dell

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Dell said return to the office or else—nearly half of workers chose “or else”

dell, remote work, Tech / /

Return to office —

Workers stayed remote even when told they could no longer be promoted.

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Signage outside Dell Technologies headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, US, on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023.

Enlarge / Signage outside a Dell campus.

Big tech companies are still trying to rally workers back into physical offices, and many workers are still not having it. Based on a recent report, computer-maker Dell has stumbled even more than most.

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.

Business Insider claims it has seen internal Dell tracking data that reveals nearly 50 percent of the workforce opted to accept the consequences of staying remote, undermining Dell’s plan to restore its in-office culture.

The publication spoke with a dozen Dell employees to hear their stories as to why they chose to stay remote, and a variety of reasons came up. Some said they enjoyed more free time and less strain on their finances after going remote, and nothing could convince them to give that up now. Others said their local offices had closed since the pandemic or that they weren’t interested in promotions.

Others still noted that it seemed pointless to go in to an in-person office when the teams they worked on were already distributed across multiple offices around the world, so they’d mostly still be on Zoom calls anyway.

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.

Many interviewed admitted they were looking for work at other companies that aren’t trying to corral employees back into the office.

Dell is not the only company struggling with this. For example, we’ve reported several times on Apple’s internal struggles and employee revolts over remote work.

Executive management at the companies trying to restore in-person work culture claim that working together in a physical space allows for greater collaboration and innovation.

Research on this topic has offered mixed insights, but there does seem to be some consensus that remote work is accompanied by very modest drops in productivity—for example, a working study at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research suggested around a 10 percent drop in productivity, even as it noted that the cost-saving benefits of remote work could make up for some of that.

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Dell responds to return-to-office resistance with VPN, badge tracking

Biz & IT, dell, return-to-office, work from home / /

Office optics —

Report claims new tracking starts May 13 with unclear consequences.

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Signage outside Dell Technologies headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, US, on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023.

After reversing its position on remote work, Dell is reportedly implementing new tracking techniques on May 13 to ensure its workers are following the company’s return-to-office (RTO) policy, The Register reported today, citing anonymous sources.

Dell has allowed people to work remotely for over 10 years. But in February, it issued an RTO mandate, and come May 13, most workers will be classified as either totally remote or hybrid. Starting this month, hybrid workers have to go into a Dell office at least 39 days per quarter. Fully remote workers, meanwhile, are ineligible for promotion, Business Insider reported in March.

Now The Register reports that Dell will track employees’ badge swipes and VPN connections to confirm that workers are in the office for a significant amount of time.

An unnamed source told the publication: “This is likely in response to the official numbers about how many of our staff members chose to remain remote after the RTO mandate.”

Dell’s methods for tracking hybrid workers will also reportedly include a color-coding system. The Register reported that Dell “plans to make weekly site visit data from its badge tracking available to employees through the corporation’s human capital management software and to give them color-coded ratings that summarize their status.” From “consistent” to “limited” presence, the colors are blue, green, yellow, and red.

A different person who reportedly works at Dell said that managers hadn’t shown consistency regarding how many red flags they would consider acceptable. The confusion led the source to tell The Register, “It’s a shit show here.”

An unnamed person reportedly “familiar with Dell” claimed that those failing to show up to a Dell office frequently enough will be referred to Dell COO Jeff Clarke.

Dell’s about-face

Ironically, Clarke used to support the idea of fully remote work post-pandemic. In 2020, he said:

After all of this investment to enable remote everything, we will never go back to the way things were before. Here at Dell, we expect, on an ongoing basis, that 60 percent of our workforce will stay remote or have a hybrid schedule where they work from home mostly and come into the office one or two days a week.”

It’s unclear exactly how many of Dell’s workers are remote. The Register reported today that approximately 50 percent of Dell’s US workers are remote, compared to 66 percent of international workers. In March, an anonymous source told Business Insider that 10–15 percent of every team at Dell was remote.

Michael Dell, Dell’s CEO and founder, also used to support remote work and penned a blog in 2022 saying that Dell “found no meaningful differences for team members working remotely or office-based even before the pandemic forced everyone home.”

Some suspect Dell’s suddenly stringent office policy is an attempt to force people to quit so that the company can avoid layoffs. In 2023, Dell laid off 13,000 people, per regulatory filings [PDF].

