Dell issues firm warnings after employees violate work policies

Last year, Dell turned heads when it changed its tune and ended a liberal company policy, upsetting some of its employees nationwide.

In February, Dell CEO Michael Dells sent an email to employees warning them that by March 2025, they would have to work from the office five days a week due to rapid innovation in the tech 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 pace of our business must keep up,” Dell wrote in the memo. “What we’re finding is that for all the technology in the world, there’s nothing faster than the speed of human interaction. A thirty-second conversation can replace an email that lasts hours or days.”

He also said that after ordering many teams to return to the office five days a week in 2024, the company has seen those employees “come alive with new momentum, energy and passion.”

Shortly after the change took effect, Dell employees claimed implementation of the new in-office mandate was inconsistent, leading to “a lot of office politics.” Some employees are choosing to leave their desks early to work from home despite the new mandate.

Ignoring return-to-office (RTO) mandates has become a common trend in corporate America over the past few years, as more companies scale back remote work. Resume Builder’s 2024 survey also found that leaving the office early is the most common way employees rebel against these policies.

• approx 5 in 1 Workers are not following their company’s RTO policy, with some doing fake badge swipes and leaving the office early.

• Most employees want to stay in the office Three days or less per week.

• If companies start cracking down on RTO compliance, 20% Workers said they were more likely to quit, while more 33% Some degree is 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 while reshaping their long-term work models,” said Stacey Haller, Resume Builder’s chief career advisor, in a statement.

“However, for many employees, remote work has become an inevitable part of their professional lives,” he added. “As companies try to restore requirements in the office, there has been pushback from workers.”

As Dell faces pushback from employees over its new in-office policy, the company is cracking down on the practice.

Jackie Miller, Dell vice president of North American business sales, recently sent an email to enterprise sales staff saying that ignoring the company’s RTO policy will not be tolerated, according to a recent report by Business Insider.

“Effective immediately, all onsite-classified sales team members are expected to be in the RR, NV, and OKC offices for at least eight hours per day, five days a week,” Miller said in a Nov. 5 email.

“RR, NV, and OKC” Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas and has offices in Nashville and Oklahoma City.

She also said that “recent site visits” and “end-of-day walkthroughs” conducted by team leaders revealed that employees were not following the company’s new in-office policy.

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“I want to reinforce our expectations regarding onsite office presence,” she said. “Maintaining a strong presence in the office is essential to enhancing collaboration, communication, and productivity, and it is company policy.”

Miller reminded employees in an email that they should use personal business allowance or vacation hours to get away from the office.

In an emailed response, two Dell employees told Insider that this is the first time managers have implemented an RTO policy that was first implemented for sales teams in September 2024.

Despite the new policy, employees with children were allowed to leave the office early to pick up their children from school.

“Many parents were previously told that they could leave at 2pm to pick up their school-age children and finish the day at home,” said a sales employee.

After Miller’s email was sent, team leaders reportedly made it clear to employees that they were not allowed to leave their desks early to pick up their children from school.

Related: Michael Dell’s Net Worth and Salary as Dell CEO

Dell’s return to full-time in-person work is in line with its competitors in the tech industry, such as Amazon, Samsung, and AT&T, which have ordered employees to return to work in the office five days a week.

According to a FlexJobs survey last year, many Americans nationwide are unhappy with the elimination of remote work, with some even claiming to quit their jobs in response to the implementation of the RTO policy.

• approx 53% Among American workers who say they or someone they know has needed to return to the office in the past year A significant increase from 23% In 2024.

• Also, 76% Workers said they would look for new jobs if remote work was eliminated.

• Also, 69% of workers Will accept a pay cut For remote workone 11% Increase from 2024.
  Source: FlexJobs

“Low quit rates and trends like ‘job hogging’ may suggest a stagnant workforce, but that doesn’t mean workers aren’t quietly considering a job change,” Tony 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 deciding to job-hop, and many are drawing the line at remote work,” she said.

As many U.S. employers shift their stance on remote work, office foot traffic remains below pre-pandemic levels but is slowly improving.

Additional labor:

According to Placer.ai’s recent statistical analysis report, average nationwide office visits per workday in November 2025 were 32.9% lower than in November 2019, marking a post-pandemic record occupancy.

“November 2025 delivered the strongest nationwide office occupancy for any November since 2019, with average visits per workday reaching a five-year high,” Shira Petrak, head of content 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 Jobs section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.