Nearly half of Dell’s workforce refused to return to the office
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hasnt it been shown that companies are doing this to force workers to quit? That way they don't have to pay severence.
Though I think alot of it is because management litearlly isn't thinking and wants to justify their existance. I left a job that told me to come back - after I'd moved away. I told them office was now to far and response was that I should've asked permission to move. Needless to say I had an exit interview shortly later. Yet surprisingly the owner continued to gaslight me for "forcing them" into that situation.
Though I think alot of it is because management litearlly isn't thinking and wants to justify their existance. I left a job that told me to come back - after I'd moved away. I told them office was now to far and response was that I should've asked permission to move. Needless to say I had an exit interview shortly later. Yet surprisingly the owner continued to gaslight me for "forcing them" into that situation.
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Just give it up people, fighting technological change is a good way to ruin yourselves. Embrace the massive eventual cost reduction of getting rid of all those offices now, instead of being forced to by inches over the next decade when you've paid millions to maintain almost empty offices and driven away all your best staff.
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In all honesty, and I hate to be overly trite, I think this really is a big part of it. Top execs get steeped in years of asskissing and underlings laughing at their dumb jokes, so coming into the office for them is GREAT. Everyone treats them like gold, so of course it seems very “collaborative”. For all of us peons, however, how is it more collaborative to be in half-empty offices when most of my colleagues work in other offices and I’m still doing all of my meetings every day on zoom with folks in a bunch of different offices in different time zones, many of whom we hired in India to save costs?
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As a manager, this is true. I can't function without the excellent people who report to me, they're super smart folks. I sure as shit don't care where they're located though, they can do their work just as well without being in the same building as me.
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"Research on this topic has offered mixed insights, but there does seem to be some consensus that remote work is accompanied by very modest drops in productivity—for example, a working study at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research suggested around a 10 percent drop in productivity, even as it noted that the cost-saving benefits of remote work could make up for some of that."
If the insights are mixed, where is the summary for the study that shows an increase in productivity? Is a 10% change in either direction very modest?
If the insights are mixed, where is the summary for the study that shows an increase in productivity? Is a 10% change in either direction very modest?
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I understand why in-person work is so important to senior management - meetings literally dominate their workday where they must parse distilled partial information several steps removed from the source. In-person meetings are probably the best way to achieve this.
But that utility falls off sharply with each step away from senior management.
But that utility falls off sharply with each step away from senior management.
A 50% meh rate suggests that this isn't seen as a downside.
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Tell me you spent or currently spend WAY too much money on your overblown office building.... without telling me you now have a hunk of steel and glass that nobody wants. Cities need to get rid of the building bloat and have more greenspace. Good employees don't need to be "on-site" to be productive. I'm more productive off-site and still available for random questions on MS Teams.
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I'm still looking for work (since January! yay tech labor market) and I'm not moving anywhere for anybody. Include the purchase price of a median home in the five closest zip codes as an irrevocable signing bonus and we'll talk.
No fucking way I'm moving farther than the end of my driveway (okay, county and neighboring towns) to get laid off and stuck in some place I never wanted to go, much less live, for a job they can snatch at the drop of a hat.
No fucking way I'm moving farther than the end of my driveway (okay, county and neighboring towns) to get laid off and stuck in some place I never wanted to go, much less live, for a job they can snatch at the drop of a hat.
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The value proposition of giving the corp another 10hrs (commuting) a week for free all of a sudden apparently matters to a lot of folks.
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Yeah, so the owner thought they owned you, that as their property you should have asked them permission to move. That in itself tells me you were worlds better off working for someone else.
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I've quit two jobs because of a forced return to office (RTO) and am happy to keep doing so for all the reasons listed in the article and then some.
RTO can GTFO.
RTO can GTFO.
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I've been primarily working from home since ~2014 and it's wonderful. Sometimes, I'm not SO far from the office, so I go in a couple times a month. Those are the days I get the least work done.
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AmanoJyaku
Ars Praefectus
This. Because you know layoffs are coming next...
Fuck me, this already happened! And it doesn't look like it's over, either...
Dell doubles down on layoffs, literally: 13,000 gone in the past year
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You are perfect! More managers need to think like you! Sadly, most don't.
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Right?! My last job kept renting this enormous amount off office space which was completely empty. A few managers showed up once a week to play house or something, but thats it. Imagine not paying for all that office space and just you know... keeping the money?
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Good on them! Solidarity! Fight the power! Make them rue the day they thought they could give Cave Jonhson lemons workers mandatory RTO. If Dell doesn't stop and rethink their chooses in the face of this much blowback they have even more severe cultural problems than just insecure middle managers
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I've always been told that corporations are ruthlessly efficient when it comes to costs and that's why we have to swallow the massive layoffs when companies are profitable but miss growth targets. Like, the world is handing you all millions (or even billions) in rent expense to improve your bottom line and the response is "no, it's the children who are wrong." All you have to do is think more than six months ahead!
