Thread regarding CDW layoffs

@2a2 I thought they’ did a bang-up job during their time together!

@29m what integration?? To date we STILL have acquired employees using their old sirrius email logos and the apathy, open hostility and I'm special because I'm not old CDW attitude prevails. That's just the people, we have customers who are still buying on legacy contracts and we aren't forcing them to use CDW pricing & terms. So I don't see what integration has been completed and no one in management seems to care or address it. They ignore reality while we treat this acquisition as a separate business entity.

@294 You probably do work hard, The problem is that the frenzied shifts in strategy coupled with a head in the sand mentality permeating the Executive Team has us all in an impossible situation. Not all Directors are created equal though. It is not a good dynamic between PK and those of us that intersect with him regularly.

@29 He hired Tara to spearhead Orchestration. That was what failed and she was promoted. It all fell apart after Andy left.

@29j Folding in= d-mbing down, inferior systems, slow and clunky processes and nothing in the way of tools. Eccles was smart to let the acquisitions run. As it is CDW destroyed, most of them and ran off good people after integration was complete.

@295 I hope that was a sarcastic remark. Eccles leaving had zero to do with the stock price and he is a big part of the reason we are in this mess. He refused to have acquired ITS companies fold into the business and instead let everybody use their old tools, operate their own way, have their unique titles and made ITS operate like 8 different companies... none of which understood how Sales operated. Andy was arrogant, sarcastic, and not a good partner on CDW initiatives.
We just got ITS back to being viewed as a single org (besides DV) until the January changes.

Maybe we should try to get Andy Eccles back. The stock kept going higher when he was here and dropped like a rock since he left.

I’m a director. This week we got chiseled hard on our performance stock compensation, that we take as a large part of our total rewards. Meanwhile, the c suite is getting plenty. I work hard and do what’s right for my team and I get results. I thought a year ago I had some financial security, but my portfolio is worth less than half of what it was, as our stock options are under water too. I’m sick right now about it, and very upset.

The people who were laid off and the layoff date isn't until May, were you given any extension or gotten your job back because of this great news?

@28d Stock from $250 to $124, even with. Billion Dollar repurchase. A failed acquisition with Sirius (2 Billion), no competitive advantage, key employees with expertise jumping ship to Google, Amazon, Dell, Apple, and myriad other suppliers and partners. Zero vision on how to move forward and employee morale at an all time low with a toxic corporate. Culture. If you don't think that's a freefall than you have zero understanding of the signals in play.

@281 Absolute freefall- love the hyperbole. 5B prints per quarter is not freefall. Stumble maybe. Market hates us, but this isn’t going to zero.

@27x That's ridiculous. Most of my team is overworked, has had to pick up slack because of layoffs, and work nights, weekends, and holidays. You don't know what you are talking about. The only game we are playing is "Where's Waldo" as we change directions weekly to respond to erratic and irrelevant edicts from panicked directors and VPs who are in denial that we are not in absolute freefall as a company.

As long as our coworkers continue to play video games all day and do the bare minimum this company will go no where.

You know who you are. You’re stealing. Go ahead. Deny deny deny. But managers are finding your platform profiles.

@247 But we’re an all weather team, right? We have the Olympics too. Hang on. Things will get better. Just you wait.

@OP You have no idea how bad this actually is. The "pop" was a shell game. The fundamentals are broken because the Executive Leadership Team doesn't have a strategy to success in a rapidly changing sector. In 2024, the stock price was just under $250/share. Today we're at $125. That's despite a billion dollar stock buyback to prop up the price, self-inflicted damage to the company through haphazard layoffs, and failed acquisitions that never fully integrated because there WAS NO PLAN. We are drifting against the rocks- rudderless with a self-serving leadership team that is just interested in their own compensation.

@d9 “ I'll take a nice win / stock increase for once. No need for negativity on this. Thrilled to see stock going up again.”

So about that….The stock increase lasted a week before it plunged back down (-10%) to where was prior to the call.

What a ridiculous comment. Numbers were moving back "up", yet multiple people were laid off as they still off-shored multiple departments.

Numbers don't matter anymore, no one is safe. Ever.

@1ha awesome. I used to sell cool stuff. Now I spend more time babysitting web orders, chasing error codes in the router, and entering cases than doing anything proactive to hit my #. I should do likewise.

@p1 interesting you say that given i left recently for a new job thats essentially doing the exact same thing as i was doing at CDW (and a significant amount less of it because this company actually knows how to staff properly for employee growth & wellbeing rather than flogging a dying donkey) for 6 GRAND more. I think im the winner in that equation.

When leadership slows down every factor in the sales process...this is what you get. How is selling the same laptop or warranty or even service...take longer with significantly more steps actually bring in more $.
Analysts and investors can also check out info and feedback on Redditt and even this site to get a feel for what leahy doesnt discuss on earnings calls.
Shocking how some people are in crucial leadership positions and aren't being exited. Rip the band aid. It's not the core employees who have put the company in this position.

