Now that the dust of the first layoff has settled, I’ve been hearing some anecdotal cautionary tales from laid off peers that they did not express 100% satisfaction in their first TellDell.
I didn’t do that first TD survey and was “randomly selected” to participate in another one that’s due this Friday. Should I just do it with all 100% everything?
It makes no difference to you if you do it or not as nothing changes, there will be a meeting to review results and an action plan put in place to help improve, but nothing will change, it’s just going through the motions to be seen to care.
A bit of context outside the "you can/can't change Dell with your TD responses" echo chamber... In terms of cybersecurity, systems can be locked down (ok, reasonably well, not always 100%), but people are the weakest link, when it comes to system intrusion and compromise. Disgruntled employees, or workers who aren't strongly connected to a company and vision, may constitute security threats, so it is just prudent for Dell to pay attention to TD respondents who are clearly unhappy. This is not some Big Brother conspiracy theory - this is simply common sense risk detection. So, answer as you wish, but be aware of how the results may be viewed and used.
If you think TD is the way to provide your "expert" opinion to change Dell for the better - then I have a bridge to sell you. It's also the same as thinking the HR department is your friend, that listens to you and will protect your rights. HR is people employed and paid for by Dell to protect Dell, not you. If you think otherwise, then you are probably a millennial /Gen-Z/clueless.
Yes, Tell Dell should be viewed as telling Dell if you still want to work there. I was laid off a decade ago 100% based on TD feedback. Honesty = laid off.
No one at this company is interested in truly improving the workplace; management and HR are all cogs in a machine going through the motions of a complex set of technical checklists put in place decades before them for the purpose of being compliant with local and federal laws and protecting the "company" from lawsuits. Everyone, including your manager, is afraid to lose their job and no cultural change will ever come from a TD survey or this company. It's all farce and you should never view a TD as a way to make your voice heard. Worked there for 15+ years and never saw one iota of real change or reflection that resulted in a better place to work based on a TD survey or just discussion about project post mortems.
You should mark positive scores across the board on those surveys and never fill in the free form text boxes. Best guess is that for lower management results are anonymous but the higher you go up they can see who responded with what. Even in an anonymous situation your manager is likely to pick out your review based on free form text feedback.
Also Dell's way of deciding who's valuable or not is a war room situation and the only one on your side is your manager. I was a "top performer", such a stupid term, and moved to a new manager when my old one left this one year. The new manager accidently CC'd me on the email chain with a bunch of managers that included every developer at the company and each was marked with scores and what they felt our skill level was. I was a principal software engineer at the time and was marked as being mid-level. lmao. Your fate is 100% in the hands of a manager with no technical experience, doesn't care what your skillset is prior to being at the company, nor during your tenure at the company and doesn't account the projects you've completed, that literally saved the company millions, as an indication of your contribution.
Dell is a dinosaur and were you go to have your dreams die, your skillset put down and to be in constant fear of losing your job
Layoff decision is based of TD or not, honestly I would not take the risk so I always say 'Strongly agree" even if I "strongly disagree".
Tell Dell is like a car salesman survey. You either give your manager the highest rating or he's fired during the next round of layoffs. Do you hate your manager that much?
Former Sr mgr in marketing here and I can confirm that TD responses are anonymous. You can see which replies came from the same person, but not who gave them. Everyone is given an ID but nothing that identifies the person. Its easy enough to figure out who the negative feedback came from either through their language or based on previous feedback. I was never blindsided by Tell Dell and if anything I've seen managers fired for repeated bad feedback, not employees.
The Tell Dell pulse check that was issued this week actually contains a series of questions that if you are honest about will help the planning of your org, role and future. If you take it in the spirit it is written it will actually help you get better support and bring more to your customers and to the organisation.
Ive been with Dell for a long time, always been honest but not OTT with feedback and not faced retaliation, even when the feedback differed from the company line. Just back yourself and reflect back what is important to the company and customer.
I don’t buy this at all. There is no evil conspiracy around Tell Dell. Give me a break.
Yes, and say your manger is amazing.
drink the cool-aid, lay low and collect a pay check.