Last year, Dell turned heads when it changed its tune and ended a generous company policy, frustrating some of its employees nationwide.
In February, Dell CEO Michael Dell sent an email to employees warning them that starting in March 2025, they will be required to work from the office five days a week due to the rapid pace of innovation in the technology industry. Previously, Dell required employees to work from the office only three days a week.
“The pace of innovation has never been faster, and for us to lead, the speed of our business must continue to accelerate,” Dell wrote in the memo. “What we’re finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction. A thirty-second conversation can replace an email back and forth that takes hours or even days.”
He also said that after ordering several teams to return to the office five days a week in 2024, the company noticed that those employees “came alive with new speed, energy and passion.”
Shortly after the change took effect, Dell employees claimed that enforcement of the new mandate in the office was inconsistent, causing “a lot of politics in the office.” Some employees even opted to leave the office early to work from home despite the new mandate.
Ignoring return-to-office (RTO) mandates has become a common trend in corporate America in recent years as more companies cut back on remote work. A 2024 survey from Resume Builder even found that leaving the office early is the most common way employees rebel against these policies.
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Approximate 1 out of 5 workers do not follow their company’s RTO policy with some badge fakes and leave the office early.
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Most workers want to be in the office three days or less per week.
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If companies start to tighten RTO compliance, 20% of workers said they are very likely to quit, while an additional 33% are somewhat likely to follow suit.
Source: Resume Builder
“While many companies adopted more flexible work-from-home policies during the pandemic, many are now reversing course, requiring employees to return to the office as they reshape their long-term work patterns,” Stacie Haller, CV’s chief career advisor, said in a statement.
“However, for many employees, remote work has become a non-negotiable part of their work life,” she added. “As companies try to reintroduce office requirements, there has been pushback from workers.”
As Dell faces employee pushback over its new office policy, it appears the company is cracking down on the behavior.
Jackie Miller, Dell’s vice president of North American commercial sales, recently sent an email to the company’s sales staff stating that ignoring the company’s RTO policy will not be tolerated, according to a recent report by Business Insider.
“Effective immediately, all field classified sales team members are expected to be in the RR, NV and OKC offices five days a week for a minimum of eight hours per day,” Miller said in the email, which was sent Nov. 5.
“RR, NV and OKC” are Dell’s headquarters in Round Rock, Texas and its offices in Nashville and Oklahoma City.
She also stated that “recent site visits” and “end of day schedules” conducted by team leaders revealed that employees were not following the company’s new office policy.
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“I want to reinforce our expectations of the office’s presence on the ground,” she said. “Maintaining a strong presence in the office is critical to fostering collaboration, communication and productivity and is company policy.”
Miller reminded employees in the email that they should use their personal business allowance or vacation time to leave the office.
In response to the email, two Dell employees told Insider that this is the first time managers have enforced the RTO policy since it was implemented for sales teams in September 2024.
Employees with children were reportedly allowed to leave the office early to pick up their children from school, despite the new policy.
“Many parents were previously told they could leave around 2pm to pick up their school-aged children and finish the day at home,” said one of the sales staff.
After Miller’s email was sent, team leaders allegedly made it clear to employees that they were not allowed to leave their offices early to pick up their children from school.
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Dell’s return to full-time in-person work mirrors its tech competitors, such as Amazon, Samsung and AT&T, which have ordered employees to return to office work five days a week.
Many Americans across the country are unhappy with the elimination of telecommuting, with some even saying they would quit their jobs in response to an RTO policy, according to a FlexJobs survey last year.
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Approximate 53% of American workers say they or someone they know has been forced to return to the office in the past year, a significant increase from 23% in 2024.
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In addition, 76% of workers said they would look for a new job if telecommuting were eliminated.
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Also, 69% of the workers would accept a pay cut for remote workyear 11% increase compared to 2024.
Source: FlexJobs
“Low quit rates and trends like ‘job hugging’ may suggest a workforce that’s staying put, but that doesn’t mean workers aren’t quietly considering changing jobs,” Toni Frana, career expert at FlexJobs, said in a statement.
“As our latest report shows, it comes down to what workers are willing to accept before they decide to switch jobs, and most draw the line at remote work,” she said.
As more US employers shift their attitudes toward remote work, office foot traffic remains below pre-pandemic levels but is slowly recovering.
More work:
According to a recent data analytics report from Placer.ai, average office visits per weekday nationwide in November 2025 were 32.9% lower than in November 2019, marking record post-pandemic occupancy.
“November 2025 delivered the strongest nationwide office occupancy of any November since 2019, with average visits per weekday hitting a five-year high,” Shira Petrack, chief content officer at Placer.ai, wrote in the report.
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This story was originally published by TheStreet on January 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Employment section. Add TheStreet as a favorite source by clicking here.