Dell didn’t respond to Ars’ request for comment. In a statement to The Register, a representative said that Dell believes “in-person connections paired with a flexible approach are critical to drive innovation and value differentiation.”

Questionable policies

News of Dell’s upcoming tracking methods comes amid growing concern about the potentially invasive and aggressive tactics companies have implemented as workers resist RTO policies. Meta, Amazon, Google, and JPMorgan Chase have all reportedly tracked in-office badge swipes. TikTok reportedly launched an app to track badge swipes and to ask workers why they weren’t in the office on days that they were expected to be.

However, the efficacy of RTO mandates is questionable. An examination of 457 companies on the S&P 500 list released in February concluded that RTO mandates don’t drive company value but instead negatively affect worker morale. Analysis of survey data from more than 18,000 working Americans released in March found that flexible workplace policies, including the ability to work remotely completely or part-time and flexible schedules, can help employees’ mental health.

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Dell tells remote workers that they won’t be eligible for promotion

Biz & IT, dell, Policy, remote work, return-to-office, work from home / /

Decisions, decisions —

Report highlights big turnaround from Dell’s previous pro-WFH stance.

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A woman in a bright yellow jacket is sitting in front of a laptop in emotional tension.

Starting in May, Dell employees who are fully remote will not be eligible for promotion, Business Insider (BI) reported Saturday. The upcoming policy update represents a dramatic reversal from Dell’s prior stance on work from home (WFH), which included CEO Michael Dell saying: “If you are counting on forced hours spent in a traditional office to create collaboration and provide a feeling of belonging within your organization, you’re doing it wrong.”

Dell employees will mostly all be considered “remote” or “hybrid” starting in May, BI reported. Hybrid workers have to come into the office at least 39 days per quarter, Dell confirmed to Ars Technica, which equates to approximately three times a week. Those who would prefer to never commute to an office will not “be considered for promotion, or be able to change roles,” BI reported.

“For remote team members, it is important to understand the trade-offs: Career advancement, including applying to new roles in the company, will require a team member to reclassify as hybrid onsite,” Dell’s memo to workers said, per BI.

Dell didn’t respond to specific questions Ars Technica sent about the changes but sent a statement saying: “In today’s global technology revolution, we believe in-person connections paired with a flexible approach are critical to drive innovation and value differentiation.”

BI said it saw a promotion offer that a remote worker received that said that accepting the position would require coming into an “approved” office, which would mean that the employee would need to move out of their state.

Dell used to be pro-WFH

Dell’s history with remote workers started before the COVID-19 pandemic, over 10 years ago. Before 2020, 65 percent of Dell workers were already working remotely at least one day per week, per a blog that CEO Michael Dell penned via LinkedIn in September 2022. An anonymous Dell worker who reportedly has been remote for over 10 years and that BI spoke with estimated that 10 to 15 percent “of every team was remote” at Dell.

Michael Dell used to be a WFH advocate. In his 2022 blog post, he addressed the question of whether working in an office created “an advantage when it comes to promotion, performance, engagement or rewards,” determining:

At Dell, we found no meaningful differences for team members working remotely or office-based even before the pandemic forced everyone home. And when we asked our team members again this year, 90 percent of them said everyone has the opportunity to develop and learn new skills in our organization. The perception of unequal opportunity is just one of the myths of hybrid work …

At the time, Dell’s chief described the company as “committed to allow team members around the globe to choose the work style that best fits their lifestyle—whether that is remote or in an office or a blend of the two.” But the upcoming limitations for fully remote workers could be interpreted as Dell discouraging workers from working from home.

“We’re being forced into a position where either we’re going to be staying as the low man on the totem pole, first on the chopping block when it comes to workforce reduction, or we can be hybrid and go in multiple days a week, which really affects a lot of us,” an anonymous employee told BI.

Dell’s new WFH policy follows the February 2023 layoffs of about 6,650 workers, or around 5 percent of employees. Unnamed employees that BI spoke with showed concerns that the upcoming policy is an attempt to get people to quit so that Dell can save money on human resources without the severance costs of layoffs. Others are concerned that the rule changes will disproportionately affect women.

