It's time for Google's newest Pixel Drop update, which will deliver a batch of enhancements to the company's smartphones. Pixel Drops, which arrive quarterly, refine and expand the features on Pixel phones. This probably won't come as a surprise, but AI plays a big role in the changes rolling out to Pixels this time around. There are also some new connectivity and photography options.
A long-overdue update is coming to Google's Pixel Studio app, which is preinstalled on the Pixel 9 series. The app lets you generate AI images, but person generation was not available at launch because of well-documented problems with the Imagen 3 model's penchant for diversity. Google re-enabled person generation on the web about six months ago, but Pixel Studio is just now gaining this ability.
Google's AI will also begin butting in if it suspects a caller or message is attempting to scam you. Google says this feature (previously available as a limited beta) is not foolproof, as scammers often change up their tactics. However, it may help catch some of the less sophisticated scams that regularly ensnare your less technologically literate family and friends. This feature will be available in Google Messages with the Pixel 6 and later, but the phone call scam detection will require a Pixel 9 because it uses on-device AI features that only exist on Google's latest phones. That makes it a little less creepy.
JPMorgan Chase has spent billions to become a technology-driven bank.
Now, due to the bank's RTO stance, some of its tech workers are considering leaving.
Recruiters and insiders lay out how its policy could spell trouble for retaining its top tech talent.
Anthony has never been interested in attending town halls, but when texts started rolling in about his top boss' remote work diatribe, it was too much for the technology vice president to ignore.
An IT employee named Nicolas Welch had questioned JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon while he was visiting an office in Columbus, Ohio, about leaving some return-to-office decisions up to managers. Dimon launched into an expletive-laced response, in which he complained about employees not paying attention on Zoom and that there's "not a goddamn person" he could get a hold of on Fridays.
The audio of the exchange went viral. It also struck a nerve, and now some employees are considering leaving, teaming up to influence work policy, or, like Anthony, entertaining job offers from rival banks.
"Jamie Dimon's like, 'Well, hey, if you don't like it, you know where the door is.' Yes, we do," said Anthony, which is a pseudonym to protect his identity since he was not authorized to speak about internal matters. "And that's going to impact him. He's going to lose some good people."
JPMorgan has long prided itself on being a tech-driven bank, with a $17 billion IT budget and nearly 60,000 technology workers. To stay ahead of its rivals and keep clients engaged, it funds research and development across cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and crypto.
Business Insider spoke with two recruiters and five JPMorgan employees, four of whom requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, who said the bank's unpopular RTO mandate could spell trouble for the bank's ability to retain and attract tech talent. Dimon has espoused the merits of in-person collaboration, but support for the RTO plan was scarce among those interviewed by BI.
As the March 3 expiration date for hybrid work approaches, Dimon has said he's aware that his hardline stance could push some employees away and is fine with that attrition.
"I completely respect people that don't want to go to the office all five days a week. That's your right. It's my right. It's a citizen's right," Dimon said in a CNBC interview Monday. "But they should respect that the company is going to decide what's good for the clients, the company, etc., not an individual."
While 70% of the bank's 317,233 employees are already in the office five days a week, technology workers are part of the contingent still working one or two days at home.
The battle for technical talent β which tends to be industry-agnostic β was long fought using perks, with companies providing lavish extras like fancy food, massages, and even paid family planning services to keep workers happy and attract new ones. With many of those falling away as companies focus on cost cutting, recruiters say hybrid work is emerging as the strongest benefit a company can offer.
Ryan Mazza, who runs the New York office of the financial-talent search firm Selby Jennings, said he had "no doubt" that there would be talent attrition among companies that impose a five-day RTO. "There will certainly be a competitive disadvantage for those companies," he said.
Companies with flexible working policies have quickly distinguished themselves from the wave of their competitors pulling employees back to the office. Spotify plastered its message on a Times Square billboard in early January, saying its employees aren't children and it was sticking with remote work. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser maintained her pledge to hybrid work this month, as did the fintech Revolut.
Welch, the tech operations analyst who triggered Dimon's testy comments, said the town hall roused employees rather than quieted them. The RTO decision has pushed some workers to explorethe possibility of a union and organizing a unified response.
"People are absolutely emboldened. I don't know fully what that means yet," he said.
JPMorgan declined requests for comment.
Tech behemoth of Wall Street
JPMorgan's technology footprint is massive by a few measures. The bank employs about 44,000 software engineers globally who run more than 6,000 applications and manage about an exabyte (1 billion gigabytes) of data. That engine of people, systems, and data has helped the bank bring in record financial results, with its net income rising to $59 billion for 2024.
The bank also has big AI ambitions, with Dimon saying he has no intention of losing the AI arms race to disruptors. It has created a robust AI research department led by a former Carnegie Mellon researcher, Manuela Veloso, and has earned the top spot on the Evident AI Index, an independent benchmark for AI adoption and performance in finance.
Mike Mayo, a Wells Fargo analyst who regularly grills Dimon on earnings calls, last year called JPMorgan the "Nvidia of banking," commenting on its tech spend outpacing that of any other bank.
Reputation and prestige only go so far, said Deepali Vyas, the global head of the data, AI, and fintech practice at the headhunting firm Korn Ferry. She said she'd seen other companies fail to hire cloud, data, and AI talent purely because of their return-to-office policies.
"The challenge for banks is that top tech talent has options," Vyas said, adding: "If firms insist on a rigid in-office structure without a compelling trade-off, they risk losing talent to more agile, innovation-friendly environments." Vyas added that she knew of a very senior-level managing director within JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank who told her they're considering quitting because of the return to office.
A JPMorgan executive director overseeing data scientists and data engineers, a key hiring area for the bank and its AI ambitions, said he's worried about losing talent to the in-office order.
"Taking away a hybrid schedule, I honestly think, shrinks our talent pool even more," the executive director said. "I wonder how many people were already on the fence in comparison to other opportunities but now said, 'Forget this. I don't want to be forced into an office.'"
While JPMorgan made headlines with its return-to-office policy, remote work has steadily tightened across corporate America. Wall Street bosses such as Goldman Sachs' David Solomon and Citadel's Ken Griffin pulled workers back to the office in 2021. Big Tech companies, including Amazon, Dell, and AT&T, have more recently piled into the effort.
Selby Jennings' Mazza said he's already seeing pay demands increase for finance-sector jobs over the industry's return to office. Tech workers who are considering these jobs are demanding $5,000 or $10,000 in added pay to cover childcare or offset commuting costs, he said.
While some JPMorgan employees, including Anthony, are already in talks with prospective new employers, recruiters said they didn't see a mass exodus of talent coming overnight as today's tech job market favors employers.
