Dell has informed employees that they are expected back in the office full-time. The company once considered a pioneer in hybrid working is now doing away with it.
CEO Michael Dell sent out an internal email Friday, verified by Business Insiders, saying that the company is doing away with hybrid working. Employees are thus expected back in the office full-time again. Earlier, Dell called salespeople, engineers and production teams back to physical offices.
Dell provides our editors with the following written statement, “This decision was made to foster better collaboration, strengthen team cohesion and deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners. We strongly believe that this is best achieved through personal relationships. This policy will be implemented in accordance with local laws, regulations and practices, including consultation with works councils and employee representatives where applicable.”
180°
Dell used to be known as a pioneer in hybrid working. Long before the pandemic, hybrid working was well established in the organization. 65 percent of employees worked remotely at least one day a week. The company itself, by the way, liked to poke fun at this in its communications on social media.
Last year, Dell began to take the 180-degree turn. It introduced a new measure in the United States and the United Kingdom that saw employees who chose to work completely remote drastically reduce their chances of promotion. Dell does not appear to be deviating from that change in direction on hybrid working.
Hybrid working will not be completely eliminated within Dell. Those who live far from a physical office can make arrangements to continue working remotely.
Bad for morale
Dell justifies its decision by arguing that hybrid working has a negative effect on productivity. “What we are discovering is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction. A 30-second conversation can replace an email of hours or even days,” Michael Dell asserts.
He is not alone in that within the tech industry. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wants his employees to come to the office five days a week again, and according to a former CEO, Google can no longer “win” because of hybrid work policies. Many companies that not long ago flaunted their flexible hybrid work policies are now backtracking on that, and productivity is cited as an argument for it.
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The science does not support that claim. Conclusions from scientific studies on the productivity of remote workers versus their office colleagues are contradictory. What seems more envious is that requiring workers to return to the office full-time “because the boss wants them to” has a negative effect on morale.
Inside Dell, not everyone is behind the return to the office. According to Business Insider, an internal satisfaction survey’s score is said to have dropped sharply since Dell began its battle with hybrid working. Less than half of employees would now want to recommend Dell as an employer.