded?
As a manager I need my team to do the work and deliver results. If they're happy to do that in the office, great. If not, I'm not here to babysit them, as long as they deliver what's expected of them.
If they don't, whether they show up in the office, should not play any role in their performance reviews.
Because the company made a big deal a few years ago about how remote was the way of the future. Also, many were hired on as remote.
And the pandemic was 5 years ago at this point. It's been a while.
So people made adjustments to their lives, and now its all being changed, yet again. You can't upend so many people's lives and work/life balance without causing pushback.