Down the line, though, the bank's RTO demands and execution could come back to bite it.
"Once that turns, even if the pendulum starts swinging just a little bit the other way, and this includes JPMorgan and all those other guys," Korn Ferry's Vyas said, referring to Amazon, Dell, and Salesforce, among others, the top performers "will be the first people that leave for that benefit."
'Rushed and unplanned'
Questioning one of the most powerful people on Wall Street has raised Welch's profile within JPMorgan. Welch, who supports network equipment inside Chase branches, joked he's going to have to buy a wrist brace for the number of high-fives he gets walking down the hall. A stranger even gave him a mockingjay pin, a nod to the dystopian "Hunger Games" movie series wherein the pin becomes a symbol of rebellion.
Nicolas Welch, the tech operations analyst who questioned Jamie Dimon about the bank's return to office mandate.
Nicolas Welch
A story about Welch getting fired before the move was rescinded, reported by Fortune, has caught the attention of other employers. He said he'd received multiple job offers in the past week. It's a moot point: "Why would I want to work somewhere else? Chase is the best," he said.
But Welch, who works three days a week out of JPMorgan's Polaris campus in Columbus, is still a critic of the firm's plans. One reason is that he advocates for a hybrid schedule for employees like himself who help care for family members.
"I live with my mom. She is 68. She can't reach the top shelf," Welch said. "She needs help with stuff, and I'm here to do that, you know? I can turn around and go do a thing and come back to work. Why wouldn't I want to do that?"
Home to more than 19,000 employees across 13 buildings, Polaris also boasts the fourth-highest-grossing Starbucks. The campus has been key to several tech initiatives, like overhauling its deposit system on the public cloud and developing edge cloud computing for faster data analysis.
In the January memo about the call back to the office, the bank's operating committee acknowledged that not all office locations would be ready for the March 3 deadline and said more information would be shared by the end of the month. The committee added that some offices had capacity restraints and timelines for those would become available on a location-by-location basis.
But as of late February, many workers said they were still waiting for an update. For example, Polaris-based staff have yet to be told when they'll be called into the office.
The "messaging feels rushed and unplanned," the data executive director said.
Meanwhile, one analyst whose office permanently closed during the pandemic and was designated a fully remote worker has been left in the lurch about whether they'll have a job in March.
"I've only been told that it's business as usual until I'm told otherwise. I was, however, advised by my manager as a friend to consider putting feelers out for new roles elsewhere," the analyst said.
Despite these uncertainties, many have been given their marching orders, and some question: What's the point?
"Just because you bring people back into the office doesn't mean you're not going to have Zoom calls," a software manager in Ohio said. "The whole collaboration thing is utter bullshit in my mind because I'm still going to be getting on Zoom calls. The only difference is, two of the people I'm on Zoom calls with might be sitting right beside me," the technologist, who works with people in Texas and Singapore, said.
Putting gasoline on a fire
The aftermath of the RTO rollout has stoked a fire within some JPMorgan employees to unionize.
"They anticipated this was coming," Nick Weiner told BI about JPMorgan employees' RTO expectations. Weiner is a senior campaign lead for Communications Workers of America who has led the effort of some 25 Wells Fargo branches in unionizing. He told BI that he had been in touch with JPMorgan workers for a similar effort.
"The way he did it helped to really put gasoline on this fire," Weiner said of Dimon's town hall comments. Dimon has since said that he shouldn't have sworn.
A petition against the in-office policy has garnered more than 1,700 signatures, and an internal Signal group counts about 200 members. Dimon said in the town hall he didn't care about how many people signed the petition, but that hasn't deterred workers.
Welch participated in a meeting last week with other JPMorgan employees to learn more about the basics of the unionizing process, not because he dislikes his employer β "even after cussing at me, I arguably have more respect for him," Welch said of Dimon β but because he loves it.
"A union is such a difficult thing to kind of even get going, but we love our jobs so much just in general that we're going to do that," Welch said. "We want to be heard. And these draconic orders are so unlike what we've worked in. It's so unlike what we've dealt with."
In a recruiting email, Verizon mentioned remote and hybrid openings amid "changing RTO policies."
AT&T told BI that its workers "always have a choice" about the company they work for.
The rivalry between two of telecom's biggest players has taken a decidedly modern twist.
After AT&T's full-time return-to-office mandate began to be implemented in January, Verizon reached out to AT&T employees who may not be keen on working five days a week in the office.
In an email sent to multiple AT&T employees and obtained by Business Insider, Verizon's talent team encouraged recipients to explore the company's hybrid and remote job opportunities.
"Following the news of changing RTO policies across the industry, we're reaching out to share helpful resources and potential hybrid/remote job opportunities across Verizon," the email said.
"If you have been personally affected by organizational policy changes or know anyone who has, we're looking to add top talent to the V Team," the email continued. Verizon declined to comment.
While it's common for companies to recruit from their competitors, Verizon's outreach highlights how five-day office mandates have become a sticking point for some workers in recent months.
AT&T told BI that its workers "always have a choice to pick the type of company and work environment they wish to be part of."
"We desire individuals who wish to work in a dynamic and challenging team environment with strong relationships and collaboration fostered by in-office constructs," AT&T added.
AT&T has had to navigate a rocky return to office this year, with some employees describing to BI a lack of desk space, parking shortages, and shifting guidance about the policy.
On Monday afternoon, Verizon's job-listings website showed openings for more than 1,200 roles across the US, 10 of which were remote. Listings for several full-time positions said they required at least eight days in the office a month, as determined by a manager.
"If you're looking for a culture of learning that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion with room to grow, our V Team may be the place for you," the email said.
The email said Verizon job perks include up to $8,000 of annual tuition assistance, up to five weeks of paid time off, paid parental leave, and medical, dental, and vision coverage.
While AT&T traces its origins to 1885, Verizon was formed in 2000 when one of the so-called Baby Bells β spun off from AT&T in the 1980s β merged with GTE.
More recently, the two have been in a race to build out the nation's fiber optic network and extend 5G and satellite coverage.
Though AT&T is now based in Dallas, its former New Jersey headquarters is a major corporate campus for Verizon β not to be confused with Bell Labs in Holmdel, which features in Apple TV's "Severance."
If you are an AT&T or Verizon worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a nonwork device when reaching out.
The author (left) and her husband love their lunch dates at Costco.
Courtesy of Maurie Backman
It's hard to spend time alone with my husband between work and our busy kids' schedules.
Our weekly trip to Costco is often our only opportunity to sit down for a meal together.
The Costco food court may not be glamorous, but just being together is what matters most.
