I left a decade or so ago, and I can echo this… They were my first corporate employer. I survived 6 reorgs in my first 3 years as my department shrank from ~55 people to 11, pay was frozen the entire time. The overall workload increased if anything. By the end of it, I worked out that my scope of work was covered by ~60 people in our nearest comparable office.
I was fully vendor-funded (effectively an embedded resource for a close partner - there’s really 2 options here), and as the cuts progressed, I was loaded up with multiple “secondments” where I was doing my entry-level job plus the jobs of between 1 and 4 senior managers for no additional pay. The vendor eventually found out, were understandably furious with Dell, but loved me because while it took a toll on my work, I was still the best in the world at what I did, and it sas clear I was pushed into it. Dell also fought against a payrise the vendor wanted to give around this time (the only one I’d had in years after CPI was giving me an effective pay cut in a role most people burned out of in <6 months) because Dell had been on a pay freeze for years.
Before long, the vendor relationship lead (from Dell) pulled me aside and told me that the vendor was pissed at me and were coming for my job. I looked him square in the eye and told him that doesn’t track - I’m delivering results an order of magnitude better than any of my global peers, and have a great relationship with anyone that matters on their side. If this is a vendor issue, I’ve got to reason to look for a job - my livelihood is on the line here are you sure this a vendor issue? He looked me square in the eye and said yes. I had a similar story from the department head and my manager.
Next day, the vendor calls me, and tells me Dell want to axe me to free up headcount (remember I cost them nothing, and brought in serious revenue), and offered all the support they possibly could, including jobs on their side (far more prestigious). They then went in to bat for me, causing material damage to the relationship, but ultimately failed.
There are some great people at Dell, but from an organisational standpoint, they’re dishonest, stingy, short-sighted, incompetent, slavedriving scum, and tend to actively select for the same in their people managers beyond the bottom tier.
I’ve worked in some scummy, cutthroat, burnout-fuelled industries, but haven’t since encountered the leven of institutional dishonesty and incompetence I witnessed at Dell. I genuinely don’t know how they’ve managed to continue to limp along for as long as they have.
I left a decade or so ago, and I can echo this… They were my first corporate employer. I survived 6 reorgs in my first 3 years as my department shrank from ~55 people to 11, pay was frozen the entire time. The overall workload increased if anything. By the end of it, I worked out that my scope of work was covered by ~60 people in our nearest comparable office.
I was fully vendor-funded (effectively an embedded resource for a close partner - there’s really 2 options here), and as the cuts progressed, I was loaded up with multiple “secondments” where I was doing my entry-level job plus the jobs of between 1 and 4 senior managers for no additional pay. The vendor eventually found out, were understandably furious with Dell, but loved me because while it took a toll on my work, I was still the best in the world at what I did, and it sas clear I was pushed into it. Dell also fought against a payrise the vendor wanted to give around this time (the only one I’d had in years after CPI was giving me an effective pay cut in a role most people burned out of in <6 months) because Dell had been on a pay freeze for years.
Before long, the vendor relationship lead (from Dell) pulled me aside and told me that the vendor was pissed at me and were coming for my job. I looked him square in the eye and told him that doesn’t track - I’m delivering results an order of magnitude better than any of my global peers, and have a great relationship with anyone that matters on their side. If this is a vendor issue, I’ve got to reason to look for a job - my livelihood is on the line here are you sure this a vendor issue? He looked me square in the eye and said yes. I had a similar story from the department head and my manager.
Next day, the vendor calls me, and tells me Dell want to axe me to free up headcount (remember I cost them nothing, and brought in serious revenue), and offered all the support they possibly could, including jobs on their side (far more prestigious). They then went in to bat for me, causing material damage to the relationship, but ultimately failed.
There are some great people at Dell, but from an organisational standpoint, they’re dishonest, stingy, short-sighted, incompetent, slavedriving scum, and tend to actively select for the same in their people managers beyond the bottom tier.
I’ve worked in some scummy, cutthroat, burnout-fuelled industries, but haven’t since encountered the leven of institutional dishonesty and incompetence I witnessed at Dell. I genuinely don’t know how they’ve managed to continue to limp along for as long as they have.
I’ve doxxed myself enough now. Fuck Dell.