What determines who get's laid off and who is kept?

Would love to know if any REAL managers have insight as to how/why employees are let go versus others.

This is MY opinion so take that as you will. It's worked out for me in every job I've had and, Dell being a company that is on a 24/7/365 layoff frenzy, I'm still sitting pretty good.

If you don't want to be laid off then just be a middle ground employee. Try to border the "top performing" employees area but don't go much further than that. Be easy going, easy to get along with everyone and don't start arguments/conflicts; and don't voice any strong opinions or cause controversy. Basically, just stay as neutral as possible because the more you are "known" - for good or bad - the bigger the target is on your back during layoffs.

Be noticeable but not TOO noticeable. Get in with some managers/directors and do them favors sometimes. Be friendly to everybody and do "under the table" tasks for them if they are in dire need. But most of all, just form and maintain a great personable relationship with your manager.

Managers always say "they had no choice in who to let go" - That is 100% BS unless HR/execs are simply wanting to get rid of high earners to save money. HR and execs have NO idea who you are, what you do and how well you do your job. Your direct manager does, though.

It's more beneficial to get rid of 5 people making 150-200k/year versus letting go 10 people making 50-70k/year. The math doesn't math up but you get my point I hope.

Strategically speaking, you get rid of the highest salaried low performers first, then the bottom performers overall, then if necessary, low performers in between.

Managers/directors have a checklist for layoffs that determine who they have to let go/who stays. It's more of a 1-10 type of check box but to keep it simple... Kinda how Tell Dell surveys work.

Does he perform well in his job? yes/no (1-10)
Is he easy to work with? yes/no (1-10)
Is he liked by his coworkers/others? yes/no (1-10)
Does he go above and beyond? yes/no (1-10)
Does he call in sick often? yes/no (1-10)
Does or has he had complaints against him? yes/no (1-10)
Do they volunteer to take on tasks/projects? yes/no (1-10)
Are they habitually late? yes/no (1-10)
Are they reliable? yes/no (1-10)
Have they had any write ups/coaching plans/PIPS?: yes/no - this will do it right here if you have and many/most of the answers are "no/indifferent" in the above questions.
Any HR tickets filed against them? yes/no (1-10)
Have they willfully broken any company policy? yes/no (1-10)
Have they attempted to steal confidential information? yes/no (1-10)

I made all of this up as I have NO clue but these are my guesses as to what some of the criteria would be. My dad was a sr. manager at Motorolla, Freescale and AMD for 20 years and he told me that when he did have to do layoffs, he had a "matrix" type sheet in which he'd rate employees on based on a bunch of questions; similar to the above. I'm sure Dell does it similarly.

I don't think most people are laid off at random though.

#Layoffs #Performance #Policy

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Exactly 💯. Putting too much thought into a single company—especially one you’re not even excited about—is wasted energy. You’ll get way more return by investing in yourself, building skills, and creating multiple income streams. A side gig or personal project not only makes you less dependent on a paycheck, it also boosts your confidence and value in the market.

@h7 Agree. The college hires won't have worthy mentors as time passes. The good ones are gone and moved on.

not sure the direct manager or director can save the employee often times it is the VP of that organization. If you were laid off chances are you were very good at your job, had high tenure, and were at the upper end of your pay compared to the kids they are now hiring.
This is classic rinse/repeat what companies do as they must meet their hiring goals/quotas set from the state/government. These entitled spoiled kids who just graduated college need their job at dell to make themselves feel like this is a good career path

Forced Ranking. I always paid attention to where I stood on Merit and Bonus at PR time. All the other stuff is behavior and emotion by these 'Leaders' which you have no control over. Keep your dignity throughout.

It starts from the top down: Bain and Corp Strategy. C-Level signs off of re-org/efficiency projects and then it's given to VPs to implement.

It really varies, there is one certainty. If you are friends with a director initialed NK or DW, you really don't have to worry.

First of all, there are two kinds of challenges.

% , "get rid of X% of your headcount".
$ , "you have to save X$"

Previously, it's been mostly #1. Now we're going through waves of #2. That's why you people high and low and especially "high cost locations" are being hit hard. At the end of the day there's no manager that will keep someone with a high salary if that means they have to fire so many people that it'll push them under the threshold of how many direct reports they need to have.

As far as who decides? Generally speaking the manager has a say in in it, but there are exceptions to this as well. There has been instances of full teams being wiped out and then it's of course the manager of that team that decided to fire them all, including themselves. Same goes if only the manager is sacked, obviously.