Turns out it is and always has been mostly about control. It seems like all of the pretense to suggest otherwise (just focused on profits!) has been completely abandoned in the last 10 years and seems to be rapidly accelerating.
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Well, I am glad that I never had to deal with this as I retired decades ago. But then in my business (dentistry) it was never and could never be an issue - it is all hands on whether employee or employer...
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It's probably more that they have these expensive office building that they have leases on them.
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the problem is the incestuous network of board memberships. Its all the same people, and lots of them are heavily invested in commercial real estate. its like when a shrimp company bought red lobster. red lobster was forced to buy a huge surplus of shrimp from them, and ultimately went bankrupt paying the crustacean bill. (there was some fuckery with commercial real estate as well)
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Yeah, we have a 1 day a week to office policy in our team, and I really like it. Am a developer. Day in the office, you talk a lot with people, but barely do any work. The other days I am very productive, and love to be in my own space at home. Slack and Teams are close by, and no issues having calls if needed. It's ideal. There were rumors they wanted to go to 3 days (company wide), but I am pretty sure half of our team will quit (including me) if that will happen. (And it won't happen).
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Ah, the carrot of a vague possibility of promotion. I’d take the concrete advantage of working remote over that any day.
We all know the biggest advances come when switching companies. When they are ready to move up, they can just leave.
We all know the biggest advances come when switching companies. When they are ready to move up, they can just leave.
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It seems really weird if “you’ll basically be passed over for future career advancement” is interpreted as anything other than constructive dismissal.
Also, if they can get by with not providing any raises for their employees, I imagine their shareholder should have some really uncomfortable questions. Like why are they wasting money on giving anybody raises?
Also, if they can get by with not providing any raises for their employees, I imagine their shareholder should have some really uncomfortable questions. Like why are they wasting money on giving anybody raises?
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Most are petty assholes who aren't all different from the people looking to become police. They think of themselves as "The Boss" rather than the leader of a department who is primarily responsible for their work.
Without my staff, I would be absolute dogshit, and so would every other manager (with actual reports). That's not because I'm incompetent, it's because I need their contributions.
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I suspect "promotions" aren't a real incentive to most employees.
Promotion threats seem like something that would only motivate management or folks with explicit / reliable job title promotion systems ... that they trust.
A lot of the big companies I worked at didn't even have a predictable promotion system that you could rely on. The only folks with such clear tracks were manager types. Normal drones often had no such reliable system that they trusted. All it takes is one re-org or job title restructuring / changes and it doesn't matter ...
So yeah maybe not much of a threat / carrot. But the folks making the threat wouldn't know that / have a different experience entirely.
Promotion threats seem like something that would only motivate management or folks with explicit / reliable job title promotion systems ... that they trust.
A lot of the big companies I worked at didn't even have a predictable promotion system that you could rely on. The only folks with such clear tracks were manager types. Normal drones often had no such reliable system that they trusted. All it takes is one re-org or job title restructuring / changes and it doesn't matter ...
So yeah maybe not much of a threat / carrot. But the folks making the threat wouldn't know that / have a different experience entirely.
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The supposed magical efficiency of corporation is a lie we’re fed by people with vested interest in increasing corporations’ power and their useful idiots. It’s just as dogmatic a position as “government is always better”.
Recent news is full of companies killing the golden goose by making best performers leave or otherwise wasting stupendous amounts of money on white elephants and vanity projects.
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Elon found a solution to that…
But most people are concerned about the consequences of breaking contracts.
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Despite the lip service, I haven’t been promoted for years now yet I have to go in five days. Not like going into the office actually gets you promoted anyways so why not stay remote.
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Naw, your looking at the symptoms, not the cause. They bought red lobster intending to extract all possible money from it then throw it away. Buying shrimp and forcing them to rent their own property (after selling it to holding company for free) was just ways to draining all money from the company, leaving it in bankruptcy and walking away.
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I'm a corporate controller and former financial auditor... I know where most, if not all of the bodies are buried.
Being in this position at times can feel like opening the Ark of the Covenant. Sometimes it's better not to know how things really work.
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I worked remote for a large gov contactor during COVID. My team did far better and was more productive working remote because we spent far less time "collaborating" in meetings that none of us typically needed to be at and more time actually doing work.
Oddly, despite multiple teams reporting similarly, the "corporate statistics" seemed to indicate that the company was somehow magically less productive. Amazing how the data fits the narrative, ain't it?
Oddly, despite multiple teams reporting similarly, the "corporate statistics" seemed to indicate that the company was somehow magically less productive. Amazing how the data fits the narrative, ain't it?
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