Christy Tabors, a 35-year-old Texan, worked remotely for a Meta subcontractor. In spring 2023, she received a phone call – her job was being cut. She called her manager, who didn't even know about this. The decision had been made higher up. There was nothing unusual about Tabors' lightning dismissal. On TikTok, there seem to be more and more stories from home-working employees who have been fired. One had not been touching the keys on his computer often enough, so spyware deemed that he wasn't working hard enough. Another, a Cloudflare saleswoman, had "little chance of success," according to her managers, who dismissed her.

During the pandemic, large high-tech companies hired in droves. The end of the health crisis was followed by a wave of job cuts affecting white-collar workers, and particularly remote employees. The probability of being let go is 35% higher for remote employees than for those who are regular office visitors, according to a survey by software publisher Live Data Technologies, which questioned 2 million white-collar office and home workers in 2023. Their chances of promotion are also reduced by 31%.

"It's obvious. There is a proximity bias on both side, employers and employees," commented Jason Saltzman, development director at Live Data Technologies. "The manager feels closer to people he sees in meetings or at the water cooler." So it's the person who's absent who's going to disappear from the team when tough decisions have to be made.

High-tech groups don't like publicly mentioning their lack of appetite for remote working. They're too afraid of being seen as backward-looking by new job market entrants. However, some admit to preferring face-to-face working. IBM, for example, has asked its executives to move within an 80-kilometer radius of a company office. Senior vice president John Granger has clearly laid down the rules of the game. In a January 2024 memo, he added that from now on, someone must show up at least three days a week, or risk their job.

When the pendulum swings back

Another company, but the same idea: The computer manufacturer Dell demands three days a week on-site. In February, management explained its position. Those who fail to adopt this new agenda will no longer be eligible for promotion or a change of direction. Better still, Dell has instituted a color-coded control system. Blues are strongly present in the office, greens and yellows in the middle, and reds are very rarely there. This ranking is then taken into account for future promotions, annual appraisals and even potential redundancy plans.

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