Tech giant Dell appears to be retracting its support of remote work after reportedly telling employees that they would not get a promotion if they were to work remotely.

In a report by Business Insider, Dell sent out a memo to its workers about changes to its promotions policy. The document revealed that for a remote employee to be considered for promotion, they need to work at an “approved office” at least three days a week.

“For remote team members, it is important to understand the trade-offs: Career advancement, including applying to new roles in the company, will require a team member to reclassify as hybrid onsite,” the company wrote in the memo.

If proven true, Dell’s new promotions policy goes against its original support of remote work. The company’s own chairman and CEO, Michael Dell, had been a long-time advocate of the work arrangement, even describing it as “the future of work”.

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Scaling back on remote work

Dell is hardly the first Big Tech company to change its tune on remote work since the easing of Covid restrictions. Amazon, Google, IBM, Activision, Ubisoft, and Zoom have all made drastic changes to their work-from-home arrangements, requiring employees to return to in-office work.

In the case of Amazon, CEO Andy Jassy went so far as to threaten remote workers with termination if they refused to report back to the office.

“It’s past the time to disagree and commit,” Jassy told employees in August. “And if you can’t disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week, and it’s not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so.”

Meanwhile, Google urged employees to ditch remote work in favour of a more hybrid work arrangement. “For those who are remote and who live near a Google office, we hope you’ll consider switching to a hybrid work schedule. Our offices are where you’ll be most connected to Google’s community,” Google Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi said.

Zoom, the company behind the video conferencing platform that became a popular choice for remote work during Covid, also released a return-to-office-work mandate.

“Over the past several years, we’ve hired so many new ‘Zoomies’ that it’s really hard to build trust,” Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said. “We cannot have a great conversation. We cannot debate each other well because everyone tends to be very friendly when you join a Zoom call.”

While not entirely banning remote work, Dell has been discouraging employees from practicising WFH arrangements. In 2023, the company required all workers living within an hour of one of its branches to report to the office at least three days in a week. However, with the new promotions policy, Dell is effectively taking another step in compelling employees to return to full-time office work.

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Counting on hours spent in a traditional office

In 2022, company CEO Dell wrote in a LinkedIn post that he was not a fan of forcing employees to work in an office setting.

“Several of my fellow tech industry CEOs have pushed to get their teams back into physical offices ‘to engage more fully’ or be a more visible presence,” Dell wrote.

“But from my experience, if you are counting on forced hours spent in a traditional office to create collaboration and provide a feeling of belonging within your organization, you’re doing it wrong.”

Dell even highlighted his company’s support of different work arrangements with employees. He claimed that Dell offered equal opportunities for career advancements, with a majority of workers stating in a survey that they were allowed to develop and learn new skills regardless whether they were in-office or remote workers.