I understand that it's not ideal. But I don't understand how people managed to get to the office with no issues before but suddenly it's a huge issue? Did all of you guys move? I mean, I understand opposing RTO on the basis that WFH is generally more convenient, but complaining about how you're going to get to the office? The same way you did before? I don't get it.
31 replies (most recent on top)
We used to ride horses, we used to sh-t in latrines and we used to many thing that we don't today.
I worked better when I wasn’t surrounded by loud and obnoxious people. I have to stop and handhold coworkers for things they’ve done for years. Not a single person at Dell has ever benefited me through collaboration, they just become obstacles that lead to delays.
I've never been on-site. The most I ever came in was 3 days a week and I became remote long before COVID. I was more productive at home - I got bugged too much in the office. It was never a big deal having remote workers until now. I also moved far far away since my manager said it was perfectly fine and would make no difference. My whole team has been remote since before COVID.
I think you underestimate how much people's lives changed the last 5 years. Personally, it isn't that hard for me to go back into the office. But in the last 5 years I bought a house with a WFH office in mind. Since my partner and I both wfh, we went down to one car. We made those choices after confirming with our workplaces that we were permanently remote, and we were continuously assured that we were for years. Now add kids, pets that have never been left home alone, elderly parents, and larger moves into the picture. This isn't hard to figure out.
If your life has been paused for 5 years, then I'm sure it's fine. Most people's have not.
"Remote since 2010. I work globally and I’m a high performer. Also it’s not 1989 anymore."
What high performer development program are you part of and what is your annual RSU agreement?
All of you whining forgot one main aspect.
The CORPORATE business needs to look after ITSELF.
If all of us dont use the roads to come to work, then the affected businesses are
rentals, real estate values, Gasoline prices go down, environment is cleaner so no money for the "fog tests and the environment monitoring companies", the city/state does not have many "broken roads " to fix, the restaurants dont have much sales.. the office cleaners arent needed ( the jobs of undocumented cannot be taken away.. or else your congress will be mad)...the Visa people are going to be mad coz now you can work from outside the country.
So there is a need to force employees to come to office and keep environment polluted and roads congested because you know.. everyone needs THEIR job .. LOL
We used to not have computers what's the problem with everyone going back to type writers or pen and paper?
Remote since 2010. I work globally and I’m a high performer. Also it’s not 1989 anymore.
I've been remote for over 10 years.
I bought a house with a pool and land. Theu said, we'd never require mandatory in office time again. So I asked my manager, can I move? She said SURE! so I did but kept close enough yo come back when needed if it's a value add. It's an hour and half to get to campus... but I'm 42 miles away. Traffic is so bad.
I won't spent 3 hours in the car to sit next strangers all day. I used to live 15 minutes from Dell and it cost 3 times as much in rent as my mortgage costs now. 😬 don't say one thing and do another. People built their lives around what you say as CEO... do better cause you look like a 🤡
It is truly amazing how much life, and specifically work life, has changed in just a few years. I'm an old guy, my first impulse when I got on this site was "damn, why do people whine so much?"
But the irony is that I left Dell years ago and have been working as a permanent remote employee for my current company and while I kind of miss the social aspect of working onsite with a whole team of coworkers, that just isn't the way that most organizations are physically deployed any longer. When I do go to our main site, (another state, not close), it's usually because of a specific big in-person meeting. But for the rest of my meetings, even though more than half of my team is local, almost half are not local - so I'm sitting on Zoom in an empty building or my hotel room. It's just crazy and not going to change just because they force people to come into the office. It would just mean that the whole team is sitting in conference rooms across 3 different sites, separated across geography but also European, US, and Asian time zones. Even as an old guy, I totally accept that the world has changed and how we work has to modernize and expectations for people need to be measured by the quality and quantity of work, not the geography.
Remote since 2012. I passed up many opportunities because of Dell’s flexibility. No more. If I have to return to an office it most certainly won’t be a Dell office.
Yes most of us used to work from the office.
I'm old, when my career started computers were shared terminals you would occasionally use, mail was delvered twice a day to your mail box and sometimes the phone had a rotary dial. Typewriters abounded but the only ones who typed were the girls. The rest of us talked on phones and took hand written notes which the girls typed up. The field guys carried cans of hydraulic fluid for disk accuators.
No one would like to back to that, especially women.
Times change, the phones are part of our software, business mail is rare and there's a good chance that the boss is a woman, not a girl. There's no need to gather daily covering acres of asphalt with carbon belching steel to get the job done of delighting customer. Let people work remote, show up occasionally but more importantly, do the work.
I don't even need a decent cafeteria, but at least let us have real cubicles. Open office floor plans are the worst for productivity and focusing on your work. That six inch wall isn't doing a darn thing to help that... It's amazing how literally every worker states they are awful for productivity yet that's what companies keep implementing.
My local office sounds like a fish market. Full of people shouting on Teams. Yeah I'll pass thanks.
