Dell responds to return-to-office resistance with VPN, badge tracking, and color-coding of employees ( arstechnica.com )

After reversing its position on remote work, Dell is reportedly implementing new tracking techniques on May 13 to ensure its workers are following the company's return-to-office (RTO) policy, The Register reported today, citing anonymous sources.

Dell will track employees' badge swipes and VPN connections to confirm that workers are in the office for a significant amount of time.

Dell's methods for tracking hybrid workers will also reportedly include a color-coding system. From "consistent" to "limited" presence, the colors are blue, green, yellow, and red.

The Register reported today that approximately 50 percent of Dell's US workers are remote, compared to 66 percent of international workers.

An examination of 457 companies on the S&P 500 list released in February concluded that RTO mandates don't drive company value but instead negatively affect worker morale. Analysis of survey data from more than 18,000 working Americans released in March found that flexible workplace policies, including the ability to work remotely completely or part-time and flexible schedules, can help employees' mental health.

CileTheSane ,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

Dell will track employees' badge swipes and VPN connections to confirm that workers are in the office for a significant amount of time.

So if you need a tracking system or you wouldn't know if they were in the office or not, why do you need them office?

JIMMERZ ,
@JIMMERZ@lemm.ee avatar

Just another huge ass company that values short term profits over its employees and customers. Probably won’t be buying any more of their products.

dullbananas ,
@dullbananas@lemmy.ca avatar

Dell more like Dull

theherk ,

Dud! You’re getting a Dull.

AllHailTheSheep ,

I could never own a dell. as far as I'm concerned, they make crazy overpriced laptops that are pretty much guaranteed to need 200$ of maintenance down the road when the hinges inevitably fail.

aphlamingphoenix ,

I still remember having to operate on their old desktops with the snap-down clamshell design. Infuriating.

Fedizen ,

Budget for monsy spent on pizza parties, etc to encourage workers back to office: $0

Budget for money spent on tracking and whipping employees based on managerial whims: Infinite

Folks, has corporate culture become a cancer on society?

Semi_Hemi_Demigod ,
@Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world avatar

Folks, has corporate culture become a cancer on society?

Become?

jonathanwerewolf ,

If only they had been so rigorous in protecting customer data.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Or making quality consumer products.

yamanii ,
@yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

Color coding people? So they are doing a caste system?

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

They're queuing people for "priority layoffs". Also, more heavily automating worker productivity metrics.

If you're in the "bad" batch, there's no reason you shouldn't start looking for another job. Plenty of employers are offering remote work and if Dell doesn't want you someone else will take you.

jimbolauski ,

It's just pieces of flair. Brian, for example, has thirty seven pieces of flair, okay.

OldWoodFrame ,

I really like my job but if they started monitoring my data like that I'd absolutely quit. There's already a monitoring mechanism, it's called your boss needing you to complete tasks on time. If you're doing that, the only thing data monitoring does it falsely call out people who are doing their work.

SupraMario ,

I will not work for a company that thinks it needs to babysit it's employees. The idea that you have to constantly micromanage someone is ridiculous, if they're that shit at their job, you let them go and get someone else for the role.

TheDarksteel94 ,

Yeah, I used to work for a company like that. It sucked.

fluxc0 ,

based on the dell products i’ve used, i’m not working there. i get the motive, but they need some good ass cybersecurity to have information like that be kept safe

Omgboom ,

The same Dell that just leaked my information yesterday because of their incompetence, that Dell?

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I wonder if there's some kind of correlation between this perspective management has and their products not working well. My understanding is that employees who feel empowered and respected do better work, and surely tracking them all day is helping...

fart_pickle ,

Working from home proved that most of the people are capable of "self-managing" and don't need a corporate drone telling them what to do. I have a feeling that the push to get back to the office is fueled by insecurities of middle management that became redundant.

echodot ,

When I worked in the office I worked in a cubicle all on my own behind a support column and a potted plant that I put there specifically for the purpose of being unviewable by the idiot manager who wandered around and got in everyone's way.

Also now people don't randomly come and ask me questions about why the printer isn't working, or start sentences with "can you just", and "it will only take a moment".

I don't know if I'm more productive at home than when I was in the office, but I'm definitely not less productive. I would probably be more productive but there really isn't that much to do. My job is to basically sit around and be there, I'm ready to jump into action when everything breaks.

corsicanguppy ,

Just to be clear, this is the same Dell who fucked up and leaked a bunch of personal info.

.. the number-one cause of which is usually missed patching, which is caused by people just.not.caring.

I can see this going very well for them.

blazeknave ,

Color coding humans.... Following in IBM's footsteps yet again. 1939 was a hell of a year for the database.

Buttons ,
@Buttons@programming.dev avatar

You can tell how important working from the office is by the fact that they can't tell whether or not people are working from the office.

Maybe people need to start talking about unionizing while in the office.

exanime ,

This is the right point to make... Instead of managing people by the work they do or the objectives they achieve, they are managing literally where their butts sit

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Nah, just quit en masse, especially the people who have the most experience there. Dell can't do business if it doesn't have people...

BaskinRobbins ,

Not sure why you're getting down voted. This is exactly what happened at my last company during the RTO push, senior employees, including me, were leaving in droves and it got bad quickly. As a result the company upped their salaries and offered fully remote work instead of just hybrid to keep people around. The only way a company will listen is if you hit them in their wallets.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Probably because I didn't say "unionize."

A union isn't going to fix a broken company culture, it's just going to get more bargaining power for employees. The union won't change priorities for the executive team to prioritize cyber security, customer-friendly products, and it probably won't change company policy around badging. It might get more WFH, but if the executive team is hell-bent on tracking its users, the union will probably shift focus to better benefits (oh, you want to screw us over more? Pay more!).

So no, I don't think it's worth trying to unionize and fix the company from within. Quit and take all of that institutional knowledge with you to hit them where it counts: the stock price.

bamfic ,

The Nanny State

Jagger2097 ,

Hello comrade

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/01344fb7-8b21-4be8-9b0a-6de3dad3e6bf.jpeg

Tum ,

Ha 😃. This was my first thought as well. I just shared the link to a friend of mine working for "Friend Computer" to ask him what class of citizen he was going to be.

FenrirIII ,
@FenrirIII@lemmy.world avatar

There's not a single person I work with who lives in my metro area. Going to an office is the dumbest thing I can think of.

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