Quick Poll: How Many Direct Reports Does Your Manager Have? What's the sweet spot range? Anyone has a mgr outside that range?
22 replies (most recent on top)
I think between 18-23, not sure.
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@cq Since you said she I'd be surprised if your manager can handle a single direct report properly. I know good female managers exist, but in my 25 years at Dell I have yet to encounter one that could mange their way out of a wet paper bag. I literally had to teach my last female manager the difference between Outlook and Teams.
My manager has 47 sales reps as direct reports.
@ce Dell has already lost some of its best people, and this didn't happen overnight—it's been the reality since I joined. The problem? The social escalator only works for a select few. On paper, there's equality, meritocracy, all of it; in practice, none of it applies because the game is rigged. It's only gotten worse these past few months, and while one VP was demoted, that's nowhere near the accountability that's actually needed.
Right now, I genuinely believe Dell is in an employee crisis. They botched global headcounts by the thousands, and now they'll have to pay top dollar to attract new talent—or rehire the people who already left for Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle. Getting back on track is going to be extremely difficult. When a company gets its priorities wrong and chases financial results through unethical layoffs, the path to recovery is always ugly. They fully deserved what they created.
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You can look on the org chart and see that information. Or at least you can today. After May 3, who knows.
More than she can properly handle.
@ce Per Ethan Mollick, there is a lot of academic evidence that optimal span is 10:1
I presume we'll be closer to that a few years from now as our employee count continues to shrink
one comment on Dell expanding manager's span min to 20+ IC's without changing any surrounding processes. it didn't work, didn't create empowerment. Coaching and accountability disappears, and the manager becomes a bottleneck for the few decisions that do need escalation. High performers notice who's getting away with what, morale falls, and the people you most want to retain are the first ones to leave. without process change and support mechanisms, it's just understaffing and driving burnout.
21 with one giving 2 weeks notice tomorrow and another interviewing to move to another role within Dell.
28 but there is yet another reshuffle on the way so i am guessing a bunch of people got let go
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23 EMEA
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@OP Doesn't matter. Whether it's 1 or 51, Dell managers are clueless.
Think about it more students per teacher worst grades. It is the same more employees per manager shi_ty outcomes
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found it here it is @OP+1k7j45c6v
there was a post the other day, cannot find it now maybe someone else can, someone claimed 32. My has 9 - she's very capable I think she can handle 15 - but she's an exception.
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