In yet another reminder of how we all dance to our corporate masters, Dell has told its sales employees to get back to the office — immediately throwing lots of people’s lives into chaos.
It’s not clear how many people have been affected, but Round Rock-based Dell has said it employs around 13,000 people in Central Texas. That’s a lot of parents and caregivers.
On Sept. 26, the company’s sales got a memo informing them that, starting the following Monday, they’d be expected in the office five days per week, Business Insider first reported.
The memo singled out sales as being a unique place where everyone needed to physically be present to “harness this energy and grow skills,” adding “our data shows that sales teams are more productive when onsite.”
Employees were given fewer than two work days to scramble for childcare. Cool move, company that dramatically puts its gigantic name on everything, including a children’s hospital!
“The biggest thing that I saw from just being in the office that day was parents freaking out,” one sales employee told Business Insider. It was a particular shock because sales employees believed their return-to-office mandate for the year had been settled.
In February, Dell informed all U.S. employees that they could choose between hybrid or remote work, but remote workers were warned they wouldn’t be eligible for promotions or role changes. Beginning in May, hybrid employees were required to spend about three days a week in the office.
And that’s not all: More departments could soon be affected by Dell’s new policy. Several employees said they had informally heard from managers that the policy would eventually be implemented for hybrid workers in other departments too.
One technical support worker shared that a senior leader told them the return-to-office might become mandatory, “because that’s what Amazon is doing.”
Some have also wondered if the move is also an attempt at stealth layoffs, since the abrupt change has made things especially difficult on people who work in far-flung locations.
Dell has definitely been on a layoff spree in recent years. In March, it was reported that the company had reduced its global headcount by 13,000 employees over the past year. And last month, the company said it will continue to trim its workforce through 2024, as demands for its PCs remains sluggish.