Meanwhile, the idea of return-to-office mandates helping businesses is being challenged. For example, a study by University of Pittsburgh researchers of some S&P 500 businesses found that return-to-office directives hurt employee morale and do not boost company finances.

Dell tells remote workers that they won’t be eligible for promotion Read More »

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The 5 most interesting PC monitors from CES 2024

ASUS, CES, dell, Features, lg, Monitors, msi, oled, Tech / /
Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW)

Enlarge / Dell’s upcoming UltraSharp U4025QW.

Scharon Harding

Each year, the Consumer Electronics show brings a ton of new computer monitor announcements, and it’s often difficult to figure out what’s worth paying attention to. When it comes to the most interesting models this year, there were two noteworthy themes.

First of all, my complaint in 2022 about there not being enough OLED monitors was largely addressed this year. CES revealed many plans for OLED monitors in 2024, with a good number of those screens set to be appropriately sized for desktops. That includes the introduction of 32-inch, non-curved QD-OLED options and other smaller screens for people who have been waiting for OLED monitors in more varied form factors.

Secondly, with more people blending their work and home lives these days, CES brought hints that the line between gaming monitors and premium monitors used for general or even professional purposes will be blurring more in the future. We’re not at the point where the best productivity monitor and ideal gaming monitor perfectly align in a single product. But this week’s announcements have me imagining ways that future monitors could better serve users with serious work and play interests.

For now, here are the most intriguing monitors from CES 2024.

Dell UltraSharps hit 120 Hz

  • Dell started adding 120 Hz models to its UltraSharp series.

    Scharon Harding

  • This monitor is VESA DisplayHDR 600-certified.

    Dell

  • Ports include Thunderbolt 4 with 140 W power delivery. There’s also a pop-out box of ports by the monitor’s chin.

    Dell

Dell UltraSharp monitors have long attracted workers and creatives and, with their USB-C connectivity, even Mac users. The last few CES shows have shown Dell attempting to improve its lineup, with the most landmark innovation being the introduction of IPS Black. With CES 2024, though, Dell focused on improved video resolution.

Dell’s UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW), pictured above, is a 39.7-inch ultrawide with a 5120×2160 resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate. As most monitors are aimed at workers still using 60 Hz, this is a big step up for people with systems capable of supporting 11,059,200 pixels at 120 frames per second. Such speeds have been relegated to gaming monitors for a while, but with TVs moving to higher refresh rates (with encouragement from gaming consoles), more people are becoming accustomed to faster screens. And with other attributes, like a 2500R curve, we wouldn’t blame workers for doing some light gaming on the U4025QW, too.

But Dell says the refresh rate boost is about increasing eye comfort. The UltraSharp U4025QW is one of two monitors with 5-star certification from TÜV Rheinland’s new Eye Comfort program, which Dell helped create, a Dell spokesperson told me last month at a press event.

According to TÜV, the certification program “is no longer limited to the old low-blue-light or flicker-free labels” and now “covers a broader range of safety indicators, such as ambient brightness, color temperature adjustment and regulation, and brightness.” New requirements include brightness and color temperature control for different ambient lighting. Dell’s ultrawide covers this with an integrated ambient light sensor.

The certification also requires a minimum 120 Hz refresh rate, which is probably where Dell got the number from. A Dell spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the use of IPS Black didn’t impact the monitor’s ability to get TÜV certifications and that it could have theoretically earned five stars with another panel type, like VA.

Dell announced bringing 120 Hz to the UltraSharp lineup in November when it debuted two 24-inch and two 27-inch UltraSharp monitors with 120 Hz refresh rates. At CES, Dell proved this upgrade wasn’t a fluke relegated to its smaller UltraSharps and went all in, bringing the refresh rate to a top-line ultrawide 5K Thunderbolt 4 monitor.

The U4025QW has an updated version of ComfortView Plus, which uses hardware to lower blue light levels. I’ve seen it function without making colors turn yellowish, as some other blue-light-fighting techniques do. After not significantly updating ComfortView Plus since its 2020 release, Dell now says it’s using a “more advanced LED backlight” to reduce blue light exposure from 50 percent to under 35 percent.

