Advisor, speaker & best-selling author | startup CEO, Google, Slack | Forbes' Future of Work 50
"The reality of this thing is dumb." Mandates don't work, even when you use sticks. Dell Technologies new policy to not promote remote workers and grading systems for hybrid work is having an impact, maybe not in the direction they wanted. Polly Thompson got the inside scoop: ♦ Almost 50% of employees have opted to stay #remote, including ~1/3rd internationally. ♦ #Hybrid, which requires ~3 days/week to get a promotion, doesn't appear to be getting that number: "colleagues who opted for hybrid work have described near-empty offices in some locations." The reasons why aren't a surprise to anyone who's read the research or talked with other companies who've tried similar approaches: 1️⃣ Teams are distributed: why would I come in 3 days a week if my team is spread out? "My meetings are with people in different conference rooms across the country by themselves." "My team is spread out around the world. Almost 90% of the team [stayed remote] as in our case there was no real advantage going to the office." 2️⃣ Promotions had already stalled: "I know a few people who probably would have been deterred from staying remote due to the threat of the possibility of promotion, but since there haven't been any opportunities, they saw it as a meaningless threat." 3️⃣ The personal cost is too high: "Every mom that I talk to at Dell says that they are looking for other jobs because they need the remote work." Some turnover might be intentional: in a recent BambooHR survey, 18% of HR professionals hoped for voluntary turnover among workers after implementing an RTO plan. The challenge, of course, is that the ones most likely to leave are the most valuable (high performers, longer tenured) and most diverse. The closing quote is quite the kicker: "Before this whole fiasco, I wouldn't have considered going somewhere else. Being a second-class citizen doesn't leave you any career opportunities." Research from Gallup, Caitlin Duffy at Gartner, Mark Ma, Austin Lee Wright, David Van Dijcke, Nick Bloom, Prithwiraj Choudhury and others predicted all of this... 🔗 Link to Polly Thompson's work in Business Insider in comments! #ReturnToOffice #layoffs #engagement #remotework #hybridwork
Absolutely no surprise at all. The whole idea of "the office" that everyone is supposed to go to to have this magical collaboration all the C-Suiters keep talking about doesn't exist anymore. And the C-Suite themselves are to blame with all their offshoring and merging. Come ON. Why do they care if we're all on Zoom from home or in the office? And all the "dry promotions" and the tap-dancing and doing the job you want to get promoted to for at least a year before actually being promoted? Employees understand the game better than you think, Dell. Take the L and fix your approach before you lose all of your top talent.
(sigh) this is all just so unnecessary. One thing we don't talk about enough is the fact that tech companies were pretty office centric before COVID so you likely have some lingering office-centric muscle memory on the part of leaders driving this. It was common pre-COVID to wonder at how inflexible the companies providing the technology that enables flexibility actually were.
So why is Dell still financially very successful? Is it possible that these policies have no negative effect on profitability?
Remote work has been linked to a decrease in promotion rates. Studies and surveys indicate that fully remote employees were promoted 31% less than their in-office counterparts, with factors like proximity bias and lack of visibility affecting career growth. I experienced this at a US-based company, where a less experienced junior employee, willing to go into the office, got promoted. This created more pressure on me and others who can function at maximum capacity in a remote work environment, especially those with families. The cost of gas (petrol) adds financial strain and environmental impact. There is no longevity in this approach; working solely in front of a computer does not require being in an office. The key point is to separate emotions from business. Building "best friend" relationships with colleagues isn't necessary; mutual respect, task completion, and job performance are what matter. You should feel successful after completing work tasks and be rewarded with a salary, benefits, and compensation. The pressure to be everyone's best friend is an outdated pre-millennium mentality. Unless your job requires physical presence, like in a warehouse or with factory-grade equipment, there's no reason you can't work from home.
Curious about how employees feel knowing there's no room for progression? Are managers finding it harder to motivate teams? Or maybe our assumptions about the impact of promotions, collaboration, and engagement need a rethink?
Maybe it's just the benefit of hindsight, but this whole thing leaves me wondering how they didn't expect this sort of result from the outset. 🤷♂️
What is to stop Dell from moving these "remote" jobs to other countries? Once you have automated your 100% remote job, I suppose you could start lobbying for companies to stop moving U.S. jobs overseas. The more our entitled American workers push back on employers, the more these companies will look to other labor pools.
Before we get our knickers in a twist, it's worth noting that Business Insider based their estimate on an extrapolation of what they heard from just 11 Dell employee interviews.
so not surprised. thanks for sharing
Advisor, speaker & best-selling author | startup CEO, Google, Slack | Forbes' Future of Work 50
3wHere's Polly Thompson's article: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-dell-workers-reject-return-to-office-hybrid-work-2024-6