Thread regarding CDW layoffs

The Brain Drain Is On

The consequences of how layoffs have been handled, the lack of a sound strategy, and the plummeting stock price are resulting in a major loss of talent. Coworkers are leaving for Google, Healthcare Organizations, other tech companies etc. Solutions Architects, Technical Expertise, Managers with specific insights, and others that formed teams built out over the last few years are exiting stage left because of a lack of confidence in leadership, no clear pathway forward, ridiculous bureaucracy, and hollow talking points from the Executive Team. As a result much of the effort and resources that went into building teams for new services and technologies over the last few years is now a clear and abject waste of resources and time, resulting in missed opportunities and long term damage in the marketplace.


by
| 3322 views | | 9 replies (last January 24) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1kf12yk5s

9 replies (most recent on top)

@1ew Many of us had RSUs as part of the integration. Those have fully vested with no more on the horizon. It's time to go, that or make less money every year.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @1g1+1kf12yk5s

Legacy Sirius coworker here. In my neck of the woods, the further we move down the new GTM strategy, the more calls I get about really good technical and sales talent….with decades of experience and relationships….taking offers elsewhere.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @1ew+1kf12yk5s

@qv CDW loves using acronyms while never defining them.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @10t+1kf12yk5s

These events, stock decline, lack of a planning, braindrain, and possibly organizational dysfunction are not accidents or result of fate but are more likely the result of stupidity. Here is a quote..."Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice…”
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @102+1kf12yk5s

The area sales director in SMB for East & Northeast might be the most in-effective leader I have ever came across. She has never joined a seller call, never come forward with original strategy, nothing.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @qv+1kf12yk5s

@b3 well the good news is everyone left will be cross trained as the offshore folks are bloody clueless. Purchasing, AR, bid desk contractors etc. It's great learning all of their jobs since they can't do anything right and even worse are confidently wrong slowing everything down. We will be much better at marketing our skills for a new job.

The vegas buzzwords were great to hear.

We should have one word, one mission moving forward. Execution. Nothing else. No other focuses or power play BS. Get back to basics and execute. I can't even get orders out at times sitting in CH for days. 0365 additions with lovely new errors in SF with a "we are looking into it." Great my customers are looking into it with other vendors thanks.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @kh+1kf12yk5s

Then let them. Free will.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @gm+1kf12yk5s

Welcome to CDW… where the company strategy over the past few years Clearly Doesn’t Work. Neither do the years-too-late ideas of leadership. Leadership tosses buzzwords around in their word salad, which no longer have any value or meaning.

We have become a reorg, layoff, and acquisition-to-save-face kind of company. Everyone incapable of leading gets a paycheck and pushes the same agenda—the same ones that have gotten us to this point.

The company of the past is no longer. We have become a “this is how we have always done it” type of culture, which has served us in this abysmal direction.

Call us the Titanic, with the band still playing “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” as leadership awaits the final gurgle of the soul of a once-reputable company, watching it sink into the abyss.

We should all look to save ourselves and jump ship, just as those on the liferafts before us have done.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @c2+1kf12yk5s

The obsession with propping up the stock price (with consistently lower sales and unmet, lofty goals) by cutting people has really hurt our organization. In the backoffice there has been a lot of turnover and rarely are people truly backfilled. More likely, they are offshored to a group of people who cost a fraction but deliver a fraction. (We won't even talk about how we pay consultancies millions while our own people walk or are let go.)

It is hilarious how much talk there is about cutting costs as if the repetitive layoffs, stagnated headcounts, and lack of promotions aren't going to wear people down and demotivate them. But, hey, at least Al will give some snarky update on the next all hands call and we can celebrate how some arbitrary metric has gone up or down by a meaningless amount and shareholders are unimpressed. Anything for those shareholders! But, oh yeah, coworkers first!! :(

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @b3+1kf12yk5s

Post a reply

: