Thread regarding Dell Inc. layoffs

Also creates a paper trail in case the termination is challenged.

Worked there for 26+ years, almost all the people I knew of that were on PIPs were because of lackluster performance. Keep in mind that relative performance is up to the manager and managers come and go - and so do expectations.

Del l is terrible about having multiple pay grades doing the same jobs. So if you are a "level 3 consultant" and you have level 1s and 2s doing a perceived better job than you, then you can get hosed.

Dell is also a pet shop - they love the puppies and kittens but the older cats and dogs get much less attention. You may know how to do everything and it takes you less time to get it accomplished, but the younger ones just look better than you and give off the impression of more energy. It's just the way nature works...

Welcome to the jungle, life is not fair all the time.

I got dumped on a PIP for absolutely no reason, even though I was outperforming most of the team. Total garbage move. I went to HR, laid out the facts, and they ripped me off that bullsh-t PIP instantly. If this ever happens to you, don’t stay quiet—raise he-l, escalate, and drag it into the light, because this kind of cr-p is nothing but retaliation dressed up as “performance management.” Meanwhile, a bunch of dead weight sat on YouTube all day doing jack sh-t, and they got off scot-free. The people actually working? We got slapped with PIPs. That’s how broken it was. I reported the whole mess to HR. That clown of a manager is finally out, but not before gutting the team and either firing or driving away every good employee we had. He didn’t “manage” a team—he torched it, and the company let him. Pure incompetence, pure cowardice, and pure toxic leadership.

Because of the first commandment: Thou shalt leave no pennies un-pinched.

My suggestion is if you are ever put on a PIP, do the bare minimum possible to stay on the PIP. I was put on one in 2017 and I want to say it was a 3 month thing? You are being forced out at this point and so you might as well milk dell for the money while doing the absolute minimum possible.

I milked tf out of mine because I hated my job at this point. I came in every day but didn't bother to be super super super on time like Pro Support demanded. I got there and was "logged into" my phone when I chose to be. Who gaf if I'm a few minutes late logging into my phone at this point? Not me.

We had a program called "ICE" that was used to monitor each person's phone call and record it. I found a way to disable it, which was easy to do if you know what you are doing and now how to use the CMD CLI on Windows lmfao.

So now, nobody could monitor my phone convos, how often I answered the phone, and my metrics were essentially untracked, etc etc etc... So I'd answer calls like normal to seem like I was "working" and if the caller was nice, I'd help them out. If they were diks, I'd rapidly start pressing the "mute" button while talking so it sounded like the connection was bad; then I'd just hang up or transfer them to some random a-s department lol; Bc fk those people who are diks calling in for help. I'm not paid enough to put up with verbal abuse.

Anyways, I did that for right under 3 months. About half way through the PIP, my manager basically told me I was going to fail and gave me the option to quit and have the PIP not go on HR records if I chose to go back to Dell, + he'd give me an extra few weeks of pay. Or, I could battle the rest out, get fired and get nothing.

So, I straight up told him that unless he can get me 1.5 months worth of pay for quitting right now, I was not quitting. He said he couldn't do that, so i said I'm not giving up on this PIP because for each day I'm there, I'm getting paid. He smirked and told me he doesn't disagree lol. He was actually a REALLY cool and nice manager too so, I felt a little bad doing this; but it was his side kick who was the a$$h0le - and he was the one making people's lives miserable by being a metric pr--k who nit picked EVERYTHING.

I quit 2 week before my PIP was supposed to end. My manager said he wouldn't disallow me from getting unemployment if asked and even gave me an extra paycheck. I forget how I worded everything and what I did but, he told me to send him an email saying I was resigning as of xyz date, so he could pay me an extra check. Oh, and I also got unemployment afterwards.

Money. Unemployment liability if you lay someone off. None if you fire them for non-performance.

Why? The reason is very simple and it all comes down to saving money. Most people don't realize that when put on a PIP, your workload increases and they make your job 200% harder than it actually is because they WANT you to fail. PIP's are not made to help you get better, nor are they meant to see you "pass."

The thing is is that, very few managers want to put their directs on a PIP but they are forced to by their boss/leadership. Usually it's positions that have a lot of metrics around it - such as sales.

A) If you fail a PIP, you get fired which means Dell isn't legally obligated to pay unemployment or a severance. Doesn't mean you can't get both but, LEGALLY dell doesn't have to.
B) If you decide to quit during a PIP, again... Dell is off the hook for unemployment and a severance. Again, LEGALLY dell doesn't have to do either but back in 2017 I was put on a PIP while in Pro Support and ended up quitting half way through. My manager gave me an extra months of pay, and I also got unemployment.

PIP's are a sneaky way of forcing people out and/or firing people without having to "pay out."

THAT's why people are put on PIP's.

And it's a lot of stupid work for the mgr.
When I was a mgr we HAD to put 2 people on PIP and 2 people on "coaching" by our VP. No matter if the whole team was high performers or not. Completely insane what has happened with the company.

@OP Exactly. Lots of paperwork for same end result. Maybe giving managers something to do while they wait to be let
go.