Dell mandates full office return for most staff by 2025

TEXAS, UNITED STATES — Tech giant Dell Technologies is requiring most employees to return to the office full-time starting March 3, 2025. The move follows a trend among major corporations, including Amazon and AT&T, that have rolled back remote work policies in the past year.

Dell’s RTO policy

In a company-wide memo, CEO Michael Dell announced that hybrid and remote employees living near Dell offices must work in person five days a week. The only exception applies to remote workers living beyond a one-hour commute from Dell facilities, who can continue working from home.

Dell’s leadership justifies this change by emphasizing the value of face-to-face interactions, suggesting that “a thirty-second in-person conversation can replace an email discussion that goes on for hours or days”.

Leadership’s early implementation

The transition begins with an immediate effect on senior leadership. Services directors and above within an hour’s commute must start reporting to the office from February 3, 2025, as outlined in a memo from Doug Schmitt, CIO and president of Dell Technologies Services.

“As leaders, we are expected to set the tone for rebuilding in-person collaboration and fostering innovation,” Schmitt stated.

Policy shift and employee response

This decision contradicts the company’s previous stance, particularly COO Jeff Clarke’s pandemic-era statement that “60 percent of our workforce will stay remote or have a hybrid schedule”. While some employees have already left the company in response to earlier return-to-office mandates, others have shown more resistance than action.

According to the “Tell Dell” survey, there was a dramatic drop in the employee net promoter score (eNPS) from 62 to 48. The eNPS is a key metric measuring how likely employees are to recommend Dell as a workplace.