RTO choice

Ars Technica tell that Dell said return to the office or else—nearly half of workers chose “or else”:

Big tech companies are still trying to rally workers back into physical offices, and many workers are still not having it. Based on a recent report, computer-maker Dell has stumbled even more than most.

First I’m not a fan of Dell. More many reasons including probably one of the worst customer support. Unable to provide shipping date, unable to provide spare parts (battery for a laptop), etc. Do. Not. Recommand. But this is probably a symptom of what happened when management threatened employees to for the “return to the office”.

If half of your people would rather continue to work from home than being able to be promoted and forced to spend 3 days a week at an office, then there are some questions to be raised. There must be something about how people get promoted, but clearly not positive.

I think Dell management is in the find out phase. They deliberately signaled they don’t care about the employees and the employees made the choice. Given that in most tech the only way to get promoted is to switch jobs it doesn’t look like the choice of staying remote is the wrong one. It think whoever decided that policy that backfired should be held accountable and fired and they have probably ignored their peers already regretting, or employees deciding to quit.

Maybe it’s just quiet firing for Dell, hoping to create attrition, but if, as an employee, you decide to quit, it’s not quiet firing.