Around the same time that mandatory mask wearing and social distancing began to be phased out, we saw an almost instant turn heel from companies that had previously been all in on remote work.
The new message was that workers were expected back at their desks, initially for a few days a week. Some companies are now putting their foot down, and demanding a full return, with Amazon and Dell calling employees back last month.
With gaming company Ubisoft also telling staff to return three days a week recently, is there really any logic in the cries of “collaboration” and “culture” that CEOs like to parrot, or is this just a convenient way for companies to shed staff without incurring major costs?
Amazon Primed for Office Return
Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, is not a fan of remote work. In February 2023, he kicked off what would turn out to be a long and vicious battle with employees over the companies remote work policy, by telling them that they needed to be in the office three days a week.
The response from staff was not positive. In fact it went down so badly that they staged a walkout in May 2023, to protest the new return to office (RTO) policy. However, things were only going to go from bad to worse for Amazon’s workforce.
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In August, Jassy told staff who refused to return to the office that he “understood” it, but that “it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon.”
In the months that followed, Amazon threatened to fire staff that didn’t comply with the mandate, as well as telling them that potential promotions would be blocked.
This tug of war between Jassy and Amazon employees has been in play for over two years now, with the latest sharp tug from Jassy’s side being a full five day return to office, announced in September.
The justifications for the move shared by Jassy in a memo to staff reads like a greatest hits of RTO mandates: learning, collaborating, brainstorming and strengthening culture are all namechecked.
Don’t worry though – Jassy’s memo does mention that if your child is sick, you won’t be expected in the office.
Bad Deal for Dell Employees
Spare a thought for Dell’s employees, because they have had a tough time post-pandemic, with the company being relentless in dragging them back to the office.
It started slowly. In May 2023, staff that lived within an hour of the office were told that they had to return to their desks. In February 2024, that changed to everyone needing to come back to the office, regardless of where they lived.
A month later, the demands were upped again, with Dell stating that staff who didn’t return to the office would have promotions blocked (sound familiar?).
In May 2024, it was revealed that those who still refused to come back in were being ‘red flagged’ by HR, with a mark being placed on their record.
By July, staff morale had hit a low point, with the company’s own internal staff survey showing a massive drop in the number of employees who would recommend the Dell as a company to work for.
If your heart wasn’t already bleeding for the beleaguered Dell staff, in August the company hit them with a round of redundancies.
It was in September that the three day week requirement was upgraded to full five day week, although not across the entire company. At least not yet. For now, it’s the Global Sales Team who are required to be at their desks Monday to Friday.
The reasons for this? If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll already know. Bingo cards at the ready. An internal memo seen by Reuters stated that the reason for the move was to grow skills, and increase collaboration.
It’s perhaps not surprising that Dell and Amazon both announced their return to office plans within days of each other. They both appear to be using the same playbook when it comes to getting staff back to the office – ditch the carrot, go all in with the stick.
Ubisoft Not Playing Games
While Amazon and Dell are instantly recognizable brands, Ubisoft may not have quite the same global recognition, but it’s responsible for hit gaming franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Prince of Persia.
On September 17th it told its workforce of 19,000, across its sites worldwide, that it was implementing a return to office mandate. Unlike Dell and Amazon, the gaming giant stated that the goal was at least three days a week in person, with Ubisoft’s Chief Studios & Portfolio Officer, Marie-Sophie de Waubert, stating that “we will not go back to a 100% office-based model.”
The arguments Ubisoft put forward to a return to office aren’t any that we haven’t heard before, and many overlap with Amazon and Dell’s points: to boost creativity, foster collaboration (there’s that word again!), to learn and to solve problems.
To say the move has gone down badly is an understatement. As we’ve seen with other return to office mandates, the immediate reaction from staff is anger and action. Ubisoft employees are planning to down tools between October 15th and 17th.
It should be noted for context that Ubisoft has been struggling of late, with tentpole releases floundering (in a recent investor call, the company noted that its Star Wars Outlaws title had failed to to hit the commercial targets and critical reception it had anticipated), major releases delayed, and talks of an impending takeover.
However, a return to office may not be the magic bullet the company hopes for. Now it is dealing with strikes, disgruntled staff, and, if the Amazon fallout is anything to go by, its employees are looking elsewhere for jobs that offer the flexibility they’ve been accustomed to.
Are RTO Mandates Replacing Layoffs?
If you were to look at return to office mandates cynically, you could say that they are a good way to reduce headcount, weeding out the ‘none team players’ who refuse to bend to the company’s will, and reduce staff costs through natural wastage, rather than redundancies, which can be timely and expensive.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that both Dell, Amazon and Ubisoft have not only issued return to office mandates in the last two years, but also gone through rounds of redundancies. It’s no secret that many tech companies over-hired during the pandemic, as demands for their services ramped up, and the assumption was that this growth would only continue. When life got back to normal, and demand started to level out, many companies found themselves with too many staff. If a return to office mandate didn’t thin the herd, then you could argue that the next step would be mandatory redundancies, and this is the pattern that we’ve seen from these three companies.
As remote roles dry up, it will be the companies with flexible work policies that prosper, as they’ll naturally attract the disgruntled top talent from the RTO mandate organizations. We’re already seeing a huge number of staff at Amazon threatening to leave after September’s announcement – over 70%, according to a Blind survey. That’s quite a potential pool of talent for remote-friendly companies to draw from.
Is Collaboration to Blame?
Did you spot the same word come up in each company’s RTO memo? There’s plenty of crossover between all three, but the one that beams like a lighthouse in a storm is the C word – Collaboration. Collaboration is the crutch for the return to office CEO, the one point that everything hinges on.
It would be foolish to deny that collaboration isn’t key to any company’s success, but there is an entire industry built around enabling employees to communicate, no matter where they are. Messaging tools such as Slack, and video conferencing systems like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, all allow real time conversations as good as being in the office meeting room. They can also be democratize the meeting process and ensure that everyone has their say, with a Zoom call giving everyone the same amount of screen real estate and tools, offering everyone the same opportunities to speak.
We’ve never been more available to our colleagues, so the idea that collaboration isn’t happening unless we’re in the office from nine to five rings slightly hollow.
There have also been multiple studies on remote work over the last few years, and the vast majority have shown that workers are more productive and work longer hours when allowed to work from home. They also live longer, but that doesn’t benefit CEOs so let’s not dwell on that one.
Ultimately, the pandemic threw a brick into the staid waters of the traditional nine to five office job, and the ripples are still being felt keenly today. Companies such as Amazon and Dell are attempting to pull ahead of the pack by implementing the old ‘normality’ of office life, under the belief that they’ll benefit in terms of ‘culture and collaboration’, which will translate into a more profitable company, allowing them to outpace their competition.
What they’ve found though, is that workers are resisting return to office mandates, proving that company culture doesn’t come from top down. You can’t implement a culture any more than you can order people to buy your product.
The return to office debate will continue to rage for some time, and it will be a while before the dust settles and we can declare the victor. In the meantime, CEOs and employees will continue to trade blows, both remotely and in the office.
