Looks like it's finally here...depending on your country location it's different numbers of days.
That last thing that made anyone want to stay here gone.
49 replies (most recent on top)
Return to office is synonymous for kindergarten for adults for that same reason. Has nothing to do with job performance. It has everything to do with how many people are aware that you're there-- err, I mean collaborate interactively with each other.
@75m People don’t slack because they’re at home — they slack because they aren’t engaged, rewarded, or given clear direction. Historically, it’s also been easy to faff around in the office for months on end, only for projects to be cancelled before delivery.
Return-to-office often feels like a step back: rewarding hours of attendance over actual contribution, regardless of when, where, or how the work gets done. The truth is, those who did little in the office continued that pattern remotely and will go back to it in the office.
Personally, I’ve found I achieve more at home — fewer distractions, more flexibility, and the ability to work when I’m most effective. If performance really was the issue, it could and should have been addressed years ago, regardless of location.
Absolutely needed so that slackers turn up to the office or quit.
Agreed, seems like a way of forcing at least the US staff to quit. No raises for years just wasn't enough.
Back to the good old days of it's too difficult to book a conference room. Other teams don't like you conducting meetings in the office space. Solution: everyone put their headsets on and have a virtual meeting within sight and earshot of your colleagues on the same call.
DXC says remote work is GOOD FOR BUSINESS!!!!!
https://dxc.com/au/en/insights/perspectives/dxc-leading-edge/making-remote-work-work
When people managers have to point out to leadership that they've implemented a travel ban yet in the email say travel expenses will be paid, and that both can't be true, it just enhances the belief that leadership are completely divorced from reality
This stinks of US edicts again, but that doesn't surprise me. A lot of the UK management I got to speak with said that the company was basically being strung along to the tune of american puppeteers that made no sense apart from st-----g someone shaf- sorry, I mean egos.
BD012 - free meal spoke to beth
@ay+1jz06nm5b
"Yes globally everyone is asked to spend some days (it varies per country) in an office.
In the UK it's two days"
So what, they just sent a blanket email out asking everyone to go to office? Have they made it mandatory? Because if you're a remote worker that's not legal at all... like they can't force a change of location if they made you a permanent home worker.
@kp+1jz06nm5b "Boo hoo! Poor baby has to go back in the office. Most of dxc do nothing in the office anyway, except stare out of the window and pray for redundancy."
Wind the attitude in mate, there are lots of people still at DXC on poor wages who were made permanent home workers as a cost cutting exercise to shutter sites like Chorley and Chesterfield. Having them commute to office might be non feasible between the cost of travel and the like. I was one of them, on under £20k a year doing a MIM role (erm sorry... I mean HPIM) that should've been £40k ++ for the workload and stress our team was and probably still is under.
Boo hoo! Poor baby has to go back in the office. Most of dxc do nothing in the office anyway, except stare out of the window and pray for redundancy.
@jg You’re just trying to get my hopes up!
@jg Lets hope so but Q1 WFR had strict restrictions on who could be considered, which is why they failed to hit their numbers and why WFR will be back in Q2, Q3 ...
Funny if you raise return to the office and monitoring of badge swipes as leading to WFR you get shutdown very quickly and dismissed as a deranged cynic but I'll be there to say "told you so"
If you are not located near any of the DXC sites, and you want out, then now is the time to apply for VR. There is obviously a big drive to have everyone back into the office, so VR is approved no matter how important you are!
Regards
UK
@OP Just tried to book a desk at both Farnborough and 1ASQ for a combination of day, am, and pm, for any day between now and next Wednesday 09/07, and no desks available at all. I’ll invite my client round to my house instead.
@f3 given this is correctly as you point out business travel, the time taken to get to and from the office is considered working hours that you either give away for free (I hope not) or take time in lieu or consider it as part of your working day and stay in the office less that time taken for travel.
Great idea. We should coordinate a mass return to the office and just mill around and take photos for social media 🤣
You all need to turn up on the same day.
@ep Travel was banned in Q1 no announced change so this nonsense is dead before it starts.
I assume it's just a stunt to get rid of people on the cheap.
And @f3 that's a good point about ergonomics, it is allegedly something DXC worries about. So are they expecting a spike in calls to wellness line come September?
This could be more fun than I first thought
Health and safety in the past did not allow the use of a laptop screen all day, a monitor was mandatory (coupled with basic items such as a mouse, keyboard, etc for correct posture). The return to the office does not include these basic items (first come first served for a monitor if even available). That alone is a clear reason to refuse to do it, never mind the fact the mail from DA is all... "should aim", "where possible", "not a mandate" and therefore is entirely optional.
