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.
If only they had been so rigorous in protecting customer data.
Or making quality consumer products.
Budget for monsy spent on pizza parties, etc to encourage workers back to office: $0
Budget for money spent on tracking and whipping employees based on managerial whims: Infinite
Folks, has corporate culture become a cancer on society?
Folks, has corporate culture become a cancer on society?
Become?
Working from home proved that most of the people are capable of “self-managing” and don’t need a corporate drone telling them what to do. I have a feeling that the push to get back to the office is fueled by insecurities of middle management that became redundant.
When I worked in the office I worked in a cubicle all on my own behind a support column and a potted plant that I put there specifically for the purpose of being unviewable by the idiot manager who wandered around and got in everyone’s way.
Also now people don’t randomly come and ask me questions about why the printer isn’t working, or start sentences with “can you just”, and “it will only take a moment”.
I don’t know if I’m more productive at home than when I was in the office, but I’m definitely not less productive. I would probably be more productive but there really isn’t that much to do. My job is to basically sit around and be there, I’m ready to jump into action when everything breaks.
The Nanny State
The same Dell that just leaked my information yesterday because of their incompetence, that Dell?
I wonder if there’s some kind of correlation between this perspective management has and their products not working well. My understanding is that employees who feel empowered and respected do better work, and surely tracking them all day is helping…
Idea: script that connects and disconnects from a VPN over and over at set intervals to send “fuck you” in Morse.
Sigh would be nice but I have use a phone to sign-in plus a password.
based on the dell products i’ve used, i’m not working there. i get the motive, but they need some good ass cybersecurity to have information like that be kept safe
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Now The Register reports that Dell will track employees’ badge swipes and VPN connections to confirm that workers are in the office for a significant amount of time.
An unnamed source told the publication: “This is likely in response to the official numbers about how many of our staff members chose to remain remote after the RTO mandate.”
The Register reported that Dell “plans to make weekly site visit data from its badge tracking available to employees through the corporation’s human capital management software and to give them color-coded ratings that summarize their status.”
Here at Dell, we expect, on an ongoing basis, that 60 percent of our workforce will stay remote or have a hybrid schedule where they work from home mostly and come into the office one or two days a week."
In a statement to The Register, a representative said that Dell believes “in-person connections paired with a flexible approach are critical to drive innovation and value differentiation.”
News of Dell’s upcoming tracking methods comes amid growing concern about the potentially invasive and aggressive tactics companies have implemented as workers resist RTO policies.
The original article contains 651 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
“human capital management”.
This sounds like a recipe for malicious compliance if I ever heard it.
Like, showing to work wearing a colored armband?
Many people chose a ‘remote’ role that requires no office visits but hamstrings your career growth. I know a bunch now enforcing 5PM as the end of their day. But there will always be happy worker bees.
Many people chose a ‘remote’ role that requires no office visits but hamstrings your career growth.
Not really. Everyone knows that in the business world the only way to reliably get a promotion is to switch companies anyway. So I can be on permanent work from home and then when I want a better job I can just switch to another company, that may or may not require me to go into the office sometimes. I can have my cake, and eat it.
It is not the 1930s anymore, I don’t have to work for the same company my entire life. Everyone but the business people seem to know this.
Just to be clear, this is the same Dell who fucked up and leaked a bunch of personal info.
… the number-one cause of which is usually missed patching, which is caused by people just.not.caring.
I can see this going very well for them.
Color coding humans… Following in IBM’s footsteps yet again. 1939 was a hell of a year for the database.
Hello comrade
Ha 😃. This was my first thought as well. I just shared the link to a friend of mine working for “Friend Computer” to ask him what class of citizen he was going to be.
Just another huge ass company that values short term profits over its employees and customers. Probably won’t be buying any more of their products.
Dell more like Dull
Dud! You’re getting a Dull.
I could never own a dell. as far as I’m concerned, they make crazy overpriced laptops that are pretty much guaranteed to need 200$ of maintenance down the road when the hinges inevitably fail.
I still remember having to operate on their old desktops with the snap-down clamshell design. Infuriating.
The only marginally logical excuse i’ve heard for RTO is to justify rented office space.
A large portion of most rich peoples investment portfolios is commercial real estate.
So if remote work takes off then offices devalue and their invest profiles diminish. That’s why all the big business have colluded to force RTO, even if it would ostensibly cost their business more to do so. The execs personal savings are more important.
This, and it’s a way to make sure urban economies with investments stay stimulated… If the companies said “okay, just do your job, IDC” then a lot of people would move to rural areas. Also, corporate office leases are usually long, like 15 years. If the companies stop paying their leases, the entire flimsy financial system would crumble, since modern economics/property prices are more about potential/theoretical value rather than real value. You need a big fancy building in a fancy city to attract top talent, high earners, so it keeps the class system intact as well.
You need a big fancy building in a fancy city to attract top talent,
WFH attracts me, not fancy buildings in cities… YMMV i guess.
You need a big fancy building in a fancy city to attract top talent, high earners, so it keeps the class system intact as well.
I don’t think that this is that true anymore.
Remote work is not right for ALL companies. Just ones that are completely or predominantly software-based.
Breakfast cereal manufacturing - hey. Someone’s gotta be there to close up all the boxes.
I forget - does Dell make breakfast cereal?
What the Delly-Os
remote work is pretty prevalent in finance/banking - at my job only the customer facing folks (branch offices, investment/mortgage, etc) need to actually be in the office - that’s only 30% of the workforce. another 15% is hybrid now, the rest are 100% remote.
Remote work is not right for ALL companies. Just ones that are completely or predominantly software-based.
I would expand to all the jobs that can be done with a laptop, an internet connection and a phone.
And the more we automate manufacturing and whatnot, the more those jobs can be done remotely. If you live within driving distance of the factory, you can come in to clear a jam or something, but otherwise spend your time building systems to prevent jams.
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.
Yeah we are all WFH and we asked for a small stipend that was denied.
I expended a double wide gaming monitor anyway. Boss didn’t care.
I use a 55" 4k TV. The screen real estate is great.
In many countries they have to pay for ergonomically suitable WFH equipment if they mandate WFH
That’s how it is in the company I work for. They aren’t strict about it though, we are supposed to be in office 3/5 days but some people barely make 1/5 . As far as I know nobody cares as there is no tracking system yet.
I really like my job but if they started monitoring my data like that I’d absolutely quit. There’s already a monitoring mechanism, it’s called your boss needing you to complete tasks on time. If you’re doing that, the only thing data monitoring does it falsely call out people who are doing their work.
I will not work for a company that thinks it needs to babysit it’s employees. The idea that you have to constantly micromanage someone is ridiculous, if they’re that shit at their job, you let them go and get someone else for the role.
Yeah, I used to work for a company like that. It sucked.