When my husband and I first started dating, we loved having meals together at hole-in-the-wall restaurants with a cozy, romantic vibe. Sometimes, we'd even splurge on a nicer spot to celebrate occasions like birthdays.
When our kids were younger, it was hard to go out on dates because babysitters were expensive and tough to find. But we made it a priority to go out to eat at least once a month so we could enjoy a meal without a screaming child in the background.
We figured it would become easier to date as our kids got older. Surprisingly, the opposite happened.
As our kids entered their tween and teen years, they became busier with activities β soccer, basketball, martial arts, and music lessons, to name a few. These days, between working our jobs and shuttling kids to various places, there's pretty much no time to get away for a romantic meal.
So, a while back, we decided to forgo romance and focus on "us time." We found that escaping to the superstore, Costco, offered the best opportunity to not just stock our fridge but also grab a quick meal together.
We're able to buy groceries and get time alone
Shopping at Costco is a huge money-saver for my family. We go through things like bagged chips, milk, eggs, and produce quickly, and loading up on these items in bulk makes our grocery bills cheaper.
While we try to navigate Costco's aisles quickly and efficiently, my husband and I enjoy stopping to examine the ever-changing inventory. Sometimes, we'll play a little game we call "How many free samples can we snag today?"
The author's husband at Costco.
Courtesy of Maurie Backman
I'm self-employed, so often, time spent in the kitchen cooking is time away from my desk. Between that and picky-eating children, I often find myself buying premade meals.
We try to limit what we buy from Costco's frozen section since some of those meals tend to be sodium-heavy. But on our last trip, we spotted giant ravioli that our kids are very likely to eat without putting up a fight, so that was a great find.
It's nice making these meal-planning decisions together on the spot. In the aisles of Costco, we become a team.
We then stop at Costco's food court for the real lunch date
I won't pretend that Costco's food court is an optimal date spot. Sometimes, we manage to eat lunch when the food court is less crowded, and that's a more pleasant experience. But that usually means heading to the store on a weekday when we're both working from home.
On weekends, Costco food court dates are a no-go. The store is so crowded on Saturdays and Sundays that you can barely see the food court, let alone get your own table.
I won't pretend that I'm in love with the food court menu as a lunchtime option. As a vegetarian, my choices are ice cream, a giant chocolate chip cookie, a smoothie, or a slice of pizza. But as someone who grew up in New York City, I have pretty high standards for pizza, and Costco's version is β let's call it "mediocre." So often, I'll get ice cream and call it lunch.
The author loves shopping at Costco with her husband.
Courtesy of Maurie Backman
My husband almost always gets the hot dog and soda combo. At $1.50, it's hard to beat the price. He also likes the chicken bake, but I think my New York-style pizza snobbery has rubbed off on him.
We finally get a chance to catch up while eating. We appreciate the opportunity to have uninterrupted conversations, which almost never happen over a meal at home.
It's become an outing we look forward to
I wish my husband and I had more alone time during the school year. Summers are easier because sports take a break, and our evenings aren't constantly spoken for. But for most of the year, we're just so unbelievably busy that it's hard to make time for each other.
So, even though we could decide to take turns shopping at Costco for our family, we prefer to go together whenever possible.
Adding lunch dates to our Costco trips turns them into fun β and sometimes romantic β outings instead of just a chore.
Bosses are running low on empathy, and some companies are cutting roles.
It's an employers' market, and some are using tactics to get rid of low performers.
It may be time to work harder and not seek extra flexibility, said Suzanne Lucas, an HR consultant.
Bosses are running low on empathy. Some want their workers back in the office more often and are becoming less interested in the demands of mental-health-conscious Gen Zers wanting work-life balance.
They have a good enough reason: An era of revenge quitting may be on the horizon, but right now it's an employer's market.
Some employers are also getting more creative about how they're letting low-performing staff go, engaging in tactics such as "stealth firing," in which they implement strict return-to-office mandates to make employees' roles increasingly uncomfortable and less appealing.
Others are cracking down on "little sins," terminating workers for small indiscretions. Meta fired some workers who used food vouchers improperly, while some EY staff met the same fate for watching multiple training videos simultaneously.
Joe Galvin, the chief research officer at the executive coaching platform Vistage, told Business Insider that bosses were under more pressure to ensure their employees are top performers.
Workers, on the other hand, are wrestling with what pandemic-era flexibility they're prepared to give up.
"Maybe bosses are saying, 'I don't have to put up with this millennial or Gen Z stuff,'" Galvin said. "There's a common thread underneath it all, and that's the tension between the boss and the worker."
Employers' market
The power dynamic between employers and employees is a constant pendulum, and it can swing at any moment.
"When it's an employers' market, which it is right now, companies are much more picky than when it's an employees' market," Suzanne Lucas told BI. Lucas is a human-resources consultant and writer who became known for her blog, Evil HR Lady.
The volume of talent entering the job-seeking pool means "companies can be really choosy right now," Lucas said. "If you're a slacker, I can find someone to replace you. In other words, employees better be working hard."
Suzanne Lucas is known for her Evil HR Lady blog.
Suzanne Lucas
Meta fired about two dozen staff last year for using their $25 meal credits to buy things other than food, but Lucas said it was never really about the actual purchases.
"Once somebody breaks that barrier, then everybody else starts breaking that barrier," she said. "It's really not a matter of punishing someone for buying toothpaste β it's a matter of making sure everybody knows that there is a line that you don't cross."
Protecting yourself
Mona Mourshed, the CEO of the employment nonprofit Generation, told BI workers could protect themselves in a turbulent environment by investing their time in new skills, particularly in learning about AI tools.
"What's very clear is that within every company, there are some people who are power users, and everyone else is dabbling or not really using it," she said. "We all need to figure out how to make the most of it."
Mourshed also recommended getting exposure to different parts of the business with projects or teamwork.
"Do that because, essentially, it enables you to have cross-functional skills," she said. "In your team, there might be some disruption, but maybe that creates an opportunity for you in a different team of the same organization, or potentially another one."
What's very clear, Mourshed said, is that "doing the same thing for a decade is a pattern of the past."
Lucas said not all companies would fire workers for small indiscretions, but if an employer is looking to let people go, those making minor missteps could be first on the list.
"My advice to the employees is to realize that you need to be a good worker β it's called work for a reason," Lucas said. "Maybe work harder. Maybe now isn't the time to be asking for extra benefits and extra flexibility."
An audio recording of Jamie Dimon's WFH tirade at a JPM town hall has gone viral.
Business Insider obtained a copy of last week's recording out of Columbus, Ohio.
Here's more of what he said at the wide-ranging meeting, from AI to the CFPB.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has become a TikTok sensation over his comments slamming work-from-home at a recent town hall with employees.
