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GM Orders More White-Collar Workers Back Into The Office

About 100 GM white-collar workers in the United States have been ordered to return to the office for at least three days a week, further reducing the number of remote office workers on The General’s payroll.

The report by the Detroit Free Press did not indicate how many workers will continue to have “fully remote” job status following the return of the 100 employees mentioned.

The GM logo at the Renaissance Center.

The hundred managers and other employees will need to be present in person on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday “at a minimum,” according to GM CEO Mary Barra. Some of those whose fully remote status was canceled on Friday will need to relocate in order to be within commuting distance of GM HQ, though the automaker says it will assist their move.

Spokesman Kevin Kelly previous noted that the push to return white-collar employees to the office for at least part of the week is related to GM’s push for an all-electric transition by 2035. At the end of 2023, Kelly said that General Motors is “going through a historical transformation” with its new EV initiative. He further asserted the insistence on a physical presence in the office “is a way to get more collaboration around that transformation.” However, he declined to comment on the most recent development.

The GM logo on the Renaissance Center.

The reshuffling of remote versus onsite work has been taking place in fits and starts throughout 2024. Workers complained about an abrupt directive to return to the office over the holidays, questioning whether actual productivity gains would result. Countering this, Mary Barra claimed in May 2024 that most returning workers are “genuinely” happy to be back in the office rather than working remotely from home.

This year, GM also slashed about 1,000 jobs from its software and service department. The Detroit Free Press says the number could reach 1,500 instead. The move resulted from a plan to “simplify for speed and excellence,” according to the company’s statements. The workers’ removal is expected to improve efficiency in software and services.

Future GM headquarters at Hudson's Detroit.

The location where workers will return to their desks is also in question as The General prepares to move to Hudson’s Detroit in 2025, where it will occupy the top two floors along with possibly having street-level showrooms. The current Renaissance Center towers could end up mostly demolished, with only one or two left intact for Detroit’s skyline.

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Comments

  1. Good, maybe quality will improve. If they resist, fire the crybabies.

    Reply
  2. Now press them on exactly HOW it will get more collaboration around that transformation and watch their answers get vaguer and vaguer…

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    1. It will look just like a Komrade Kamala interview…..

      Reply
  3. No more working by the pool sipping pina coladas… Lazy bums!

    Reply
  4. Great, now all of you can be distracted by your fellow workers for hours a day since everyone is in the office and you haven’t seen each other for a while. Unless they are hands on a product/component then this is so short minded. People act as if solutions to problems only occur from 9-5 with a group of people around them. Having people who only work via a keyboard back in the office is like saying we’re going back to leaded gas folks. Who knows, maybe one of those in person collaborations will result in someone figuring out how to get the Silverado EV (Avalanche Gen3) down to a more respectable price range….

    Reply
  5. Remote work is not for everybody.
    Same goes for EV’s.
    But there is lots of opposition on both topics from people either misinformed or opposed to changes made possible
    by technological progress.
    I can see increased numbers of job postings, for highly skilled positions, specifically asking for remote work.
    Maybe the most qualified candidate for a position lives in Ohio and he doesn’t see fit for his lifestyle to work from Renaissance Center.

    Reply
  6. Most of the remote workers I talk to spend most of their day cutting their lawn, walking their dog or hammering the missus. Who is also a remote worker. Once in a while, they send a few emails to pretend they’re actually doing something… Not a bad gig if you can get it.

    Reply
    1. If what are you saying is true, they will be weeded out sooner or later, their managers included.
      It means that they weren’t doing too much when going daily to the office.
      At least they are saving on parking spots and reducing the traffic jams.
      The change has to be managed but the concept is valid.

      Reply
    2. At Ford that is not the case. You will find most Ford engineers lose work life balance and tend to work 14 Hour days unwittingly. Even more. 2:00am emails. Not stopping until you’ve finished that print mark up even though it’s 8:30pm. This is the norm not the exception. Then having to survive layoff rounds every 14 months.

      Reply
  7. These are real comments from a retired gm engineer, This is typical see-saw management direction by gm upper mgmt. In the mid-2010’s, the company went to an ‘open office’ environment. They spent millions to tear out office cubicles in most buildings. We lost our ‘desk’ and personal space. No place to put your family pictures or file your documents. They issued you a file drawer in the hallway like a high school locker. Each day you entered a vast room with tables and monitors to plug your laptop into. It was a free for all for what seat you got. It was supposed to add to ‘collaborative effort’ among employees. In reality, since so many meetings were held by web meeting that I experienced many times people down the row of tables with their headsets and screens on in the same meeting – not sitting in a conference room face to face. And when you needed to go meet with someone you never met before on a new issue, they had no cubicle with a nameplate. I’d enter the open office room, call the person and ask them to stand up and wave! Then came the Covid debacle – and mgmt thought, Holy SH*T Batgirl, too bad we spent millions tearing out the cubicles that could have separated everyone. Now people are shoulder to shoulder in the open office. Let’s send them all out to work from home. Then along the way mgmt said we can recruit Silicon Valley experts that can work remote so they don’t have to move to the rustbelt of Detroit. And let’s not forget that upper mgmt also said that having a 4 year degree wasn’t an absolute requirement anymore.

    Now they want staff back in the office. With my points above, I wonder what the daily work environment and talent caliber is like. I am so glad I retired 5 years ago.

    Reply
  8. How come the Chinese don’t have this problem?

    They work on the 996 system. 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days/week and they can bring a totally new car to market in less than 2 years.

    Some people are going to have to pick-up their socks.

    Reply
    1. You mean work as slave labor like the Chinese?

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  9. I think GM is doing this to make the employees quit so they won’t have to announce another large layoff. I’d be curious to know how many of the workers live long-distance from the worksite?

    Reply
  10. Fords doing the same thing except quietly. They hired these directors living on the west who are allowed to work from their own home (no relocation required). Yet minions have to come in. Oh, and while you’re at it you better get your programming classes started because now you have to be software engineers and your PR. depends on it. Yes we realize your a mechanical engineer but cars no longer have moving parts don’t you know…it’s all software now.

    Reply

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