If you believe that bullc-ap then you're a fool. If you are chosen to get WFR'd in your group when your peers have not then that is personal. It's telling you in the stack rankings that you're the most expendable. So next time somebody tells you it's business then they're talking nonsense.
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I was WFR’d in 2018, and I don’t believe it was personal. I had been at EMC/dell for 20 years. I switched to a new department in 2015. In two years of working there, I never once interacted with my manager. His office was about 50 feet away from my desk. Two years, and one meeting where he got his people together and offered direction or insight. Not one single email congratulating the group, or me personally for an accomplishment, or getting involved when something was wrong to offer help sorting out an issue, or even to just figure out what the heck was going on. When lay-off time came, I doubt he even knew what we did. He cut half the department keeping the people who had been in their position the longest. The first time I met him was when they called a group of people into the room to do it all at once, which seems a little id–tic to me. I decided that I wasn’t going to say a word and not interact with him at all (at that point, what did it matter, anyway). When I hit the job market, it took about 4 months before I realized how grossly overworked and underpaid I had been for my skill set. I took as personal at the time and only months later realized that it wasn’t personal, he’s just a poor manager, and it ended up being the best career move I could have made.
In my group:
(1) Myself and another person was let go since we had the most seniority from EMC. The other person had 22 years from Legato acquisition. Paperwork showed we were both over 50.
(2). In my case, it was personal. There was going to be a switch off if managers. This woman and I couldn’t stand each other. She tried for 22 years to be a manager at EMC and was denied multiple times in multiple groups. Got a divorce to move to Austin office (same position) for getting her Nirvana moment. Now she is the manager of the group I was in. It’s personal since my former Mgr was hitting the happy hour wine during a 1:1 on Zoom and kinda crying me a river in July. Got some speech how the other person said they could run the group better they just needed a chance.
So this person who has taken over had a say. Hated me because I would not back up her lies in conference calls as she degraded people and told them they didn’t know how to do their jobs. I have integrity. I turned her into to her EMC manager and then just didn’t back her lies up since I have integrity.
That’s my story. Call me a cancer but I call it integrity.
I agree about the comments of the ISR org. During new hire training in Austin, they gave us a tour. I was amazed at what seemed like miles of cubicles with ISR's dialing for dollars. I was impressed but at the same time reminded me of "legions of salesbots", Not all of them but many are trying to brake out of there and I've seen many rat out their OSR and then get promoted into the same role as the person they displaced.
I agree about the comments of the ISR org. During new hire training in Austin, they gave us a tour. I was amazed at what seemed like miles of cubicles with ISR's dialing for dollars. I was impressed but at the same time reminded me of "legions of salesbots", Not all of them but many are trying to brake out of there and I've seen many rat out their OSR and then get promoted into the same role as the person they displaced.
“Because someone believes why people are let go doesnt ever make it grounds for a lawsuit nor was anyone speaking of behalf of Dell. Stating their opinions, like you are. Let's not bring about more conspiracy theories.”
It’s not a conspiracy theory. A person here stated “that everyone in their org that was let go was a cancer.” First - yes that individual is speaking on behalf of Dell, obviously. Sounds like the person is a manager. Second, there are some laws that do protect employees from wrongful termination. For example, if someone from a protected class is reading these posts, and reads these opinions from others about people being laid off for personal reasons, then later sees that Dell is hiring for their previous position and fills it with a younger person, or white or whatever - that could absolutely be good cause for a law suit. Thats why HR has a performance plan in place to conduct performance reviews - it’s not just for pay increases and advancements. Although America does not protect employees like other countries do, there are still some laws in place. Just saying that if someone who is in this position, may pay closer attention to see who is hired to take their place.
Opinion - anyone laid off who had a stellar performance history should not question that they were laid off for any other reason than a business reason. My point is, even if the “real” reason could be personal, the failure lies with the company and the manager for not addressing it correctly with the employee.