However, audio recordings of the meeting suggest that remote work was just a sliver of the conversation. Dimon also fielded questions from employees and addressed a wide range of issues, from whether AI will replace their jobs to what his request for improved "efficiencies" means for their work-life balance, according to copies of the tape obtained by Business Insider. At one point, he encourages employees to welcome job-stealing AI, saying, "Attrition is your friend."
A TikTok video of Dimon's comments, posted by financial publication Barron's, has garnered 2.4 million views, thanks in part to his colorful and direct explanation for why the bank is calling all employees back to the officeΒ five days a week starting in March.
"And don't give me this shit that work-from-home-Friday works," Dimon told the crowd, according to the recording, which BI attained a copy of. "I call a lot of people on Fridays, and there's not a goddamn person you can get a hold of."
Dimon made the comments at a town hall in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, following the opening of a nearby branch with a community center. JPMorgan has a large presence in Ohio, including a headquarters that housed some 12,000 employees when it reopened following renovations in 2023, according to a press release. At the time, the firm called the building "the firm's largest" office space.
Here is some of what he said, including his thoughts on President Trump's dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and his advice to young people. The comments are edited in places for length and clarity.
How improved efficiency affects JPM workers
At one point in the meeting, Dimon addresses his push for a more efficient workplace and what it might mean for workers' work-life balance.
"We could be far more efficient and we should always be thinking that way. That's not to torture our people. I want you to have a great life, I don't want you to overwork," he said. "But I think reducing bureaucracy literally will reduce cancer. I think dealing with the demoralizing effect of bureaucracy β you lose people, it gets you sick, and I really do believe that, so β Icould be wrong."
On AI taking jobs
Dimon responded to a question about AI by saying that he expects the technology could "eliminate" some jobs. He advised employees, however, to welcome the threat and figure out how to adjust. "Attrition is your friend," he said.
"You know, it'll change some of your jobs β for a lot of you it will be a copilot, for a lot of you it will take away the drudgery, and it may very well eliminate jobs, too. And for that, I don't wanna stick my head in the sand. But what I wanna do is say, 'hmm, let's get ahead of that.' And, you know, I would say, attrition is your friend, you know, if you have jobs it's gonna replace, you know, we could retrain and reskill and redeploy people. But let's learn to use it like any technology to the best we can for our clients."
On young people falling behind
At one point in the call, a software engineering intern asked about Jamie's past comment on young people falling behind, including the challenges they face and how he intends to help. He responded by reiterating the benefits of his return-to-office mandate.
"Yeah, no, I think the ones falling behind that the ones that are not here full time. [laughter] No, no, I'm being quite serious," he said. "It's the ones who aren't here that are meeting less people, learning less, being challenged, not being put on the same amount of teams because they're not here β you know, and that's what I'm talking about."
On Trump dismantling the CFPB
Dimon also addressed President Trump's efforts to shrink the CFPB, which was created in the aftermath of the financial crisis to protect consumers in the financial marketplace. The agency has collected some $19.7 billion in consumer relief through its enforcement actions, including some against JPMorgan.
Dimon said he thinks the CFPB has some benefits, but he applauded Trump's removal of director Rohit Chopra earlier this month and said he thinks the agency should be an arm of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
"The only thing good I'll say about the CFPB is there are consumer protective rules that are good. They should be put in place to protect consumers. Having said that, they were duplicative. The OCC already did it. The Fed does it. The FHA does it. So we get it," said Dimon. "They massively overstepped their authority. I think this guy β Chopra or whatever his name is β was just an arrogant, out-of-touch son of a bitch who just made things worse for a lot of Americans. So if they get rid of it or not makes no difference to me. It should exist, but it should be inside the OCC like it used to be, when it comes to banks."
Nonbank financial regulation
Dimon suggested the CFPB could be put to better use going after nonbank financial institutions.
"You may want a CFPB for nonbanks. Think of payday lenders and all these other things that are not regulated. But remember we're heavily regulated. But at least if it's inside a bank the regulators get to look at safety and soundness, what makes sense, what's fair, how products should be priced or not priced, you know, set best practices. But I assume they're gonna be very tough on the CFPB, and the CFPB has earned it."
On the bank's fintech failings
In response to a question about growth in 2025, Dimon reminded employees that the bank has to acknowledge competition and avoid complacency. As an example, he talked about his and the bank's failures when competing with fintech and even bulge-bracket banks like Bank of America.
"Don't say, well, we're the best in the world. Assume that they're doing something better. Even Bank America does something better than us. Shocking, I know, but. [laughter] It's the digital world. They were ahead of us in digital. How the hell β I don't know. But it's your job to catch up now. And so, but, there are other things that we could have done like a Stripe or stuff like that, but we didn't have the imagination, including me, to say, hmm, we have the best payments, but we should add data and make it easier for the client. What does the client really want? It wasn't the payment they wanted. They wanted to close the sale faster and more certainly."
Do you work for JPMorgan? Reach this reporter at [email protected] or, for sensitive messages, on the encrypted app Signal at 305-857-5516.
CEO Michael Dell has ordered all staff back to the office five days a week from March.
Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Dell is calling its global workforce back to the office full time, per a memo obtained by BI.
In September, the company told its sales teams to be in the office five days a week.
"Nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction," CEO Michael Dell told staff in the email.
Dell is calling an end to hybrid and remote work.
In an email sent on Friday morning, CEO Michael Dell said that from March the company would expect all employees living within an hour of offices to be at their desks five days a week.
"Starting March 3, all hybrid and remote team members who live near a Dell office will work in the office five days a week. We are retiring the hybrid policy effective that day," the CEO, who has a net worth of $117 billion, told staff.
According to the email, which BI exclusively obtained, employees who live far from a Dell office will be allowed to continue working remotely.
"What we're finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction," Michael Dell told staff. "A thirty-second conversation can replace an email back-and-forth that goes on for hours or even days."
The CEO acknowledged that staff would have questions.
"Please hold those for now," he said. "We're still working through details, and additional information will be available soon."
BI understands that leaders at Dell will be able to ask for exemptions for their team members.
Most offices have capacity for all workers to return in March, but in the few cases where space was limited, Dell will provide guidance in the coming month, BI understands.
"We continually evolve our business so we're set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners. That includes more in-person connections to drive market leadership," a Dell spokesperson told BI.
Dell had already mandated that all sales staff return to the office full time in September 2024.
Kike Rincon/Europa Press via Getty Images
Dell has already implemented a five-day return-to-work policy for some parts of its business.
In September, the companyΒ sent a memoΒ to its entire global sales team informing them they would be required to work in the office full time.
Manufacturing teams, engineers in the labs, onsite team members, and leaders had also already been asked to be in the office five days a week.
