- Dell called its sales staff back to the office five days a week in September 2024.
- "End-of-day walkthroughs" revealed the policy wasn't being followed, an internal memo seen by Business Insider showed.
- A top sales exec told staff at three major offices to turn up for "at least eight hours a day."
A top sales executive at Dell has called employees back into the office five days a week … again.
"Effective immediately, all onsite-classified sales team members are expected to be in the RR, NV, and OKC offices five days a week for at least eight hours per day," Jackie Miller, Dell's vice president of North American commercial sales, said in an email sent to enterprise sales staff on November 5, which Business Insider has seen.
"RR, NV, and OKC" refer to Dell's headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, and its offices in Nashville and Oklahoma City, which are sites with a concentration of sellers.
Miller's email came over a year after Dell first told its global sales teams to be "on-site five days a week," in September 2024. A similar order followed for the rest of the company in January 2025 and took effect in March.
After "recent site visits" and "end-of-day walkthroughs," leaders noted that the team was not adhering to the policy, Miller informed staff in the email.
"I want to reinforce our expectations regarding onsite office presence," she said. "Maintaining a strong in-office presence is essential for fostering collaboration, communication, and productivity, and it is company policy."
Employees should use personal business allowance or vacation hours for time spent away from the office, Miller said.
"Some leaders are reiterating their expectations of working a full day in the office," a Dell spokesperson told Business Insider. "And as we have said, our team members are expected to work a regular working day in the office, but have flexibility as needed."
"Also, team members in global roles may need to take late evening calls and can adjust their in-office hours accordingly," the spokesperson added.
Selective compliance with RTO mandates
Following in the footsteps of corporate giants like JPMorgan, Amazon, and Starbucks, more companies are steadily tightening work-from-home rules. But getting employees back on-site isn't as simple as sending a one-time memo.
Dell's RTO policy has not changed since it was first implemented, but there's been a disconnect between leaders and employees over whether coming to the office five days a week also requires spending eight hours there.
In June, 10 Dell employees across the US told Business Insider that the enforcement of the RTO policy depended on their manager. Some managers understood "regular working day" to mean eight hours a day, while others allowed their teams to badge in and leave soon after without repercussions.
"Expectations for our team members have not changed," Dell told Business Insider in June, adding that employees were "expected to work a regular working day in the office, but have flexibility as needed" for things like late evening calls on global teams. The policy does not state that eight hours is the requirement.
An internal FAQ obtained by Business Insider listed examples of when employees may be permitted to work from home, provided they have approval from a leader. These included a temporary medical condition, needing to provide care on a temporary basis, or adjusting in-office hours to avoid peak traffic.
"This does not apply to regular childcare, care for dependents, or attending to other personal business," the FAQ documents state.
Two sales team employees said that managers had not enforced the rule since the policy was first announced in September 2024. They requested to remain anonymous, as they are not permitted to speak publicly, but Business Insider has verified their employment.
"A lot of parents previously were told they can leave around 2 p.m. to pick up school-age kids and can finish the day at home," said one of the sales employees.
Miller's email meant having to "rearrange the home life to accommodate, yet another, Dell change in policy," the person said.
Since November, sales leaders have clarified that there are no exemptions for children's school schedules, the two sales employees told Business Insider. They said the office is now fuller throughout the day.
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