Thread regarding CDW layoffs

@ww
It's not that CDW went public.

I've been with the company for 20+ years.
Company was public with Krasny (founder) and was sold to private equity I believe in 2006 ish maybe 05 or 07 (can't remember).
That whole time Edwardson was CEO. We then grew as a private company making moves that weren't scrutinized by the public because there's no stock price to worry about.
Richard's took over. So Krasny, Edwardson, and then Richard's grew the company and Richards was CEO as private equity took CDW public agian via IPO in 2008.

What I see happened was Leahy was mistakenly groomed to take over as CEO as the company transitioned from private to public.
Leahy rode the coattails of those leaders before her and she went woke instead of making sound business decisions.

Under Leahy...there wasn't just HR anymore but now there was a DEI dept created with VP's, Directors, and people who have nothing to do with technology or selling it to customers. All of a sudden hiring practices were watered down to check boxes. CDW's entire leadership team became comprised of women.

Where's the DEI team now? All gone and dept gone. Turns out there was only a focus on DEI all of a sudden because Biden was president and now no focus because Trumps president.

Our leadership would probably sell thier spouse out for more $$$ (oops...she already did via divorce).

It's really not complicated. But we have people with no common sense running things.

My insurance against these dummies is that I'm actually smarter than them and after years of saving and investing....I really don't need the job so whatever they do or say....doesn't effect my life financially...it just makes me mad that a place I worked for for so long and cared about is being ruined by elites that don't care for the employees that ALLOW then to buy $10+ million beachfront mansions in Cali.

@cs I was very good at my job. Over the last 14 years I produced hundreds of satisfied customers and millions in revenue for CDW, returning customers would ask for me by name due to the service I provided and how I provided it. CDW lost its soul when we went public. No more was it to find the best engineer for the job to ensure customer satisfaction, it suddenly was all about money. Our utilization requirements went up, as did our billable rate, we had vacation accrual taken away, and continual bonus restructuring to ENSURE that we'd make less for the same amount of work.

@ea "corporate bullying", isn't that against CDW's Code of Ethics. LOL

@k3
Over 1000+ views and his customers and various non CDW people responding.
I don't think it'll be taken down (even with the business relationship).
Post was even keeled and he said he resigned and he didn't slander or make any false claims. Freedom of speech since HR didn't have him sign anything (because of resignation instead of firing).
Surprised there haven't been more instances of this. I've seen random comments in town hall chats but they were beating around the bush and being snide....this was professional and legit and asked more than once.
Leadership just likes to avoid the elephant(s) in the room to avoid touching on any sensitive topics cuz they are allergic to accountability.
Remember there wasn't much corporate communication about the su----e in front of 120 years ago.

@OP What are the chances CDW finds a way to have that post removed on LinkedIn as it gains more attention? How dare anybody speak against them on any platform! This company su-ks.

Can't ask anything at an "ask ANYTHING" town hall.

So why have town halls?

Seems more like quarterly damage control and trying to control the narrative.
Maybe a sprinke of justification to keep their roles too with these fake forums.
Why are these execs still getting bonuses when everyone else in the org is forced to tighten thier belts.

If the warehouse or sales ever decided to stop clocking in...millions of $ lost every hour.

Imagine the warehouse unionizing or every sales rep refusing to login for a day or two....it would be chaos for management and up. What BS would they feed customers.

@ea
These people couldn't execute a pizza party as we've seen plenty of instances of "here's your slice but beverage not provided"
I know my team has repeatedly complained about daily processes that have eroded since Leahy took over.

Bids used to be done in 2-3 hours and now it's 24+ hours. Cases or needing help...resolutions were a few hours....now enter a case...wait a day or days for it to be assigned...then you get a resource to start things.

We all know how the company and management can bully individuals at CDW.
When a WHOLE team's individual members aren't hitting metrics....it's funny how maybe ONE coworker can be singled out and put on a PIP which is designed to push most employees out and not to correct behaviors.
Who really needs to be on a PIP is Leahy and each of her circle of overpaid skinsuits playing exec.

@ea He posted the question in the Teams meeting chat during those two meetings. I don't recall any of the management in either meeting addressing it at the time.

His post is clear that he was not fired. He said he resigned / quit. He claims it was due to "corporate bullying" or at least leadership giving him cr-p for asking the question. I would say that is WAY different than being fired for asking a question.
Was his question fair? Overall, the content seemed reasonable but I don't know if he asked it in print or verbally asked it. If it was verbal, what was the tone and what were the exact words? In either case, if his leadership then said something like "Maybe that was not the forum to ask that", I would not think that is the end of the world either.

I think the theme for all of us has been: It feels like CDW has tried to cut costs near the front line (layoffs, outsourcing, not backfilling roles, asking people to do more, having coverage gaps, not providing merit increases that cover inflation) and then CDW has turned around and spent more near the top (Record # of SVPs brought in, external hires brought in at a higher pay than their internal counterparts, hiring consultants that cost a lot of money, hiring multiple consultants from multiple firms, high benefits up top that may or may not reflect what others get, etc.).

I'd love to see is set our plan, stick to it, remove a little of the "fat" up top, slowly phase out the consultants, and just get back to executing.

@cs A lot of people know who this person is.

I’m just as much of a crybaby as all of you, trust me… but isn’t it possible that we shouldn’t just treat this guy’s LinkedIn post as gospel? Maybe he was also just not good at his job? How do we know he’s gone only because of the fair question he asked in the town hall? Don’t get angry, I’m just asking reasonable questions.

We honestly need more people to call Leahy and the rest of the nitwits out in public settings

@bt
Ahhh...I stand corrected.
Good on him though. Maybe he's in a position to push honesty since we all know it's rare anyone says anything like that these days or that added directness to leadership.
Most people I know feel the same and mentioned similar gripes but they wouldn't tell thier manager let alone 100's+ on a town hall. Crazy times we live in. Keeping my head down for now until I get rich.

@bc

Exact words from his post:

“ To be clear, I wasn't fired. I quit due to what I perceived as corporate bullying. That's how you treat bullies, cut them off. “

@bc Maybe middle managers shouldn’t be on power trips thinking they are untouchable? Oh wait they are, no matter how worthless they are. Imagine how much money the company could save getting ride of all middle managers who don’t provide any value whatsoever.

@ar
I read his post totally differently
Maybe I missed it and I'll look agian but I didn't see "resigned"
I had a former colleague that was "resigned" because when she called out her management for lack of just every day normal support, she was called insubordinate and disrespectful.

These people need to look in the mirror when they can't take any accountability or criticism.

Sounds familiar. Someone who criticizes leadership gets bullied enough to resign or fired. Way to go DUB. 👏🏻

What a legend for calling out Leahy for her lack of accountability. Somebody hire this man!

So lets start a campaign to ask the same exact question in every public forum. Let's get shareholders to ask it too.

I found his post on LinkedIN - it clearly says he was not fired but resigned after being confronted and, in his words, bullied about it.

He had actually posted the same question twice - once in an AMA and then again in a Town Hall. A few of us saw it and wondered what might happen to him. Wow.

What executive leadership in any company needs to realize is communication styles vary extensively from executive leadership to peons. This person, because of their courage in doing this, showed more loyalty to the company than anyone has.