Parents at Dell told BI that the September five-day mandate had left them scrambling to find childcare arrangements, while other sales staff said there was a shortage of parking spots and desks βΒ a common logistical challenge for companies implementing RTO.
Vivek Mohindra, Dell's senior vice president of corporate strategy, told BI in December that the company had seen "huge benefits" from bringing the sales team back to the office and that the energy on the sales floor had been "very different" since the policy was introduced.
The company, which sells PCs and enterprise technology such as servers, asked its more than 100,000-strong workforce to classify as either remote or hybrid in February 2024.
Last year, BI obtained internal data showing that close to 50% of Dell's full-time workers in the US initially chose to stay remote, while a third of international staff remained remote. Their reasoning included living far from the office, working in teams spread over different states and countries, and working remotely before the pandemic.
Dell joins a growing list of companies, including Amazon, AT&T, and JPMorgan, that have reversed their stance on remote work and now expect employees to be in the office full-time.
Federal workers have also been called to return to their offices full time after President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating an RTO on his first day in office last week.
Read the full memo below:
Team,
We are building a new Dell Technologies for a new future. The pace of innovation has never been faster, and for us to lead, the speed of our business must continue to accelerate. What we're finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction. A thirty second conversation can replace an email back-and-forth that goes on for hours or even days.
We've already asked our sales teams, manufacturing teams, engineers in the labs, onsite team members and leaders to be in the office five days a week, and we have seen these areas come alive with new speed, energy, and passion. Now, we want to see that same sense of urgency and drive everywhere.
Starting March 3, all hybrid and remote team members who live near a Dell office will work in the office five days a week. We are retiring the hybrid policy effective that day. We remain committed to flexibility within your workday, and you should continue to work with your manager to meet your needs. But for the most part, you should plan to work in the office five days a week.
If you opted-in for remote work and live near a Dell office, we expect you to join us in the office. If you are remote and live a long distance from a Dell office, you'll stay remote. If you are field, you will continue to spend five days a week with customers and partners or in a Dell Technologies office.
We know you may have questions about what this means for your specific situation. Please hold those for now. We're still working through details, and additional information will be available soon. But I personally wanted to share this news sooner rather than later, so you have time to process and plan.
We continually evolve our business to deliver the best value and service to our customers and partners. I'm excited for us to have more in-person connections to drive speed, market leadership, and an even stronger culture.
I look forward to seeing many more of you in the office. Welcome back!
Michaelβ―
Are you a Dell employee with insight to share? Contact these reporters via email at [email protected]and [email protected], or via Signal at Polly_Thompson.89 and jyotimann.11. Reach out via a nonwork device.
Randy Erwin, the union leader, said Musk was too dismissive of their contributions.
The head of a major union of federal employees said he didn't think Elon Musk understood who federal workers are or what they do.
"I don't think he knows the first thing about federal government," Randy Erwin, the national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, told Business Insider in an interview.
"Frankly, I don't think he cares," he added.
Erwin spoke with BI after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday mandating that federal government employees return to the office.
"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome," they wrote.
"If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home," they added.
On Tuesday, Musk wrote on X, the platform he owns, that "pretending to work while taking money from taxpayers is no longer acceptable."
In another post, he said the executive order was about "fairness."
He wrote: "It's not fair that most people have to come to work to build products or provide services while Federal Government employees get to stay home."
Erwin said the image of the work-shy civil servant was untrue.
"There's this myth that federal workers aren't coming to work," Erwin said, describing the talking point as "a bunch of political BS."
A report by the Office of Management and Budget in August said that most of the 2.3 million civilians employed by the federal government already work in person, with 54% on-site and 10% fully remote.
Erwin said he believes Musk views federal workers as "innovation-blocking bureaucrats."
"I've got 110,000 members. Not a single one would fit that description," he said. "They're out there, spread across the country, providing valuable services to the American people."
Erwin added: "I don't think he knows the first thing about the federal workforce, who they are, where they are, and the valuable services that they provide."
He was joined by another union leader in condemning the RTO mandate β Everett Kelley, who leads AFGE, the largest federal employee union, with some 800,000 members.
In a statement, he described remote work as "a critical tool for federal agencies to maintain continuity of operations in emergencies, increase disaster preparedness, and improve efficiency."
Erwin told BI that working from home was part of the appeal of government jobs, which typically pay less than private-sector ones. Without it, it would be harder to retain talent, he added.
"When you can't make anywhere near what you could be making in the private sector, some family, flexible work policies become a very, very important thing," he said.
JPMorgan told employees on Friday that their days of hybrid work were numbered.
It said the five-day RTO mandate would start in March and affect roughly 30% of the bank's workforce.
See the memo explaining the new policy and rationale.
JPMorgan on Friday told employees that hybrid work was largely over. In a memo issued by the bank's operating committee, the largest US bank by assets said it was calling all workers back to the office starting in March.
"Starting in March, we'll be asking most employees currently on a hybrid schedule to return to the office five days a week," a copy of the memo obtained by Business Insider said. "As it stands, more than half of our workforce already comes into the office full-time."
A company spokesman said that roughly 70% of the bank's employees were already back in the office five days a week, while everyone else was in three or four days a week.
"We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision," the memo said, adding, "We think it is the best way to run the company."
JPMorgan, which had more than 300,000 employees in September, is the latest in a growing list of large companies to revert to pre-pandemic office norms. AT&T and Amazon have implemented similar five-day mandates starting this month.
JPMorgan's return-to-office policies have been slowly ratcheting up since the COVID-19 pandemic. It returned all managing directors β the highest rank outside the C-suite β to a five-day workweek in 2023.
The full memo sheds some light on the company's rationale:
Message from the Operating Committee
Dear colleagues,
We're proud of how our company has successfully adapted and thrived in an ever-changing environment, and this is thanks to all of you. We are a better organization because of your commitment and continued care for our customers, clients, communities and each other. Developing effective teams and maintaining a vibrant, healthy culture are clearly key for our success β and we believe best achieved through working together in person. This is why starting in March, we'll be asking most employees currently on a hybrid schedule to return to the office five days a week. As it stands, more than half of our workforce already comes into the office full-time.
We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision. We are now a few years out of the pandemic and have had the time to evaluate the benefits and challenges of remote and hybrid working. We feel that now is the right time to solidify our full-time in-office approach. We think it is the best way to run the company. As we've discussed before, the benefits of working together in person are substantial and irreplaceable, and as we spend more time together, the more advantages we gain. Being together greatly enhances mentoring, learning, brainstorming and getting things done. It accelerates decision-making and offers valuable opportunities for spontaneous learning and creativity. It also allows our early career professionals to learn through our apprenticeship model and expand their networks by building connections with peers across the firm.
