From the good days of real, innovative work that gave us satisfaction, to a corporate shell chasing only the bottom line. I'm close to retirement, so I don't care anymore what happens to Dell. But I'm profoundly sorry for the younger talent that's been burned and discarded. If there's any advice to give, it’s to seek another company or find a different avenue to apply your skills. This has become the kind of company where you join just to watch your dreams and ideas die.
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Exactly. This isn’t an “economy” problem it’s a Dell choice. Headcount is being squeezed, comp is flat, promotions are basically frozen, and expectations keep going up. Tools are sh-t, processes are bullsh-t, and leadership keeps asking us to go “all in” while taking away the basics. Even the work environment reflects it cut travel, cut investment, cut morale… he-l, they even managed to make the coffee worse.
When people at peer companies are getting raises, promotions, decent tools, and treated like adults, it’s hard to pretend this is normal. Dell is optimizing for Wall street and has forgotten about the people! I can’t spend 8 hours a day of my life here anymore. I have to get out. I don’t think maverick is going to do anything positive for the people, but it will surely end more jobs.
@dh Dell seems to be doing things that a company losing money would do, not one that keeps breaking its own financial records.
I'm in my late 30s and have been at Dell more than 10 years. I completely agree with you!
It's not really an industry or economy problem, more of a Dell problem. My friends at other companies are doing great. Sure, there are a lot of layoffs but until they're laid off (if at all) they're having a good time. Pay is good, promotions and raises haven't been a mess since the past 5 years, there's budget for travel, office infrastructure is great, tools and processes aren't constantly working against them, cafeteria has edible food, etc etc etc. Can we say the same about Dell?
No matter who you are and what you do here, leaving is the best option. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get out and everybody else should too!
@de I don’t think it’s so much a bad economic time in tech or revenge for the advantage employees held during the lockdown. It’s the Dell culture that is draining the morale of most employees.
You work hard, see the company make money, yet you’ve seen your best colleagues let go in what seems to be a random WFR. You want to do a good job but can’t help feeling you are next.
I have friends and former colleagues who landed at other tech companies. They don’t seem nearly as depressed as we do.
I've been around Tech for a long while. What's happening across the board is the pendulum swinging back in favor of companies. Will it come back where the employee has the advantage? I don't know. Dell's purchase of EMC follows the process of getting rid of redundant people and processes. Whenever you do that, the internal processes will suffer. All the company needs to do is look at the stock price. As long as it is tracking upwards, they will continue whatever plan they have.
Young people in their 20s are already seeing the writing on the wall. They will not make the big purchases, they will not have kids etc. If you don't see a future, why would you plan any of these things. Until the future turns brighter in Tech, this will continue.
I could have written this one several months ago before I retired. I started at EMC and saw the growth of the the storage market, the Dell merger was a shock but as long as Dell had a laissez faire attitude as the legacy EMC division continued to set the trend for the market and make tons of money it was still a good place to work.
Unfortunately Dell is following the path of the US Automotive industry of the 70s and IBM of the 90s. Big, fat, and complacent at the C-Level. Much more concerned with the bottom line than innovation anymore. The bean counters, as Lee Iacocca called them, are more interested in their yachts and multiple homes than in turning out innovative and exciting products.
I used to admire Dell. I’m old enough to remember when Dell pulled itself out of the laptop market because MD himself thought the product was inferior to the competition. Now, when a product doesn’t sell, Dell blames the sales people.
PowerStore was mired in bureaucracy. Engineers and technologists who worked on the product from day 1 were unceremoniously laid off yet the management bloat continued on. Management blamed on people working from home and not enough collaboration.
I could go on but I’m preaching to the choir.
To the OP - best of luck to you.
I feel sorry for the younger generation not only from a Dell perspective, but from a wordly perspective. Alot of ugly cr-p out there. Boys are girls, girls are boys, some are neither, the political landscape, young folks not able to find jobs, rent/property ownership unattainable. I think there is a positive side of being retired and not having much time left.
WOW good POST. I am in my early 50. I thought I would retired at Dell at beginning because I didn't see any hope at Dell and Dell was a good place to retire. But someday one company called me and wanted to give me an offer. I am busy but happy now. I think I can work for more couple years.
I'm mid 30s and have been with dell for 6 years now. I was hired on RIGHT as covid started hitting the US and so was forced remote from day 1 essentially. I was a contractor before being hired on FTE for a year and in that single year, Dell was a totally different company. Different as in, better. Since then? It's been constant layoffs, lack of promotions, minimal raises, no budgets, bla bla bla...
If there’s ever been a post that captured the arc of this place, it’s this one. Hard to argue with any of it.