Large companies, especially tech companies, are facing difficulties in getting their employees to return to the office. Despite efforts and new policies, many employees prefer to continue working from home. This is the case of Dell, which in February of this year announced a new return-to-office policy and found that almost half of its employees are not willing to come back.
According to this new policy, Dell workers must identify as remote or hybrid. Hybrid employees must clock into a physical office 39 days per quarter, roughly three days a week. However, those who identify as remote agree that they will never be promoted or be eligible for new positions within the company.
Despite these conditions, a large part of the workforce has chosen to continue working from home. This decision challenges Dell’s plans to restore its office work culture. Employees have cited several reasons for their reluctance to return to the office. Among them, the possibility of enjoying more free time and lower financial costs, aspects they have valued after adapting to remote work.
Some employees have mentioned that their local offices closed after the pandemic, while others are not interested in promotions. Additionally, many consider it absurd to go to an office to participate in virtual meetings with teams spread across different offices worldwide.
One employee, in statements to media outlets such as Business Insider, commented that several hybrid colleagues are working in almost empty offices and participating in video calls with people in other equally empty offices. Many of them are looking for employment in companies that do not force their workers to return to the office.
Dell is not the only company facing this challenge. Apple, for example, has seen protests from its employees against the return-to-office policy. Workers have discovered the benefits of working from home, such as not having to eat out every day or avoiding long commutes. These benefits are hard to give up, regardless of efforts by executives to bring them back to the office.