The effects are minimal, though. Dell-provided numbers claim the reduced blue light exposure could reduce eye fatigue by 8 percent after 50 minutes, but we should take that with a grain of salt. It’s nearly impossible to quantify how well blue light reduction techniques work from person to person.

The UltraSharp U4025QW releases on February 27, starting at $2,400.

The 5 most interesting PC monitors from CES 2024 Read More »

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The Dell XPS laptop, as we know and love it, is no more

dell, dell XPS, laptops, Tech / /

  • The 2024 XPS laptop lineup: 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch.

    Scharon Harding

  • The laptops come in platinum…

    Dell

  • … or graphite.

    Dell

  • The keyboard on the XPS 13.

    Dell

  • The keyboard on the XPS 14 and XPS 16.

    Dell

  • The ports on the left side of the XPS 14 and 16.

    Dell

  • The ports on the right side of the XPS 14 and 16.

    Dell

  • The underside of the XPS 13.

    Scharon Harding

Dell’s XPS laptop lineup has long been my go-to for an easy laptop recommendation. With an accessible starting price, a good amount of display options, and an ultrathin build, it was often a fitting choice for the average consumer seeking something with a premium feel and some clout. With the 2024 laptop lineup announced today, the XPS no longer feels like an obvious recommendation.

Dell has reimagined the XPS laptop lineup in the image of what used to be called the Dell XPS 13 Plus. When it launched in 2022, the XPS 13 Plus was a 13.4-inch XPS laptop that was pricier than its non-Plus alternative. The XPS 13 Plus and its 2023 predecessor took extreme design measures, including a capacitive touch function row, unique keyboard, and borderless haptic touchpad to squeeze more power out of its processor.

Those polarizing features are now mandatory in an XPS laptop. The new XPS 13, 14, and 16 look like the XPS 13 Plus. But Dell is no longer calling that design the “Plus.” It’s now just the standard design of a standard XPS laptop.

Additionally, the XPS 17 is getting phased out, while the XPS 15 will be available for another six months with limited Nvidia GPU options until it is also phased out. The XPS 2-in-1 detachable is also being discontinued.

The new XPS laptop lineup

With the 2024 changes, the starting price for Dell’s popular laptop series is now higher than before. The new XPS 13 will start at $1,300. The last XPS 13, which came out in 2022 with a 13th Gen Intel chip, started at $849. By discontinuing the XPS detachable and committing all XPS laptops to the XPS 13 Plus look, Dell is going from having three 13-inch-class XPS options to one (with various specs configurations available).

Technically, the 2024 XPS lineup has better starting prices for those interested in larger screens. The XPS 14 will start at $1,700, and the XPS 16 will start at $1,900. The 2023 XPS 15 debuted with 13th-gen chips at $2,949, while the XPS 17 (9370) debuted with a $3,399 starting price. However, the new XPS 14 and XPS 16 will be released with Intel Arc-integrated graphics. The XPS 15 started with an Arc A370M discrete GPU, and the XPS 17’s starting price got you an RTX 4050 laptop GPU. (Dell hasn’t shared pricing for the new laptops beyond starting prices.)

The new laptops have smaller screens than the XPS 15 and XPS 17. For 2024, the biggest XPS laptop will have a 16.3-inch display instead of a 17-inch one, giving it slightly greater pixel density (277.8 pixels per inch versus 266.4 ppi).

But ultimately, the range of sizes remains mildly shrunken. Rather than ranging from 13.4 to 17 inches with a detachable option, the new lineup is set to 13.4 to 16.3 inches without detachables. And while a 14-inch XPS allows Dell to offer a more portable laptop that can still fit a dedicated graphics card (up to an RTX 4050 laptop GPU), moving from a 13-inch to a 15-inch laptop is more noticeable than moving from 13 to 14 inches.

The Dell XPS laptop, as we know and love it, is no more Read More »

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CAMM standard published, opening door for thin, speedy RAM to overtake SO-DIMM

dell, Desktops, laptops, memory, RAM, Tech / /

compression attached —

Dell introduced CAMM in 2022 with modules that were 57% thinner than SO-DIMM.

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Front of a 128GB CAMM.

Enlarge / The front of a 128GB Dell CAMM.

Dell

Move over, SO-DIMM. A new type of memory module has been made official, and backers like Dell are hoping that it eventually replaces SO-DIMM (small outline dual in-line memory module) entirely.

