After reversing its position on remote work, Dell is reportedly implementing new tracking techniques on May 13 to ensure its workers are following the company’s return-to-office (RTO) policy, The Register reported today, citing anonymous sources.
Dell will track employees’ badge swipes and VPN connections to confirm that workers are in the office for a significant amount of time.
Dell’s methods for tracking hybrid workers will also reportedly include a color-coding system. From “consistent” to “limited” presence, the colors are blue, green, yellow, and red.
The Register reported today that approximately 50 percent of Dell’s US workers are remote, compared to 66 percent of international workers.
An examination of 457 companies on the S&P 500 list released in February concluded that RTO mandates don’t drive company value but instead negatively affect worker morale. Analysis of survey data from more than 18,000 working Americans released in March found that flexible workplace policies, including the ability to work remotely completely or part-time and flexible schedules, can help employees’ mental health.
Love it when the logical excuse is the Sunk Cost Fallacy.
Though I think there’s some truth - companies still pay employees for their WFH rigs / utilities (or they should be, anyway), so it’s not exactly free for them to have WFH (just a lot cheaper, if there’s a choice).
The logical excuse I buy into is that commercial real estate is valued on it’s income and if business aren’t renewing leases because they don’t need office space, then commercial real estate values tank. That and thinly veiled layoffs.
Which companies pay for WFH expenses? I worked for the biggest software company in the world in 2022 and there was no WFH allowance. We were 100% WFH at that point.