Once the cost of this business travel (taxi and/or rail and/or bus) is seen, and it is business travel, watch it die a quick death.
@eg you won't even get a desk. You'll be sitting on the floor in any English office.
London... 24 hot desks
Farnborough... 68 "collaborative workstations"
Newcastle... No idea
Erskine... 57 seats
The other sites are restricted basically to anyone based there.
So roughly 200 desks available. That would accommodate 400 people in a week, assuming that you lived either north east or south east. Anyone else can f off says dxc.
Its ok, they will ban travel expenses within a month. Not one person in my team is even close to a DXC office!
It doesn’t seem to matter which office you go to or what days you choose — and frankly, it probably doesn’t even need to be a DXC office, given how few are actually available. Just turn up, get your badge scanned, tick the box. The paperwork is all that matters — as usual.
This seems to be the direction many companies are heading. But what made DXC different is now being quietly discarded — along with the people for whom this shift is the final straw.
If you’ve got to go into an office anyway… maybe go into one where you’re valued. One that offers pay reviews, invests in the training you need, and shows it actually cares.
@ee yes DA sent an email yesterday about the UK.
The absurd thing is they are not saying which two days people have to come in on. So even if two people working on the same project are geographically collocated they could work different days and still never see each other!
Also there won’t be any proper desks or monitors. I think they assume everyone spends two days a week in meetings. Any developers wont be very productive with just a laptop screen.
@ee it’s ok found it in my deleted items!
Have there been any comms around this? Wondering if this affects the UK.
In the USA the email says only travel if its less than 25 miles. They aren't paying expenses though. Still at least the distance thing is sensible, unlike the UK email which doesn't say that at all.
This is up there as one of the stupidest things management has ever said. Quite an achievement given it's dxc!
Just an excuse to pi-s off more staff, not like moral could be any lower.
Glad I'm out of it.
Usual management words without consideration of reality. It was impossible to travel before - what's changed!? The office is gone. The team is now spread far and wide. What will you get for going in - hassle! What will happen if you don't. Someone will say you need to come in but nothing will change. Is the expectation that that clients are going to provision desk space for us, and pay the expenses. Because that's probably the only way they'll get it done.
Wow, in the end, I'm even glad that I was laid off with severance pay because I would have probably left on my own. Working remotely was one of the last advantages that kept me and my colleagues here. Non-existent salary increases. The projects are worthless, mostly related to outdated systems and technologies that have no real use in the current job market.
Had to laugh when I saw the email from Derrick about this today! I remember the almost triumphal announcements after Covid that due to ‘global changes in working practices’ DXC were closing as many offices as possible and great fanfare was made about new ‘remote worker’ contracts being issued.
It takes something when even the senior managers in our group said it was Betty Swollox!!
In my team, nobody lives anywhere near an office. How are we supposed to spend two days a week in an office, if we live 4-5 hours away.
The faq laughbly says that the real estate team think they have capacity for this.
Sounds like whoever is in charge of real estate needs to go.
Wow Q1 numbers must be really bad, so leaders have to be seen to do something / anything. Raul will fire some of his top team, Boville is already gone, and can tell analysts he is bringing people back to the office - transformation growth etc.
Smacks of desperation for a failing company.
@ae+1jz06nm5b if the job is boring why do you stay, you're NOT a SLAVE. If you can find a better employer then do it, otherwise Shut-the-duck up (replace the d with a BIG FAT "F")
Fantastic I have worked at DXC for 13 years, 1 year onsite and 12 remote. I have worked other places remote and in the office with my total of 49+ years in IT.
You build relationships and comradery in the office. So having the whole local team in the office at the same time 1 or 2 days a week would be OK with me.
But you get more actual work done remotely as no one is coming to your desk to chat, you don't have to waste time traveling to the office and you work longer hours.
I never had a job where I had to be at work at a certain time, I had core hours more or less and my bosses knew I would get the job done!
In Switzerland it's 4 days...
Yes globally everyone is asked to spend some days (it varies per country) in an office.
In the UK it's two days
Ex DXCer here, left after COVID. I remember they shut down a load of sites (Chorley, Chesterfield) and made most of the staff at those site remote workers... what's actually happened then? Have they just given a generic "return to office" edict and sent it to all those people they made remote at the contract level?
The company doesn't want growth. It thinks the problem is the employees. We all know it's the management. The company has consistently failed to invest in systems and processes to the point we can't seem to achieve anything.
@ag+1jz06nm5b can't they employ some Southern guys with a more Growth mindset to breath life into this company.
At this rate how many years has this company got left to survive?, the Geordies arent good at much but they can shrink, maybe thats the end plan.