Many of our global locations, but not all, have existing capacity to allow for most or all employees to return to the office full-time in early March. We will confirm the list of locations where this is possible by the end of January. The evaluation of our locations will focus on operational readiness, including food services, cleaning and parking. For locations with capacity constraints, or where changes are needed to create capacity, we will work through plans in the coming weeks and will share information and timelines as they become available on a location-by-location basis. Until your location's readiness is confirmed, you should continue on your current work schedule. It's important to note that following a thorough review and applying stringent criteria, a few specific teams whose work can be easily and clearly measured will continue to work remotely or on a hybrid schedule. These decisions have been made in the best interest of the company. If you are on one of these teams, your manager will confirm your schedule.
We recognize that switching from hybrid to five days a week in the office may be disruptive and require adjustments for some colleagues. Importantly we will work to give you at least 30 days' notice in line with local requirements, prior to your full-time return. Once your location is ready, if you need a bit more time to accommodate the new schedule, you should discuss your needs with your manager and get their approval. We know that a lot has changed in our workplaces since returning to the office after the pandemic and recognize that it will take us some time to get all of our locations ready to accommodate a five-day-a-week schedule.
What is not changing is our support for flexibility in the workplace, which we are committed to providing at every level in a fair way. We fully recognize how important it is to be able to work remotely as life events happen, and managers will be directed to provide team members with the flexibility they need to work remotely under some circumstances, such as unexpected occurrences, family commitments or other times on occasion when you and your manager agree you can work away from the office. As always, we expect you to continue to track your time out of the office, and we will work hard to support a workplace of flexibility and collaboration.
We greatly appreciate your outstanding efforts day-in and day-out and are honored to work together on behalf of everyone we serve.
AT&T is one of several major firms requiring office workers to work on-site five days a week.
Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Getty Images
AT&T began implementing its staggered five-day return-to-office mandate on Monday.
Workers told BI that limited available desks and elevators at some locations complicated their office return.
As more workers are slated to arrive in phases, projects to add capacity are underway.
The first wave of AT&T's five-day return-to-office mandate started on Monday. Conversations with half a dozen AT&T workers across the country this week indicate it hasn't been off to a smooth start.
At the Dallas-based telecom giant's Atlanta offices, AT&T employees told Business Insider that a lack of enough open desks, parking lots that quickly filled up, and a limited number of elevators is complicating the company's plan to phase out hybrid work.
Internal documents obtained by BI suggest that AT&T is aware that its RTO mandate is asking more people to work on-site than the number of workstations it has at some of its offices.
An internal FAQ that was updated last week said that employees in at least one division should expect workstations for 70-80% of those who are assigned to a particular location.
"As a reminder, employees should not leave personal items, make signage, or add name plates on desks," the document said. "These items will be removed."
A spokesperson for AT&T did not provide immediate comment when contacted by Business Insider.
The document follows a memo last month from CTO Jeremy Legg sent to employees that said his AT&T Technology Services division "will not offer one-for-one seating per employee" under the new RTO rules.
One employee at the Atlanta offices told BI on Monday that he arrived before 7 a.m. to ensure he got a workspace.
Another Atlanta worker said he arrived before 6 a.m. and that the available desks he saw had been filled by employees by 9 a.m., at which point some employees sat in the dining area or around conference tables.
"I actually enjoyed coming to the office and even came four to five days a week," the employee said. He said that he felt the working environment "has deteriorated" as more employees returned to the office since last year's three-days-in-office requirement.
The worker said AT&T employees have already been competing for space and sometimes speaking over one another while conducting simultaneousMicrosoft Teams meetings. The elimination of hybrid work is heightening those challenges, the employee added.
The two Atlanta workers, as well as employees at other offices, told BI that finding open parking in a timely manner has been a challenge for themselves and for colleagues, especially at offices that have been converted from less-dense cubicle setups to more tightly packed floor plans.
In communications sent to employees, AT&T has said it will continue to monitor workspace capacity and usage and will make adjustments accordingly. Legg's memo said that the company anticipates some percentage of workers to be out of the office each week due to sick days, work travel, vacation, or other reasons.
Workers in Atlanta also reported seeing signs in front of the office's elevators (which they said have seen increasingly long wait times) with motivational quotes recommending they use nearby stairs instead.
Workers said the signs included phrases like "There is no elevator to the top of the corporate ladder," and "There will be challenges, but each step you take brings you closer to who you're meant to be. Take the stairs." It wasn't clear exactly when the signs were placed, but the Atlanta employees said the signs were gone by Tuesday morning.
One of the Atlanta employees told BI that an additional elevator is planned to be installed at the location.
Meanwhile, more workers are slated to arrive this year under subsequent phases of the company's five-day RTO mandate. AT&T previously said different divisions are setting their own schedules according to their business needs.
AT&T's move away from hybrid work follows similar moves from Amazon, Dell, and others that are requiring workers to be in the office for the entire workweek.
"We believe there is great value in having people connecting, collaborating, and innovating together in an office setting," said one AT&T memo, which was distributed after the initial return-to-office mandate was announced in 2023. "Consolidating our work locations will also help us reduce costs and simplify things for our employees and our customers."
Nearly all of the dozen workers BI has spoken to in recent weeks have said they feel that the new rules may be an attempt to reduce its US workforce.
"This is not about collaboration," one of the Atlanta workers said. "If they can cut costs and have people leave because they're uncomfortable, that's the sweet spot."
If you are an AT&T employee who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out.
My husband and I got sick of boring dates. Now, we seek adrenaline on our monthly date nights.
Dakota Kim
After five years of marriage, my husband and I got stuck going on the same boring dates.
We needed a change, so I proposed "adrenaline dates" to get our hearts racing and bond us together.
Each adventurous date has been more exciting than the last, and they've brought us closer.
After five years of marriage, my husband and I were in danger of calcifying into the "dining dead" β couples who have nothing to say to each other over meals, dutifully chewing their food in dreary silence.
Like many long-term couples, we'd gotten stuck in a cycle of boring dates: always a movie and dinner, where we'd talk about our kid or finances.
We adore each other, but at some point, it became easier to go to hit up the same theater and local diner or taco truck than to look for an exciting new spot or activity.
However, familiar routines should be for the daily grind of work and parenting. For the one I vowed to spend my life with, I wanted more.
Determined to add more excitement to our date nights, I found myself reading up on adrenaline β and how high levels of it have been linked to increasedΒ attractionΒ andΒ arousal.
It seemed worth a shot to try to harness the rush and use it feel closer and more attracted to one another. So, I started planning "adrenaline dates" that might do just that.