@1cx then we'll have mediocre march and abysmal april......

Things will improve after Fast Start February

@1cq I'd argue we aren't the highly touted "all weather team" unless the definition is we're always under the weather. But we'll get our standard 3% merit raise and force out a few under performers and call it good. Why don't we ever see the Board forcing pay reductions to the VP & Dir level management? Are they supposed to be the brains of these carefully architected strategies and GTM plans to deliver value? By moving accounts around the same sales regions and suddenly labeling them enterprise isn't a strategy and will just move the chaos to newly named old accounts. Are we getting more support staff, more focus on pipeline validation? Are these accounts really the big deal, over $50M, over 100? What are they? Does anyone have a definition yet?

Dropping fast. No positive impacts in sight. Just ongoing gaslighting - “all weather team”, “Limitless”, “it’s not me/us, it’s the market”. No accountability or ownership, and certainly no reductions or salary cuts in leadership. Ineffective management will continue to stay safe, break their arms patting themselves on the back, and they will continue layoffs to those that are most vulnerable. Job well done!

@OP And one week later the pop on the stock price is essentially gone. A bunch of major shareholders saw the underlying weakness, took the immediate uptick and got out.

But at least we have the Olympics sponsorship.

@p1
Lol...there are a lot better companies to work for that compensate better for the same effort. Directors and VP's have voluntarily left and have obtained similar roles at companies with better trajectory...as have some high performing/earning AM's.
Keep doing you and getting milked until you're dry.
Actual intelligent/"capable" people can make money anywhere btw.
There's a difference between being cocky and having confidence in one's self but you're brainwashed if you can't see what everyone else is mentioning and couple that with the almost 50% drop in stock price.

@hc You are all being driven away and replaced by smarter, more capable people. You think CDW has low pay? No YOU have low pay, Because you are being slowly forced out and you are too scared and ignorant to change. Good luck sheep.

@d0 Clearly written by a shareholder and not someone who sees the actua systemic challenges that are like an iceberg the company is steering directly towards.

@da A significant percentage of this was Busjness pulled forward from this and next quarter. Don't drink the Kool aid on the pitch on yesterday's call that it was a de minimis amount. It isn't.

@dw You clearly don't work here.

@dw
The strong will continue to make money and perform well regardless of how the company performs overall. Doesn't fix the overall issues however.
Adding to the above...as pay diminishes in relation to the extra red tape to do the same work, eventually those strong performers find places that better value and reward them.
$ for sko's but no holiday bonuses. High earners aren't going to go broke over not getting a holiday check but it's just another change that shows how far things have fallen from previous leadership to current.

@dk Thin the herd. The strong survive, including you presumably. Why shouldn't we make a strong company with strong people and give all the sh-t work to India? Yes, I know some of the leadership is pretty bad. But if you think about it, what do they do on a daily basis that has literally anything to do with customers? Use AI, become a machine of productivity and work life balance, and an alpha coworker, and be secure. CDW is better than many places. They reward effort like a kindergarden class. It's so easy to be at the top here.

@dk
I believe AR was moved overseas and customer relations as well or that's in the works. On the seller side...it's better to have newer/younger AM's and just shift accounts around to manage the amount of commissions paid.

@d0
People that think everything is going great is why the decline keeps happening. Keep doubling down. C-level has been getting bonuses and pay increases while they decrease pay for people that keep the lights on while outsourcing overseas as well. When people feel stuck, you get negativity and the bare minimum. Tenured coworkers also know what things were like before the existing leadership took over. 5-6 year lows doesn't just happen for no reason.

I’m not celebrating as this was done by firing people. CDW is counting on a bunch of people they’re hiring from India this coming year to keep the cost down. Instead of insisting sales teams actually do their job and sell product and leadership learned the business so they stop making silly calls.

@d0 No, we accept reality and the continued lack of leadership that makes us lag behind much smaller and better-led companies. A good quarter is great news but look at the last 6 and you don't see a long-term path, just jump on ai and say now we're experts and buy stuff from us? We have a very long way to go and a less than stellar strategy team guiding the future of this company. What are we? AI experts? SAAS? Consultants? HW ??? We sell whatever we can sell and call it a temporary success, we're the kamikaze sellers. Get better executives in and judge them on actual successes not empty PR releases

I'll take a nice win / stock increase for once. No need for negativity on this. Thrilled to see stock going up again.

No matter what this company does, the haters will hate. And we work side by side with them while they secretly hope we will fail. Toxic people , toxic results. You’re an infection that needs to be cut out.

@OP -7.93 % over the past 5 years. Hardly a celebration when tech ETFs are up over 100%. lol. On top of that we’ve bought back a ton and until we are viewed other than a drop ship fulfillment engine we will shed coworkers and prime for a low value acq target. Look for debt restructuring and radical headcount rationalization soon

They keep pushing that free cash flow to investors narrative.....behind the curtains we all know what's going on.