Is company's return to office mandate a 'quiet firing'?
At Dell, workers must report to the office if they wish to progress in their careers, according to media reports.
The American technology company has told employers to report to a corporate office at least 39 days per quarter – equivalent to about three days per week, according to a report from The Register.
Workers below a certain pay grade will have the option to choose to be fully remote, according to the report.
However, remote workers will not be considered for promotion, or be able to change roles.
"For remote team members, it is important to understand the trade-offs: Career advancement, including applying to new roles in the company, will require a team member to reclassify as hybrid onsite,” reads part of Dell’s memo to workers about the RTO policy, according to Business Insider.
Change from previous focus on remote work
The move is a complete turnaround from a decades-long practice at Dell, one worker said.
"Dell cared about the work, not the location," a senior employee at Dell told the publication last month. "I would say 10 per cent to 15 per cent of every team was remote."
Last year, the company required workers living within an hour's commute of a nearby office to work from there at least three days per week, according to The Register. In so doing, Dell abandoned a 2020 commitment made during the pandemic to allow 60 percent of its workforce to come in only once or twice per week, the report noted.
Dell CEO Michael Dell had also previously expressed support for remote workers.
Worldwide, Canadians have the greatest freedom to work from home, according to a previous report.
Is Dell ‘quiet firing’?
Dell's pivot could be a "panicked reaction to a world economy that's not very buoyant,” said Professor Cary Cooper, an organizational psychologist and cofounder of the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing at work, in the Business Insider report.
"When that occurs, people turn inwards. They think, ‘Maybe if we brought everybody in, it'll make a difference. We'll perform better.’
"Senior execs somehow think that people in the office are more productive than at home, even though there's no evidence to back that up."
However, some workers are afraid that Dell’s move may be described as “quiet firing” – where employers push some employees out.
"It’s clear from the details I’ve seen that this is a way of thinning the herd," one source told The Register. "Folks who live a few hours away from the office will have to go into an office and if they do not, they have to sign up to a remote contract with the tacit understanding that being remote is career limiting."
Many workers who have been forced to report to the office have chosen to quit, a previous study found.
"This level of micromanagement makes me want to leave Dell," one worker told Business Insider, adding that since the announcement was made, dozens of staff have been discussing quitting in Discord chats.
