Thread regarding Dell Inc. layoffs

@aa VERY unlikely to ever happen but obviously a possibility.

Unlikely because it would make Dell look like a terrible place to work - people WILL talk and oust them for this. Dell doesn't want that.

It's trivial and unnecessary to do. It has no impact on the business or revenue - they already know this.

It would create pointless work for people who should/could be doing more important tasks

What difference will it make? Go in, connect to the wifi/vpn, then go home... Same thing people do already but with badge swipes lol

Those with multiple computers - such as myself - can just leave one in a desk drawer and bo-m. in office daily. I only need one computer for my job but have two.

There is a LOT more that goes into tracking via VPN is my point here... Badge swipes are honestly the most accurate and easiest and cheapest way to monitor

@n6 Good question.

Your computer is always connected to VPN so long as your computer has an active internet connection - be it at home, your phone hotspot, or other. However, the moment your computer loses internet, the VPN drops - but will auto reconnect the moment your computer regains an internet connection. Essentially, you cannot be on your computer with internet without being on the VPN.

That being said, when you WFH your computer is assigned an IP address that your ISP provides you (Spectrum for example) and it will be a "random" string of numbers that will look like: x.x.x.x (14.33.56.2) as an example. Which proves that your computer is currently on a private or public network that is not owned by Dell.

When you are actually at a Dell office, you connect to their internal WiFi and are given a 10.x.x.x address. That 10.x.x.x is owned by Dell and nobody else. Well, the second octet/network is anyways... 10.188/187/189/213, 113 etc...

Think of it as a geo-fence. Kinda sorta.

TLDR: It's very easy to see if someone - at least a computer - is at a Dell office

@n6 I very highly doubt they are tracking VPN, nor plan to but...

Basically, when you are on VPN you have two IP's. One is the "source" IP which is where YOUR actual internet comes from - your ISP, so Spectrum, ATT, Google, etc... You can't connect to the VPN without the internet. So, whatever your public IP is, is what gets logged as the "source" IP.

Then you connect to VPN and you are given another IP. That one doesn't matter though because it only proves you are connected to the VPN but, doesn't prove anything else.

Your public home IP is likely something similar to 16 random numbers - 13.34.222.5 maybe - but when you are actually at a Dell office, you will not have a "public IP" but rather an internal IP which would be 10.x.x.x.

Essentially, if your "source" IP is not a 10.x.x.x address then that proves you are NOT in a Dell office.

TLDR: If you don't have a 10.x.x.x IP address for your NIC, then they know you aren't in office.

@aa How does this work when our laptops are forced to use the VPN even when connected to the wires office network?

@ez not up to the mgr, but it is wildly inconsistent across different execs and orgs. my org dont care outside of the big population centers (roundrock, major india sites), and in those they track through the fact theyll see if people dont show up. which is the sensible way to do things, else you have everyone running to the office to set with a headset on and speak to other sites all day anyway.

then we have other orgs, sometimes under same svp, going crazy to push ppl in to the office

@cm idk man, i know that our execs don't particularly care that much but i also think they do simply to appease their boss, who's boss reports to JC and... we've been warned a few times by our manager/director to "make sure we go in" 5 days/week.

My honest guess is that our orgs execs dgaf and won't use that against anyone but, they want to be able to report to THEIR mgt "good numbers."

@cm lol it is, nor ever has been up to the manager dude... Ever. At the very very best it was up to the highest level exec in your org, who in some way or another reports to JC... Maybe your orgs VP/execs don't care but guess who does? Their boss. Why does that person care? Because they report to JC!!

@cm Quit being so dense you toaster... You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

Yes, badge swiping has always been tracked/monitored. That's obvious you d-mb d-mb. Nobody is talking about that though. Crawl out from under that rock you've been under and realize that Execs have been actively monitoring those badge swipes for the last year to make sure onsite employees are actually going into office.

And, RTO was quite literally never up to any managers "discretion" either. I was deemed to be "onsite" and yeah there was early rumors/talk about it being up to managers when it first came to light but, that lasted for about a week or two before it was mandatory.

I suggest you go re-read that policy because I 100% promise you that it is NOT up to a managers discrection. (Not that it ever truly was, anyways...)

@aa our org was asked to come in two to three days from the jump. Personally I have only averaged just over two days since the three day started and I've been promoted and received RSUs twice in that time. No one cares if you are coming in or not, it is up to your manager to enforce per the policy

@aa fu--ing DOUBT. Manager would have said something to me otherwise since they are out of state. I never even bring my laptop to the office to coffee badge.

You all realize that the badge tracking is the same system we have used for 40 years correct? And we have always tracked who enters which building at which time etc for security reasons, they just didn't expose the data until RTO. We continue to use the same system with the same tracking. Regardless, RTO is up to your manager per policy.

ODW went live. Old tools going away. Will everything work right off the bat? No.

More conspiracy theories about upper management. Management is flying blind.

"They don't was us to see this". "They don't want us to do that". LOL You people give upper management too much credit. They are hoping they can fix things on the fly. Real world, on the fly, testing.

Oh they still track, just through VPN logs, instead of badge swipes.

idk man, hopeful thinking but I highly doubt they stop tracking... You and manager just wont know about it

Most people probably never read the blurbs on the site visit page in workday, let alone the official RTO policy page so, even if they came out and said "we aren't tracking" anymore, most people wouldn't have a clue and will still be good little soldier ants and go in daily, when they dont have to.

IF they truly stop tracking onsite visits, we will not know about it via an HR email. It will be updated on the policy page in secret, knowing that 99% of people will never see the update.

Who knows dude... Just slowly stop going in and see what happens. 4 days one week, 4 days the next, 4 days the next, then 3 days for a few weeks, then 2 days... then 1 day.

I saw this as well in Workday before it was taken down... One can hope but, my guess is that it is still being tracked and only VP's and above can actually see these "dashboards."

They don't want us to see it, or managers, because they don't want us to be able to calculate days we don't want to go into office, or allow managers to tell directs that "your onsites are low, I'd start going in more if I were you."