Are you familiar with stack rankings? If you are in your managers bottom 10%, you are at risk. If you are in your manager’s top 20% there is a good chance that your job may be saved if it comes up on a list for WFR. I think that the original list for WFR is generally generated from a cost reduction standpoint. If your cost center is told to reduce its expenditures by a certain percentage than they will start looking at who they think they can get by without. Frequently one old US employee makes as much as younger Indian employees so it’s pretty easy to make that call.

You lost my attention at "Would love to know...". Take a breath

Why do we rarely see leadership or management layoffs? It’s always the producers. Then they turn around and push that work down on the people left. No rhyme or reason. You’re a body, you get the work now. Then we’re stuck doing the work of three people, no salary adjustments, just a virtual group hug because even though we’re in the office, the leaders sit behind closed doors all day in their office. Nothing like seeing people have a 1x1 with their manager, sitting at their desk while their manager is 20 ft away behind a closed door.

During workforce reductions, decisions are not always based solely on individual performance or past contributions. Factors such as role redundancy, business restructuring, and cost management often play a larger role in determining outcomes. As a result, even high-performing or long-tenured employees may be affected. It is important for employees to recognize that organizational needs, rather than personal loyalty or achievement, primarily drive these decisions.

@ad lol so your takeaway and what you are most angry about is assuming someone's s-x? LOL.

@ad I mean, chances are actually very very VERY high that it WAS a "boy" manager.. Given the fact that the IT/Tech industry is overwhelmingly dominated by males. Statistically most women aren't managers in most industries, and very few care to be managers in IT/Tech companies, so there's that...

Seeing as you are clearly an unhinged liberal who worked for a conservative company, I understand why you were let go now. You should focus your liberal rage on looking for a new job. Maybe FB will take you in? They are liberal and maybe they will accept you!

No, I don't trust you lol. Why tf should I? There is absolutely NO way you are older than 25 with the naive entitlement you have shown lmfao.

I hate to burst your bubble but, EVERY SINGLE PERSON in any company is absolutely expendable. Your KPI, metrics, sales, productivity don't matter. Those are important but, there are far more things that come into play for those who get fired or laid off. Personality being a big one, btw...

Everyone is replaceable, literally everyone. Everyone is expendable. We are nothing more than an employee number on a giant Excel spreadsheet that is easily erased with a click of a button.

Your customers may be pi---d but, guess what? That's not your problem anymore and I promise you, customers are very used to dealing with account managers or whatever tf you were, leaving, moving to a different role, or whatever... and getting a new person. That's just part of it. Either way, it's not your problem anyways lol. No sense in being angry about your customers you dont have anymore.

Calm down. Realize that there are much better companies to be at than Dell. If you were laid off in good standing and didn't make enemies or burn bridges, then you will be fine finding a new job. But I have a feeling you were let go for a reason based off of your comments....

Again how do you know it's a boy u d!ck head god. You know everything you dont trust me! Even if I was in sales does not make me expendable I was valuable I knew both EMC and DELL systems intimately my customers are pi---d they have no one to go to. GOOD job dell replace people that not only know your sh!t products with dum--ss 22 year old good fu--ing luck.

@aa Calm down little boy. I'm not wrong though.. I may not be 100% correct but I'm also not entirely wrong, either.

idk what org you are in but I think it's safe to say you are in sales... other than sales and maybe a few other orgs (if any, actually...) you get a salary and that's it. There is no "top earner." If there are 5 people on my team and 1 makes 150k, one makes 135k, one makes 120k, and the other two are 100-115k, that's what they get per/year. Throw in the annual bonus and it's slightly higher.

Not every org is about Sales bro lol... Which you are clearly in because as I said, the only departments that have "highest earnings" are under the Sales umbrella. HR, marketing, PR, IT, etc... don't have "high earners" as they just get paid what their salary is.

I have noticed there are a LOT of bitter sales folk in this forum, though.

@aa Yeah, no sh!t... That part is obvious. Didn't think I needed to include that in my post.

God you could not be more wrong! The people in my group were high earners and then some. It's all about how much they cost you id--t! Older you are the more you cost even when you are the freaking lowest paid but had the highest earnings.
It has nothing to do with anything but age and how much you cost period. They do not look at anything else.

What my manager told me is they gave him a % of money that needed to be cut across our org handed to our VP then divided up among his management staff. Sometimes you cut a bunch of lower earners but more often than not you get more "bang for your buck" cutting out a few in the middle or top.

Don't be one of the top paid employees either. When it comes to slashing budgets, they don't care how good of an employee you are.

@a6 I'm not but, am just curious

Who cares though?
Don't waste time on the ins and outs of any given company. Especially one undesirable as Dell.

Better spend that time and energy on building you as a marketable product that other companies want.

Even better yet get a side gig so you dont have to rely on a pay cheque from any company.

Thread regarding Dell Inc. layoffs

What determines who get's laid off and who is kept?

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