In a major policy change, IBM has told its large number of remote workers, move into one of six regional offices or leave the company. The Register reports, citing a confidential video message to IBM employees.

Michelle Peluso told IBM’s US marketing staffers they have 30 days to decide if they wish to stay or go. The six offices include North Carolina, Austin, San Francisco, New York City, Cambridge, and Atlanta.

Peluso characterized the move as a way to improve IBM’s marketing in competition with competitors by engaging workers shoulder to shoulder. “Bringing people together creates its own X factor,” she said in the video.

The Register calls it IBM’s “Marissa Mayer” moment. Mayer, as CEO of Yahoo, made a similar policy decision early in her tenure, eliminantion most remote work because she believed staff would perform better working together in a Yahoo office.

It did not improve Yahoo’s sagging financial performance or much of anything else.

The Register says IBMers see the move as “little more than a transparent effort to cut costs at the expense of remote workers.” The company has posted 19 consecutive quarters of declining revenue and is headed for a 20th. Remote workers should actually be less expensive than those requiring a desk, office space and equipment.

You have to wonder if part of this is not just management preferring to have employees where they can be more closely monitored or an effort to appear to be doing something to turn the tide of losses as the company transitions to a new business model focused on cloud, security, analytics and mobile.

IBM is expected to extend the policy to other departments and countries, The Register writes.