Dell wants employees back in the office, and they are mad

[Sir Sparkles]

Wow, geez. execs feelings, okay. That's how you think public floated companies make decisions these days.

All of these companies definitely have numbers saying it is more profitable to have hybrid working systems, and older numbers are obviously not matching post covid world.

It's always about money, especially with public floated corps. Never anything else.

 

[hwertz]

Well, this very article mentions Dell seeing record productivity during time when employees are working from home, but they now are expecting the employees to come back into the office anyway. So yes, apparently this is how public floated companies make decisions these days.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Sure, but Dell has numbers saying the employees were more productive out of the office. So they now have their executives making recommendations going against their own numbers. To me this sounds like going by "gut instinct" rather than following the numbers.

Yes, but things change. Maybe numbers were better for a while. Remember what it's like when you start a new job? Everything is new. It's fun. You get a lot done--maybe even more than required. Then when the novelty wears off, you fall into a routine, learn your boundaries, follow the path laid by co-workers, and so on. Your productivity falls into company norms.

I'm not saying for sure this is what happened with Dell when it went to WFH scheduling, but it probably did. However, the problem is that there is a disconnect from the company culture when working from home. Workers cannot see what peers are doing. The only real feedback they have been getting is whether they are turning in enough work to make their supervisors happy, which is also subject to change.

Again. The bottom line is the bottom line. It doesn't matter what the productivity numbers were three years ago or what executives said in the past. All corporate decisions are motivated by money. It is a genuine possibility--in fact, it's highly likely Dell, Apple, Microsoft, and all these other companies calling workers back to the office have found productivity is higher in-house in the long run. IF for some reason, they are calling people back so they could lose all this purported productivity, then every executive involved in making that call should be forced to resign because they are not acting in the best interest of the company and its shareholders.

 

[Liljonny11]

Those quotes about how work from home is worse are hilarious. At least at the companies I've worked: office work was full of water heater conversations that would waste time, the walk to meeting rooms wasted time, people attended less meetings, people wouldn't respond to text messages over longer periods because they expect phone calls for urgent stuff, people would leave work way more often for out of work responsibilities that can be taken care of at home. There is like 10 more examples of why the work office is significantly less efficient. The only issue with work from home are teams that are not keeping up with communication over technology. You can definitely monitor new employees, you just need to actually try

 

[hwertz]

Yes, but things change. Maybe numbers were better for a while. Remember what it's like when you start a new job? Everything is new. It's fun. You get a lot done--maybe even more than required. Then when the novelty wears off, you fall into a routine, learn your boundaries, follow the path laid by co-workers, and so on. Your productivity falls into company norms.

I'm not saying for sure this is what happened with Dell when it went to WFH scheduling, but it probably did.

Certainly possible.

There is like 10 more examples of why the work office is significantly less efficient.

To be honest, many years ago I worked at the local cable company's local call center (incoming calls) -- they ran a tight ship, the place had a positive atmosphere but there was minimal to none of that ikind of stuff.

Another office environment I worked at, it was just as you described (except they didn't allow texting -- when I'd go to the restroom, the IT guy would often be hiding in the bathroom since the systems there would be sending him automated text alerts but they would not give him an exemption to be able to view them!), people wandering around the cube farm aimlessly and standing around at the watercooler, etc., and the office had disturbingly low morale (people were literally pushing each other out of the way and jockeying for position to hit the exit at 5:00 sharp.)

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Certainly possible.

To be honest, many years ago I worked at the local cable company's local call center (incoming calls) -- they ran a tight ship, the place had a positive atmosphere but there was minimal to none of that ikind of stuff.

Another office environment I worked at, it was just as you described (except they didn't allow texting -- when I'd go to the restroom, the IT guy would often be hiding in the bathroom since the systems there would be sending him automated text alerts but they would not give him an exemption to be able to view them!), people wandering around the cube farm aimlessly and standing around at the watercooler, etc., and the office had disturbingly low morale (people were literally pushing each other out of the way and jockeying for position to hit the exit at 5:00 sharp.)

For sure. Every company is different as far as office culture goes, but the one thing they all have in common is squeezing every dime out of operations as they can.

 

[pgcharlie]

In India, given the traffic here, it is preferably to work from home, even a 6-8 KM commute could take almost 45 mins to an hour of travel.

To add to this, 1 hour exception is not given for employees outside US and you cannot select the days you want to work from office!! The management decides.