this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2024
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[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Dell announced a new return-to-office initiative earlier this year. In the new plan, workers had to classify themselves as remote or hybrid.

Those who classified themselves as hybrid are subject to a tracking system that ensures they are in a physical office 39 days a quarter, which works out to close to three days per work week.

Alternatively, by classifying themselves as remote, workers agree they can no longer be promoted or hired into new roles within the company.

Holy corporate oppression, Batman! That's a shitty deal no matter which option you choose.

I'm glad they've got themselves into a sticky situation.

Also, this observation was funny (in a sad way):

One person said they'd spoken with colleagues who had chosen to go hybrid, and those colleagues reported doing work in mostly empty offices punctuated with video calls with people who were in other mostly empty offices.

[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

One major downside of hybrid working really is that if you are having a meeting where even a single person is not there, then the entire meeting may as well be a video call. If you are on a video call, then why do you need to be in the office for it?

At my job we work with physical objects, so being in office is a requirement at least part of the time, but if I'm just going to be in meetings for most of the day, there is no way I'm going into the office just to sit on video calls all day.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 months ago

You mean to tell me, three days a week, they have to:

  • wake up extra hours early
  • pack a lunch or plan to pay for one
  • put on hard pants
  • drive their own vehicle in traffic, with their own gas and wear/tear
  • pay for their own parking.
  • do the exact same work in their designated space
  • drive back home in traffic 9 hours later

All for the same pay and several hours away from my family, home, or bed?

No fucking thanks.

Going remote was the best fucking raise I ever got, and it didn't cost them a dime.

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[–] UmeU@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

And Dell said “Great, thanks, saved us a ton on severance packages and allowed us to replace our high paid tenured employees with hungry graduates who are prepared to work themselves to death for peanuts”

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Truth.

Been job hunting in similar fields for a while and as a middle-aged person, I simply cannot get a callback from any of these companies, then when you actually visit them and see some of their workforce, you rarely see anyone over late-20's, and it's all these high-energy, eager-to-please, eager-to-work-for-recognitionbucks, fresh-outta-college kids who can be exploited and turned over rapidly.

I am job hunting because the previous company I managed was bought out, downsized, and all the senior employees making more than entry level wages were cut. This is happening everywhere.

More and more technology, overseas outsourcing options, and general service/gig systems for filling job openings has left companies treating workers as disposable as toilet paper.

This is because almost every business is now part of a huge chain of ownership, and the shareholders at the top, groups of very rich old white dudes, just gather together in their hooded cloaks and look at the bars and graphs every month and decide what investments are to be amputated, and which to be kept. Before going back to their private sex islands.

[–] Lets_Eat_Grandma@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

High paying jobs with tons of new graduates have an oversaturated supply problem. It's no surprise that when people figure out that becoming a software developer is easy street to 150k+++ WFH that there was a huge rush to get those jobs... now that there are TONS and TONS of young junior devs there is no shortage to hire someone for near minimum wage.

Why pay 400k for a senior developer when you can hire a mid-level for ~100k to be a manager, and 4 juniors for 60k a piece, and augment them with chatgpt to help them learn what they are skill gapped by.

Plus junior devs are so desperate you can force them to come into the office, something the dev divas ten years ago refused to do back when there was a huge shortage of coders.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely correct, I watched this happen to our tech team before I was also thrown in the chipper.

And it doesn't help that a lot of the young people trying to get into coding and tech fields are not what you would call titans of confidence and charisma, these are mostly introverted and thoughtful people who have studied most of their lives under the belief that meritocracy exists, and they can prove themselves in the business world by doing great work and being a good employee.

Meanwhile glance over at the sales side of the building and there are people there making six figures a year who do next to nothing but party and tell lewd jokes, but are absolutely invulnerable to layoffs and downsizing as long as they can talk to clients and joke about sports with the CEO.

The disillusionment around the business world is real and unsustainable.

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

God my last sales team were annoying. You can hear their bullshit from the floor above. They never shut up.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Every job I've had I've ended up becoming a liaison of sorts between the sales teams and the operational teams because I seem to be the Daywalker, who can walk between worlds and communicate with the techy nerds, take their issues to the loud sales assholes and make it all work.

It's not an enjoyable role but it always earned me high marks because nobody else can stomach it.

[–] Cosmicomical@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

who are prepared to work themselves to death for peanuts

...while having no idea what they are doing

[–] plantedworld@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

That's not this quarter's problem, silly!

[–] PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

That's a problem for next months Me to fire you for!

[–] AWittyUsername@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah that's the next CEOs problem.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

This would be a handy way to get rid of half your staff, but the people you chase away are usually the ones you want to keep. As per the Dead-Sea Effect, the ones who will leave are the ones who generally are more able to, who will be your most employable people, and thus your most talented. Usually.

Making work suck, and letting the best half of the staff bail, seems like stupid and a game show.

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[–] macrocephalic@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

They work in tech, promotions are achieved by moving employers. Internal mobility is always terrible in tech companies.

[–] sudo42@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Yup. It's the same fucked-up psychology corps use for their customers. Like running ads for super discounts for new customers. Existing customers that have never missed a payment? Fuck-em. Instead of giving 1% "thank you" for good customers, corps would rather lose the good customers and pay a premium to find new ones.

So it goes.

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Very much this. I have never switched employers and not received a sizable salary bump in the process. This isn't quite "don't threaten me with a good time" territory, but it's not far removed from it.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 months ago

Others said their local offices had closed since the pandemic

This part is wild. So they closed down the office and then punish the employees for not coming into the office. Tell me this is illegal.

[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Dude... you're getting "or else."

[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Friends don't let bosses purchase Dell computers.

[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 months ago

Considering that HP is the other choice that most businesses consider, I'd take the Dell 100% of the time. HP's laptops are complete and utter trash.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

When I got hired at my job where I could write and dictate policy, the first thing I did was write up a new IT Purchasing Policy with a "Banned Manufacturers" section right up top with HP right at #1 and Dell at #2

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

What’s the issue with Dell? Everyone I know at work with Dell laptops likes them. I’ve used XPS 15 and 13 in the past and they’ve been generally fine. Battery life sucked but I haven’t ever seen an x86 laptop with what I would consider good battery life.

[–] residentmarchant@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (4 children)

What did you prefer? Lenovo?

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[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

If this country cared about the environment or workers' safety, they'd fine companies who make employees work in the office/on site when they could work from home instead.

[–] teamevil@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Problem is most of the folks influencing those that make laws also have huge real estate portfolios of commercial real estate.

[–] Pulptastic@midwest.social 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What happens if you refuse both options?

[–] palordrolap@kbin.run 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's called "time to get a new job."

Before I came in here, I assumed that's what "or else" meant, and I'm still not sure it doesn't mean that.

[–] Pulptastic@midwest.social 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Can you be fired for conditions they decided to change?

[–] Peffse@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

In the USA, if it is not explicitly written in your job description/contract that you are remote, yes. It also means you can't apply for unemployment as you were terminated for refusal to perform work duties, even if you are working.

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