Yes. They turned all that into a 3rd world sweatshop. Next, due to 5day rto, they will start stacking rows of IKEA tables together for work areas
I'll bite. I worked in office for years. I had a 6x6 cubicle in a nice quiet row in RR3 with my teammates around me. It had 6 foot high walls, multiple cabinets, a trash can, and even a guest chair for quick impromptu meetings. It was quiet so that I could concentrate on high-leverage work, and there was a semblance of privacy for sensitive data and maybe even a shred of human decency.
The cafeteria had every station open with great choices. It was a good place to grab a quick lunch with teammates. It did not have half of the food service areas shuttered and idle with limited choices and short hours.
Back then, our single row of cubicles did not have 20 people packed in like sardines, with inches high partitions. You weren't subjected to every stomach growl, sigh, yawn, conference call. You didnt have people jammed on each side of your shoulders, in front, behind, constantly walking in front of you, behind you, having conversations inches from you while you try to work on a complex spreadsheet. Yeah, we used to work in the office.
Was hired remote. Su-k one buddy.
I worked from home before covid. It was all approved by my leadership and HR. They wanted to free up desks and were looking for volunteers. I want to say it was 2017, maybe...
I haven't moved, and the commute is worse than it was when I used to drive into the office. Same roads alot more people on the roads. It can take me up to 3 hours if things go wrong.
I hope this is a troll post. If so great job. If not… come on man, you can be THIS d-mb.
For me, the confusion and frustration comes from Michael Dell, wanting a large percentage of his workforce to be remote even before Covid showed up. Dell lead the way in working remote, and tons of articles were praising this new revolution and working from home. Plus, it was less of a carbon footprint, less people on the road, less wear and tear to infrastructure, he was a genius. But now, all these years later, he is reversing everything that he was praising. That’s where I’m super confused.
MD sold off buildings and land and nixed most employee benefits in this new wfh paradigm that HE promoted and got behind.
Then all agreements was reneged upon without any shame nor regard to how it would affect the employees. And changes that were reneged was again reneged.
I have absolutely zero trust in anything he says. He's 100% grift.
Prior to the pandemic I worked at home two days a week and got a lot done not commuting. Fully remote has been great. It suited my work duties (remote support on the phone and connecting to customer’s systems) Now it will the stress of a commute and working in a noisy cube farm with numerous distractions.
Enough about me. Of people I know, three did sell their houses and moved into the rural areas they dreamed of for years. Several people sold their commuter cars because couples decided they didn’t need two cars. And some of my colleagues were hired to work remotely which suited them because the nearest Dell office of any significance was hours away.
I know several people who did move, many more who were hired as remote and live far away and a bunch of people who were remote before covid.
I’m right at an hour and have been way more productive at home. If my manager does enforce the mandate I’m at peace with just doing less work.
no need for five days, three or four would be fine. Let the people and their managers decide what is best to get the job done. It's a simple as that.
Covid showed that some industries are very capable of working from home. Yes, 97% used to work in the office, but the way we work has evolved. All this talk about Ai, modernisation, but we're still working like it's 1995.
Most? I've not worked out of an office this century. No need.
This dude in 1886 would argue 'working 12 hrs a day 7 days a week isn't actually that bad and how could we let Mr. McCormick down when he so graciously gave us a job?'
My dude, a lot of people changed their entire lives when it suited Michael to tell us all that remote work is here to stay. Also, a ton of people were hired on fully remote contracts when it suited Mike to rapidly over hire. He pulled the rug out from everyone. I’ll personally never trust another word that guy or his henchman says again.
I was hired remote and spent a lot of money on my home office. Dell leadership doesn't get to change its mind whenever it likes without absorbing the losses that it caused.
What makes this worse is spending 2 hours on the road everyday to sit on a chair that's worse than the one at home, a table that's worse, a monitor that's worse, keyboard and mouse that's worse, eat food that's worse, in an environment that's more distracting... The list can keep going. All this after looking for a seat like a rat rummaging through trash.
Best part - I don't work with anyone at my office so it's still all on email and teams. 🤡
I'm not even anti-remote. I'm on the lookout for a job right now because I'm done with this circus, and if someone offers a 5 day on site role where everybody I work with is at the same office, and they have a nice office and good food, I'm game!
I don't want to work from home, I just want to be happy where I work.
I can't speak for everyone, but for me I view having to go into the office as a 6% paycut since that's roughly what it costs me just to drive in. Not to mention the drain on my most valuable asset, my time. Currently I devote exactly 8 hours of my day to work since that is exactly what they pay me for. Starting March 3rd I'll be devoting 11+ hours of my day (hour commute each way plus I can't get household chores or errands done on my lunch since the office isn't near anything (did I mention there's no food on site except for overpriced, expired vending machine food) extra time to get ready before leaving for work) and I still only get paid for 8 hours. So yeah a 37.5% increase in my time commitment for what amounts to a 6% paycut. All so I can be on zooms/teams meetings all day in an office with horrendous amounts of background noise instead of my quiet basement. Are you understanding now why many of us are upset?