Dell complaints

[nuke]

Without Prejudice



Hi All,


Today is my last day working in DELL . Please accept my heartfelt thanks to fore mostly Alison Daniel and Paul Bester and to all the other amazing people that I have worked with during my tenure here.



To put it bluntly,



It has been nice to witness and to enjoy the first-hand experience by seeing the stagnancy of DELL Cyberjaya. The facility here has long been mooted to add/increase the number of headcount but until today I have failed to see any sort of improvement at all. Instead of the much-anticipated growth, we kept on experiencing attrition/resignation, and this is not limited only to the EMEA support teams here but it was increasingly widespread throughout many different teams/departments here in the Cyberjaya facility. Without exaggeration, believe it or not, this is really happening here.



For all the promises made that the headcount has been approved by the upper level but until now no one can really see the changes whatsoever. Perhaps the Walk The Talk phrase does not really being applied here.



Here comes the most pathetic part. The performance appraisal in DELL Cyberjaya has not been carried out genuinely enough. The process was ill-conceived. The values of honesty and impartiality were entirely absent. On one hand, an introvert and taciturn worker are being awarded with an "E" just because the person was very good in bootlicking and kowtow-ing the bosses. On the other, the complete opposite type were awarded with a mere "V" despite all the hard works, the laborious effort that this people have put in, and the valued contribution that the person has made. When you go and ask your HRG or even your Manager demanding for an explanation as to highlighting this monstrously unjustness. The response that you got is like this; "You are actually being rated highly but not as expected". What they are trying to imply here is that you haven't done enough to deserve a place in their so-called the list of favourite employees, and you need to establish visibility. In order to be visible, it entails people to work 24 hours non-stop and spend 24x7 of your precious time in DELL! That's probably the definition of an "E" performer here.



I feel doubt whether DELL is genuinely adopting the practice of "classless meritocracy" as what they have been preaching about. In a highly reputable multinational company like DELL, that ought to be one of the hallmarks.



Joanne Leong, DELL has made probably one of their biggest mistakes by hiring you, or I would say that the previous Director who hired you has simply committed a huge mistake. Apparently you are no better than my 80 years old Grandma where she can converse in better English than you do (both in spoken and written). It surprised me when you claimed on the other day that you don't know the differences between Windows Vista and Windows XP. You don't even know how to create a PST file from Outlook and I have to personally create it for you. Respect was never garnered in the first place. It was shame that you have called yourself a Manager. To work under you and to receive day-to-day instruction from you was indeed very demoralizing. God have mercy on DELL! Comes as no surprise when the company have decided to demote you, and you now are becoming a mere powerless IC. Frankly speaking, if I were you I would have tendered my resignation within 24 hours. People here are still very much wondering about your presence here in DELL. People have been wondering about your level of contribution to the organization as a whole.



As for those sycophants in the ONLINE team who know nothing but to bootlick your superiors and eventually being rewarded with an "E", I would say that maybe you can do the same elsewhere but what benefit you would reap from it? Now you probably know the feeling when no one has accepted your meeting invitation and you had to beg to call for a meeting! Next time you have to learn first to accept other people's meeting invitation!



Steven Martin has explicitly told us to leave DELL. The statement was made in an internal meeting held with the ONLINE and CRM team on the 21st of Feb 2008. Figuratively speaking, it was a blow right between the eyes.



For some of the EMEA folks especially those within the team please don't ever try to underestimate the capability of the KL folks here. We came to DELL as fresh as a daisy with a high expectation. All of us came to DELL with several years of industrial working experiences under our belt, coming from various technical background and expertise. We have seen much bigger things prior to joining DELL. Many of us were well-equipped with the hands-on experience and possess intimate technical knowledge having working with the cutting-edge technologies spanning the heterogeneous environment. None of us were fresh school/college leavers.



To the People Managers who are keen on making promises that you know you can't keep! You may need to consider doing a little bit of research in expounding the true meaning of the WALK THE TALK phrase. All the promises were thrown at me before like a dangling carrots, "false hopes" given by the previous managers, none of them have been materialized thus far!



