Dell (as of May 13th) has implemented a new grading system to support the Return-To-Office (RTO) policy despite ten years of supporting remote work according to Ars Technica.
Every time an employee swipes their badge it’s recorded, tallied, and given a rating by the Human Resource team. The new color coding system allows management to track hybrid employees’ attendance in the workplace. With the four colors, blue, green, yellow, and red, Dell employees will be graded on their attendance.
There is much circulation following the new RTO policy, considering even Dell’s founder, Micheal Dell, “found no meaningful differences for team members working remotely or office-based even before the pandemic forced everyone home.”
Many major corporations have implemented these tracking systems to promote office attendance. At least, that is the base-level argument; it is speculated that Dell, in particular, has implemented this system to avoid hefty layoffs that have plagued them in the past, instead hoping for people to quit willingly.
The new color-coding process is far from flawless. A “Dell familiar” stated that after a certain amount of “red flags,” an employee must report to the COO of Dell, Jeff Clarke. However, a reported Dell employee refers to the entire integration as a “shit show” due to the unironed consequences that follow insignificant attendance.
Overall, the new color-coded system could be beneficial to track employee attendance. However, the forced reintegration into the office will likely negatively affect employee morale when confronted with an inflexible schedule.
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