We've had a blast prioritizing adrenaline rushes on our date nights
My husband and I had a blast going axe-throwing together for the first time.
Dakota Kim
To start, we booked an escape room. Neither of us had ever done one, and my heart raced in fear of the unknown as we stepped into the dark, enclosed space.
Although my brain knew we weren't actually trapped in a crisis situation, my body was rushing with adrenaline as we escaped from chains and deciphered clues as the clock counted down.
For our next dates, we raced around in laser tag, punched side-by-side in virtual-reality boxing, and hit the climbing gym to out-boulder one another.
The dates were fun and brought us closer, which only inspired us to push the envelope further. Later, we tried axe-throwing and had a blast hurling the tools at a wood marker, splintering it as we went.
We visited a rage room, where we donned helmets and protective suits, grabbed baseball bats and crowbars, and started to shatter bottles and dismantle furniture.
It felt freeing to destroy things on a date.
Dakota Kim
I was timid at first, hitting just one item at a time. By the end, I was smashing a dozen bottles to smithereens at once with the swoop of a baseball bat.
After all the time we spend being careful, tiptoeing around coworkers, friends, neighbors and parents, I love that we got to connect by feeling animalistic and reckless together.
As I flung heavy axes and smashed bottles, I could feel stress flowing out of my body and dissipating into the air. After these intense dates, I've never felt so relieved to fall into my partner's arms.
Our dates continue to bring us closer together
My husband and I have loved the rush of going rock climbing together.
Dakota Kim
Throughout these experiences, we felt joy and connection while creating special memories, which felt hard to do during basic dinner dates.
Plus, "adrenaline dates" can range in activity level and cost, from playing suspenseful video games to riding rollercoasters.
Many of our favorites have felt especially wild and destructive. Lately, we've been rock climbing challenging routes in Joshua Tree, bonding over the rush of fear and adrenaline while enjoying beautiful views.
We even try to schedule these dates every month on the full moon, so we can later kiss under the moonlight β it feels like magic and keeps us out even longer.
It feels like tech workers have caught very few breaks over the past several years, between ongoing mass layoffs, stagnating wages amid inflation, AI supposedly coming for jobs, and unpopular orders to return to office that, for many, threaten to disrupt work-life balance.
But in 2024, a potentially critical mass of tech workers seemed to reach a breaking point. As labor rights groups advocating for tech workers told Ars, these workers are banding together in sustained strong numbers and are either winning or appear tantalizingly close to winning better worker conditions at major tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
In February, the industry-wide Tech Workers Coalition (TWC) noted that "the tech workers movement is far more expansive and impactful" than even labor rights advocates realized, noting that unionized tech workers have gone beyond early stories about Googlers marching in the streets and now "make the headlines on a daily basis."
More workers could be spending time in the office in 2025.
Cisco
Nearly 75% of executives said in a survey they'd mandate at least three days a week in the office in 2025.
Many companies cite collaboration, productivity, and culture as reasons for office return.
RTO mandates could lead to higher turnover, especially among women and skilled workers.
Many bosses with an RTO policy in place plan to ask employees to spend more time in the office next year.
In a recent survey from Resume.org, nearly three-quarters of execs at companies that have already implemented some form of an RTO policy said they would require workers to be in the office at least three days a week by the end of 2025.
The November survey of 900 business leaders underscores a general trend of bosses demanding to see more heads bobbing atop cubicles in the new year.
Some of the companies demanding more face time instead of FaceTime are big-name employers like Amazon, AT&T, and Starbucks.
In the Resume.org survey, 73% of respondents whose companies already have an RTO rule said they would require workers to report to the office at least three times a week by the end of 2025. Almost one in three expect to require workers to come in every workday, while only 2% expect to allow workers to show up once a week or less.
While many employers calling workers back to the office point to productivity β as respondents did in the Resume.org survey β being in person doesn't necessarily boost how much gets done, said Nicole Kyle, who researches the future of work.
She told Business Insider that many studies suggest productivity and performance don't drastically change when workers aren't side-by-side. Instead, such metrics can remain steady or even increase if an organization allows more remote or hybrid work, Kyle, the cofounder of CMP Research, said.
Various studies have come to conflicting conclusions on how remote, hybrid, or fully in-office work impacts productivity β and one complicating factor could be the matter of how best to define or measure productivity.
Bosses might not care if you quit
Employees, in some cases, have pushed back β often unsuccessfully β against RTO mandates. Yet many business leaders don't regard these mandates as asking too much of the people they're paying to do a job.
In the survey, about one-third of bosses said they were worried workers would quit because of the RTO policies, while 49% said they weren't very concerned or weren't concerned at all. Of those surveyed, 18% were uncertain.
About seven in 10 execs said the reason to have workers back IRL is to promote collaboration and teamwork. Nearly six in 10 said the move was aimed at improving communication. And about half pointed to a desire to strengthen the organization's culture and raise productivity.
Lisa Walker, a managing partner at the executive search firm DHR Global, told BI that some employers can benefit from bringing back workers because it allows more experienced people to mentor newer workers. She said that's often harder to do when workers aren't in person.
"To get the junior people into the office, you need to get the senior people back to the office," she said.
In the Resume.org survey, four in 10 respondents said they wanted to use office space that might otherwise lie fallow.
It's understandable that bosses wouldn't want to let sometimes pricey real estate go unused, though strict in-office rules can also have a cost.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburg and other academic institutions recently reported that S&P 500 companies that require workers to return to the office subsequently experience "abnormally high" rates of workers quitting and have a harder time filling open roles.
The researchers found that those leaving are often female, more senior, or more skilled. The findings are based on the employment histories of more than 3 million tech and finance workers, as reported on LinkedIn.
"The return-to-office mandates are having pretty specific and negative impacts and causing brain drain from companies," said Kyle, who wasn't involved in the research.
Perhaps with those types of concerns in mind, some leaders have said they likely would only tighten the RTO screws if productivity suffered. Among them, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in October that the company wouldn't require workers to come to the office as long as they remained on task when working from home.
Do you have something to share about your employer's RTO plan, something else at work, or in your job search? Business Insider would like to hear from you. Email our workplace team from a nonwork device at [email protected] with your story, or ask for one of our reporter's Signal numbers.
AT&T has been requiring office workers to report to a corporate hub on at least a hybrid basis since last year.
John Lynch/Business Insider
AT&T is requiring many office employees to work on-site a full five days a week starting in January.
The telecom giant previously accommodated a hybrid schedule in its return-to-office push.
The news comes as Amazon has delayed some RTO plans due to capacity issues.
AT&T's return-to-office mandate is set to get more strict in the new year.