It was sad from the beginning to see an increasing number of talented people started leaving the company. More and more good people tend to leave the company like nobody's business. Well I'm not quite sure if the company would ever consider in conducting a "root-and-branch" analysis in the wake of this alarming scenario. There are so many points to ponder about here. There seems nothing constructive has been devised so far by the Cyberjaya management here.



It is very important for the company to nurture and to groom talents. It is also very important to address the issue of employee retention as it should become an urgent across-the-board management concern.



Last but not least, one cannot deny the fact that DELL is a great Fortune 500 company to work with. Unfortunately it's the PEOPLE here who have spoiled the environment, and this has been very destructive to the original course.



P.S. I don't see this as a way to merely vent my spleen because of all the disgruntledness but rather more constructive views of what is really happening here. Many people believe that criticisms need to be made with decorum and civility, but to a certain extent we should not allow the truth to go unsaid. Every dark corner should not be left unexposed. Somebody has got to say something! For the betterment.....



To all my beloved friends(Strictly Only for Friends) you may contact me via my email :- magenmt@yahoo.com

Thank You,

R.Mageswaran

[FallenAngel]

That letter was pretty poignant, if I may say. It addresses a lot of concerns echoed among other LOB's and even other countries. It's true that sychophants are the only "E" raters among us, while the rest toil away twice as hard, with twice the production, for a mere "V" rating. Boot licking and brown nosing is the call of duty inside Dell, and meritocracy is nothing more than a corporate feel-good buzzword generated by the superiors to try persuading eager future employees to the deck.

Meritocracy never existed in all my time within Dell. Not once did I see any value or justification for the word, or because of it. The boot lickers who were coined as "yes men" were the ones that reaped the rewards that were offered. Those that actually did their jobs without cause or concern to bow down and begin licking were overlooked frequently, and as a matter of due diligence.

Attrition being what it is within any company, is exponentially different inside Dell. A certain estimated figure is expected annually in just about any company, be it a Fortune 500 or otherwise - though Dell seems to be glad that they are grading on a curve in that aspect. Root and branch would only serve to further expose the corporate skullduggery that is preeminent in Dell's halls, and as will always be clearly demonstrated, Dell is neither concerned nor bothered by these events. This is because you are just a number to them, as with the parts they dish out. You are never a person there, you will always be just a number on their payroll.

Shedding light on flaws and weaknesses is also a fast way to get a target painted on your back. Dell does not want to hear about where they can improve, because improvements cost money. If your proposal is a new way to milk even more money from customers while taking more away from the employees, chances are very high that your proposal would get a green light and a fast track to implementation. Anything to the contrary, such as improving conditions, enforcing meritocracy, improving morale, reducing attrition will be met with a handshake, and a promise to "look into it". You'll find your proposal in the trash the next day if you want it back or were looking for it.

It's a harsh reality check to observe that a company as widely known as Dell, and once a place that so many wanted to be a part of, is now akin to a Malaysian shoe factory. When you stop caring about your employees, they will stop caring about you. When you stop caring about your clients, the consumers who buy your product, they will stop buying. Dell is taking great steps to avoid the problem altogether, and looking for the biggest pair of blinders available on the open market. If they don't see it, then it can't be happening, right?

I used to be the biggest Dell pimp/fanboi on my block. Every second word was Dell, or something Dell related. Within a month or less that all changed, when I saw Dell for what and who they really are. A shameful company run by even more shameful people, making the same shameful mistakes day in and day out. Watching the company from the inside was like watching a dog chase its own tail.

Trashing this place used to give me such immense joy only because I had privately hoped that some, or most of what got said on this board would resonate somehow, somewhere, with the right people. Nowadays, it brings almost no joy because it's just too damn easy. Now it's like picking on the only crippled kid in your class. The one difference standing out, that Dell crippled themselves.

Dell reminds me in almost every way of a faded rock legend that has long since passed their prime, and they're trying to bring the noise. All they can manage to bring is heckles, and jeers, and a chorus of boos.