This month, JEDEC, a semiconductor engineering trade organization, announced that it had published the JESD318: Compression Attached Memory Module (CAMM2) standard, as spotted by Tom’s Hardware.

CAMM2 was originally introduced as CAMM via Dell, which has been pushing for standardization since it announced the technology at CES 2022. Dell released the only laptops with CAMM in 2022, the Dell Precision 7670 and 7770 workstations.

The standard includes DDR5 and LPDDR5/5X designs. The former targets “performance notebooks and mainstream desktops,” and the latter is for “a broader range of notebooks and certain server market segment,” JEDEC’s announcement said.

They each have the same connector but differing pinouts, so a DDR5 CAMM2 can’t be wrongfully mounted onto an LPDDR5/5X connector. CAMM2 means that it will be possible to have non-soldered LPDD5X memory. Currently, you can only get LPDDR5X as soldered chips.

Another reason supporters are pushing CAMM2 is in consideration of speed, as SO-DIMM tops out at 6,400 MHz, with max supported speeds even lower in four-DIMM designs. Many mainstream designs aren’t yet at this threshold. But Dell originally proposed CAMM as a way to get ahead of this limitation (largely through closer contact between the module and motherboard). The published CAMM2 standard says LPDDR5 DRAM CAMM2 “is expected to start at 6,400 MTs and increment upward in cadence with the DRAM speed capabilities.”

Samsung in September announced plans to offer LPDDR CAMM at 7.5Gbps, noting that it expects commercialization in 2024. Micron also plans to offer CAMM at up to 9,600Mbps and 192GB-plus per module in late 2026, as per a company road map shared by AnandTech last month. Both announcements were made before the CAMM2 standard was published, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see timelines extended.

Samsung shared this rendering of a CAMM ahead of the publishing of the CAMM2 standard in September.

Enlarge / Samsung shared this rendering of a CAMM ahead of the publishing of the CAMM2 standard in September.

CAMM2 supports capacities of 8GB to 128GB on a single module. This opens the potential for thinner computer designs that don’t sacrifice memory or require RAM modules on both sides of the motherboard. Dell’s Precision laptops with Dell’s original CAMM design is 57 percent thinner than SO-DIMM, Dell said. The laptops released with up to 128GB of DDR5-3600 across one module and thinness as low as 0.98 inches, with a 16-inch display.

A Dell rendering depicting the size differences between SO-DIMM and CAMM.

Enlarge / A Dell rendering depicting the size differences between SO-DIMM and CAMM.

Dell

Nominal module dimensions listed in the standard point to “various” form factors for the modules, with the X-axis measuring 78 mm (3.07 inches) and the Y-axis 29.6–68 mm (1.17–2.68 inches).

Computers can also achieve dual-channel memory for more bandwidth with one CAMM compared to SO-DIMM’s single-channel design. Extra space could lead to better room for things like device heat management.

JEDEC’s announcement said:

By splitting the dual-channel CAMM2 connector lengthwise into two single-channel CAMM2 connectors, each connector half can elevate the CAMM2 to a different level. The first connector half supports one DDR5 memory channel at 2.85mm height while the second half supports a different DDR5 memory channel at 7.5mm height. Or, the entire CAMM2 connector can be used with a dual-channel CAMM2. This scalability from single-channel and dual-channel configurations to future multi-channel setups promises a significant boost in memory capacity.

Unlike their taller SO-DIMM counterparts, CAMM2 modules press against an interposer, which has pins on both sides to communicate with the motherboard. However, it’s also worth noting that compared to SO-DIMM modules, CAMM2 modules are screwed in. Upgrades may also be considered more complex since going from 8GB to 16GB, for example, would require buying a whole new CAMM and getting rid of the prior rather than only buying a second 8GB module.

JEDEC’s standardization should eventually make it cheaper for these parts to be created and sourced for different computers. It could also help adoption grow, but it will take years before we can expect this CAMM2 to overtake 26-year-old SO-DIMM, as Dell hopes. But with a few big names behind the standard and interest in thinner, more powerful computers, we should see a greater push for these modules in computers in the coming years.

You can download the CAMM2 standard from JEDEC’s website.

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