Reality is, given the uncertainty and hostile work environment in many groups the attrition rate is high enough to reduce or even negate the need for layoffs. Most the people I know that had 5 or more years tenure @ Dell, myself included, have left for greener and less stressful pastures and from what I can see that trend is only accelerating.
Why would anyone with marketable skills want to continue to work where micromanagement, constant badgering, and veiled threats of job loss via the now ubiquitous PIP are the norm rather than the exception? The average age of Dell employees is getting younger and the pay rates lower with a consequent reduction in experience and product knowledge and even the newbies get burned out after a year or so and move on. Dell is reverting back to it's days of being a box pushing sales machine solely interested in bottom line revenue and anyone that believes otherwise has either had way too much of the Dell koolaid or is supremely baffled by the management BS.
Posted by @SSjXycj-1vwn.