Home office: Almost half of Dell employees refuse to return
Dell employees should choose between hybrid working and working from home. Despite professional disadvantages, almost half of them do not want to return.
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Either back to the office or career stop: US technology manufacturer Dell wanted to motivate its employees to return to the office with a clear message. According to a media report, however, almost half of those surveyed would rather forego promotions or the opportunity to take on new tasks within the company and instead stay in the home office.
According to Business Insider, the new hybrid working policy was reintroduced at Dell in February – with the stated aim of bringing employees who had migrated to the home office during the coronavirus lockdown back into the office. However, almost half of full-time employees in the US have opted to work from home, the US news site reports, citing data it received. Internationally, a third of employees opted to work remotely.
Three days in the office or remote
Employees could choose whether to work 39 days in the office per quarter – i.e. three days a week – or whether to be classified as remote employees. The latter no longer have any chance of promotion or internal job changes. The presence of hybrid employees should be monitored.
According to Business Insider, Dell itself did not comment specifically on the data, but reiterated that it would also like to have employees in-house so that they can work together in person, as this drives innovation.
Why employees don't want to work in the office
Despite the disadvantages of working from home, the reasons given by the employees surveyed included the financial benefits of not having to pay for commuting and meals at work, as well as the flexibility gained in terms of balancing work, family and other private life. One employee explained that a team works all over the world anyway and that he would therefore only take part in video conferences in the office – there was therefore no obvious advantage to working in person.
In some cases, it was said that Dell had closed the previous offices and that a move would now be necessary to return to face-to-face work. However, according to the report, some employees want to look for new employers due to the new requirements.
(mki)