Oh my gosh..maybe someone who is happy where they work....imagine that..
" everyone let go in my group was a cancer"....probably a manager who needs to get a grip.
Because someone believes why people are let go doesnt ever make it grounds for a lawsuit nor was anyone speaking of behalf of Dell. Stating their opinions, like you are. Let's not bring about more conspiracy theories.
If Dell is laying people off due to performance issues and not following the law by not documenting so-called performance issues, then not only is that against the law, but it’s a major fail on the company’s behalf as well as managers. I had great performance reviews and nobody ever communicated to me that there was a problem and I was let go. Be careful about what you’re posting on here if you still work at Dell and believe that people who are laid off because of performance - it could be grounds to sue the company based on unlawful termination especially if they actually do hire someone else for the same role who is younger, etc).
It’s not fair to create the mentality that people are laid off from Dell because of performance. There is a process in place for that through HR and if someone has great performance reviews, and is laid off for reasons other than an actual business purpose - than that person has a right to know the real reason why. I’m also a positive person and their were others on my team who were extremely negative but they are still there. I know for 100% sure I wasn’t the problem in my situation.
If you are successful, Dell isnt letting you go. Just because you hit a number doesnt make you great. If you arent taking KPIs seriously and not being a team player, you need to re-evaluate yourself. Everyone let go in my org were cancers, negative about everything and was unable to find happiness. They also felt Dell owed them more than a paycheck. Get real. If you hated Dell so much, no one is stopping you from the door. And your customers will not follow an ISR.
What is ISR?
Perhaps a better description is selective layoffs. Dell needs to trim it's workforce, yes that is business in a slowing economy. The people in my group who were laid off were known as "difficult". So there is a personal side. The Dell ISR organization is the root of most of that evil. I've never seen the power of an ISR org like Dell's. How many people work at Dell - 160,000 or so? How do you manage that many people and decide who needs to be cut? I doubt that Dell is using AI to come up with these lists yet but that will come. For now, "your reputation" is pretty well known and the deciders hear all of it (from the ISRs) - that's what they do all day - listen to complaints.
Felt pretty personal to me when I got sacked. HR gives direction for the cuts, the management team you work under decides whether you make it to the lifeboat or not.
If you lose your job/income it’s personal. It’s just not for the business, for „them“ we‘re a number.
Mikey is a greedy man.
All of the individuals on my team that were hit by the WFR were the most valuable. They were making the big bucks. All of us left aren't making money as we have been here the longest, Dell didn't want to pay out. With all of the good talent leaving the customers will follow them. We're a slow sinking ship. I'm still at Dell so I am updating my resume and reaching out to go somewhere else. I wish they did voluntary layoffs...
While I don’t think that the choices are personal, I do think there are other factors besides work performance that are considered. I.e., “work culture” and responses to Dell surveys. I remember a recent survey that asked if we have considers working elsewhere and how often we thought about it. For me personally, I wasn’t in love with the Dell culture. And after reorg after reorg, I did begin to look around at other options. If you got laid off - think about some of these other things mentioned here as you proceed with your job hunt. It helps to analyze why it didn’t work out at Dell as you make decisions about your next opportunity.
Dell isn’t saving lives, and everybody is expendable. There are some areas of the business that are dwindling. For example, wouldn’t you agree that most people and businesses are moving to the cloud? Dell was significantly behind the times and is just catching up to what Amazon and others have been doing with regards to cloud technology and SaaS. It makes sense that cuts would be made to these other areas that are shrinking. It happened to me, yes it feels personal but I know I have a strong skill set and work ethics. I was not a low performer. I recommend rethinking your mind set on this because it will be important how you communicate what happened and why in future interviews. Remember - if our managers thought we had performance issues then it’s their job as a manager to communicate that to us so that we have a chance to correct, or fire “with cause.” My reviews were stellar.
I couldn't agree more. I voiced that to the manager who fired me, because let's face it...we were fired....and his response was crickets. 100% personal.