Dell Technologies intends to end its hybrid work arrangement in March, requiring those previously allowed to toil from home part-time to spend their entire five-day work week within corporate walls.
The IT biz also expects those who work remotely but within an hour’s drive of a Dell office to commute in every working day henceforth. Remote workers further away will be allowed to continue their long-distance employment relationship.
Word of the policy change comes from founder and CEO Michael Dell, who sent an email to staff announcing the changes on Friday morning. The Register has seen a copy of his staff memo from an individual familiar with the matter.
Dell justified the policy change by asserting a thirty-second in-person conversation can replace an email discussion that goes on for hours or days and by noting that specific groups within the company – sales, manufacturing, and engineering – have already adjusted to being in the office five days per week.
For the most part, you should plan to work in the office five days a week
“Starting March 3, all hybrid and remote team members who live near a Dell office will work in the office five days a week,” the memo reads. “We are retiring the hybrid policy effective that day. We remain committed to flexibility within your workday, and you should continue to work with your manager to meet your needs. But for the most part, you should plan to work in the office five days a week.”
Dell declined to share a copy of the letter while also stating that it is not challenging reports about the memo.
Dell’s about-face on working from home belies chief operating officer Jeff Clarke’s mid-pandemic assertion that “we will never go back to the way things were before.”
“Here at Dell, we expect, on an ongoing basis, that 60 per cent of our workforce will stay remote or have a hybrid schedule where they work from home mostly and come into the office one or two days a week,” said Clarke during the corporation’s Q2 2020 earnings conference call.
Many companies, such as Amazon, have trimmed back or ended remote work arrangements over the past year. These return to office (RTO) mandates, however, have failed to improve corporate financial performance, according to a study last year by University of Pittsburgh business school associate professor Mark Ma and Yuye Ding, a doctoral student.
“Overall, our results do not support the argument that managers impose these mandates to increase firm values,” the authors state in their paper. “Instead, these findings are consistent with managers using RTO mandates to reassert control over employees and blame employees as a scapegoat for bad firm performance.”
- Return-to-office mandates had senior employees jumping ship
- Does RTO boost profits? Nope
- 91% of polled Amazon staff unhappy with return-to-office, 3-in-4 want to jump ship
- Shove your office mandates, people still prefer working from home
As of its Q3 FY 2025 financial report [PDF] last November, Dell’s shares were up 86 percent in 2024, an increase attributed largely to sales of servers for AI workloads.
Asked whether Dell has any financial data that suggests working from the office leads to better productivity or results, a spokesperson said, “We continually evolve our business so we’re set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners. That includes more in-person connections to drive market leadership.”
We’re told that a follow-on message went out on Friday from Doug Schmitt, CIO and president of Dell Technologies Services, instructing Services directors and above within an hour’s commute of a Dell office to begin making the trip to the office starting Monday, February 3, 2025.
As leaders, we are expected to set the tone for rebuilding in-person collaboration
“As leaders, we are expected to set the tone for rebuilding in-person collaboration and fostering innovation,” Schmitt’s memo said.
Dell has been rolling back remote work policies that have been in place at least since the COVID-19 pandemic, when concerns about contagion made telecommuting necessary for many organizations. In March 2024, the biz informed salespeople that they would be expected to be in the office at least three days per week. In June, half of Dell staff in the US had declined to RTO. By September 2024, the corporate attendance requirement for sales increased to five days per week.
Our source reports that there’s been a trickle of layoffs all year and that it’s unclear whether the requirement to spend more time in the office has encouraged staff to leave – one of the common claims about return to office (RTO) mandates is that they increase voluntary headcount attrition, thereby avoiding the severance obligation entailed by layoffs.
“I did have coworkers who jumped ship months ago, partly as a result of RTO and partly for greener pastures with more companies on the buzzword hype train,” our contact told us. “All in all though I’ve seen more grumbling than action.” ®