The Dallas-based telecom giant confirmed to Business Insider that it is requiring all office employees to work on-site five days a week starting in January. The change follows about a year of AT&T accommodating a hybrid schedule in its widely publicized office push.
In the summer of 2023, CEO John Stankey said workers would be required to report at least three days a week to one of nine corporate hubs: Dallas; Atlanta; Los Angeles; San Ramon, CA; Seattle; St. Louis; Washington; Middletown, NJ; and Bedminster, NJ. The company previously supported more than 300 offices across the US.
Thousands of affected employees faced the choice of relocating or finding a new job, with some 18,000 management employees opting to return to one of the hubs, according to AT&T's proxy statement this year.
Now, some workers who may have gotten used to hybrid schedules will soon be required to log eight hours a day, five days a week at the office.
"The majority of our employees and leaders never stopped working on location for the full work week β including during the pandemic," a company spokesperson told Business Insider.
In multiple social media posts, Reddit users on the AT&T subreddit voiced concerns about whether the offices have enough capacity for employees.
AT&T told BI it is updating its facilities amid the policy change.
"As we continue to evolve our model, we are enhancing our facilities and workspaces, adapting our benefits programs, and incorporating best practices to ensure our employees are best equipped to serve our customers," the spokesperson said.
This week, BI reported that Amazon was delaying its 5-days-in-office mandate for some employees due to workspace shortages at some locations. While most locations are on track to be ready on January 2, internal documents indicated some employees will be delayed until as late as May.
"We continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in a September memo announcing that employees were expected to be in the office every day of the week.
AT&T is also expanding its footprint in Atlanta, where the company signed a lease earlier this year on two office buildings it had previously vacated, CoStar reported.
Shares of AT&T are up roughly 40% in 2024 so far, outperforming the S&P 500's 27% return in the period. The telecom giant reported mixed third-quarter results in October, adding more new wireless subscribers than Wall Street expected but coming up slightly short for overall revenue as the land-line business declines.
The RTO push comes as some big-company CEOs say they're frustrated with hybrid work setups. Many job seekers have also found that it's getting harder to find a remote job or one that's hybrid.
At the same time, some employers appear to have settled into a tentative truce over how often workers are required to show up at the office.
In an October survey of nearly 7,500 organizations globally, the recruiting company Korn Ferry found that the share of employers requiring workers to report to the office five days a week had dropped to 43% from 89% before the pandemic ushered in a global experiment in remote work.
If you are an AT&T worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out
In a KPMG US survey, half of respondents said automation β including AI β has boosted their professional abilities. Just shy of half said that automation would bring new career opportunities.
By comparison, 28% of workers said they might lose their jobs to automation, which has been widely touted as a concern. In a survey of managers last year, KPMG found greater unease about the possible toll of technological gains.
The latest findings are notable because they appear to indicate that workers are becoming more conversant with tech like AI β and not just ignoring it or fearing that it will replace them, John Doel, a principal in the KPMG US human capital advisory practice, told Business Insider.
"As adoption increases, people are getting more comfortable with the impact that's going to have on their careers," he said.
About seven in 10 surveyed said they use "automation tools" at least weekly, and one in three said they use them daily.
Doel said the rates at which workers are adopting the technology suggest that many are chipping away at a "fear factor" that might have existed around AI.
KPMG US surveyed more than 1,800 US workers at companies with more than 5,000 employees. About six in 10 of the respondents were managers.
Building skills to build their career
Some eight in 10 respondents agreed with the idea that building skills is important for their career. And about one in four workers said chances to learn are one reason they're staying in their jobs. Meanwhile, 22% said having the opportunity to learn and build their skills made them consider different roles.
Doel said that should be a sign to employers that investing in workers is a way to keep them. In the past year, he said many workers, particularly younger ones, have considered leaving their jobs. The employers that are helping their workers add skills are more likely to hang onto them.
"It's the No. 1 thing they could do" to retain workers, Doel said.
Even with training, however, limiting quitting could be a challenge for some employers years after the job-hopping frenzy of the Great Resignation. In the survey, 42% of employees said they'd considered leaving their roles in the past year. Millennials, who represent the biggest slice of the nation's workforce, were the most likely age group to say they'd considered it.
The main reasons workers thought about it weren't new: About one-third pointed to work-life balance, while a similar share identified insufficient pay. Another third said "feeling disrespected" at work animated their thoughts of resigning.
Doel said it's also not surprising that the survey highlighted a gap between what workers want and what employers want regarding where work gets done.
Five years since the pandemic rejiggered how many workers do their jobs, flexibility around where they work remains key for many employees. Seven in 10 survey respondents said remote work helped them balance the demands of their jobs with caretaking responsibilities.
Even as some high-profile employers β including Amazon, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs β have called workers back to the office, workers in the survey indicated they liked some degree of autonomy even though they see the office having benefits.
Forty-seven percent of survey respondents reported being more productive in the office, while 62% said the social aspects of working in the office helped foster a stronger corporate culture and their own sense of belonging.
Ultimately, Doel said, it appears that many employers and their employees have settled into a truce on the issue.
"That's not the top priority of organizations anymore," he said, referring to return-to-office mandates. "We've kind of reached a homeostasis."
Using AI for work-life balance
In some cases, Doel said, workers appear to be eyeing tech like generative AI as an avenue for achieving better work-life balance.
"They're looking at GenAI as one of the enablers of a more flexible work environment," Doel said. Workers who use tools like it to get their work done more efficiently might feel they could have a greater say in how they structure their jobs, he said.
Employees also see other areas where they could enjoy more flexibility. Two-thirds of respondents said they believed that a four-day workweek of 32 hours could achieve the same level of productivity as a 40-hour week. And 45% said efficiency gains from GenAI could help make a four-day week more feasible.
"They think it's going to allow them to be more flexible in their work-model contract with employers," Doel said, referring to workers' views on GenAI.
A recent firmware pushed to QNAP network attached storage (NAS) devices left a number of owners unable to access their storage systems. The company has pulled back the firmware and issued a fixed version, but the company's response has left some users feeling less confident in the boxes into which they put all their digital stuff.
As seen on a QNAP community thread, and as announced by QNAP itself, the QNAP operating system, QTS, received update 5.2.2.2950, build 20241114, at some point around November 19. After QNAP "received feedbacks from some users reporting issues with device functionality after installation," the firm says it withdrew it, "conducted a comprehensive investigation," and re-released a fixed version "within 24 hours."
The community thread sees many more users of different systems having problems than the shortlist ("limited models of TS-x53D series and TS-x51 series") released by QNAP. Issues reported included owners being rejected as an authorized user, devices reporting issues with booting, and claims of Python not being installed to run some apps and services.
