A memo to all Dell employee from CEO Michael Dell asks workers to consider taking up to five days of unpaid time off to help prevent more layoffs. It’s the beleaguered PC box assembler’s latest effort to squeeze blood from a stone.
The Austin Business Journal reports, “According to spokesman David Frink, the memo from CEO Michael Dell says the new program calls for a temporary companywide hiring freeze, the elimination of contract employees, severance packages to those who depart voluntarily, and a voluntary furlough of one to five days. The memo also states that more layoffs may be necessary if the other elements of the program do not achieve enough cost savings. Frink declined to say how much money the company hopes to save via the program.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “CheekyGit” for the heads up.]
Looks like Mikey’s going to have to make due with fewer painted craptop lids. But, what about Enderle’s yes-man, er… “consultant” fees? Hey, maybe Mikey can make it all up in volume? 
I guess they are not coming out with DELL DJ Ninny Part Deux.
Work for free producing what…? poor employees
Maybe he could sell the shareholders and give them back to the company.
Wow… what a dramatic turn of events over the past 10 years. I would feign surprise, but really… With Steve at the wheel, we knew something of this sort would happen.
We’re going to see more and more stories akin to this in the coming several months as Apple gains market share and less people feel the need to buy these $400 disposable PCs.
At least they are showing some kind of compassion for their staff and giving them a choice. Maybe one of them will actually come up with a decent idea to save the company. It for damn sure Mike Dell was tapped with the whole supply chain idea. Skate to where the puck is gonna be and it ain’t net appliances
In all of this, we have to keep in mind that this is a very tough time for the Dell employees and must feel for what they are going through. No matter how much I prefer Apple over Dell, this is a huge loss to all that are working at Dell.
In order for Dell to free up enough cash for my bonus, a bunch of you will either have to take unpaid leave or I’ll have to lay a bunch of you off. But I’m going to get my bonus!
I don’t like Dell PCs but there will be a lot of real people getting hurt. I live in Round Rock TX and have many friends that work at Dell. Dell sells a lot PC but their margins are very thin and their tech support is a very high overhead expense.
@Dave
If Mikey does take a bonus this year, that will be a very, very bad sign for the company. Sell whatever stock you have left. Take the severance package if you’re an employee. But get out while you can.
Circling the bowl… hope some of the folks working at Dell can find jobs elsewhere.
And bobchr makes a good point that Dell is indeed handling this better than I’d have given them credit for, all things considered.
@ Passerby & Dave,
Hopefully, Mr. Dell is ethical enough to not take a bonus when his company is in such turmoil. He reportedly uses a Ubuntu-based laptop as his main computer. Ubuntu is also a philosophy… a way of being.
According to Desmond Tutu, “A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”
I feel so much Ubuntu for Dell employees.. wish yas only the best. Maybe you can find some work in Cupertino?
According to Desmond Tutu, “A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”
Yeah, just like Nature. (You know, the model for all things social in the Western world. The very same place in which a single rule prevails: ONE EATS OR ONE IS EATEN, with absolutely no regard for the greater whole or the needs of the commune.)
Samuel Butler titled his famous novel “Erewhon” with one purpose in mind: To underscore the fact that paradise exists “Nowhere.” God bless Bishop Tutu, but his words are ephemeral and puerile . . . as is Ubuntu.
Working in the Valley, as I presume a great many of MDN readers do, this is just the tip of the iceberg. All of us, whether in networking, software, hardware, telecom, etc. are starting to sweat, and contractors especially (being one myself). Having been the recipient of several layoff notices, I only wish the best to the employees of Dell, and hope they are able to find work in other areas of the tech industry. No matter what anyone thinks of Dell computers, those employees have families, and I wish only the best for them.
Of course Michael “Sell the company and give the money to the shareholders” Dell will save his beleaguered company from ruin by his timely return by innovating his way out of the companies problems, and investing in the future…
Hey that other guy did it, why can’t he? It can’t be that hard can it?
Volume is vanity. Profit is sanity.
Dell’s ditched. Apple’s ascendent.
And Microsoft..?
1st I hope the Dell worker and their families are ok when Dell kicks the bucket.
But they won’t be because CEOs and ‘upper management’ pay them selves way to much.
Every time you buy a Dell a baby seal dies.
WTF is any one really surprised?
Dell got drunk with M$ and after all the fun M$ date raped them with Vista.
M$ is a predator not a NatGeo type predator but a Hannibal Lector type predator
Mayor Quimby: Simpson, you idiot! You spent your entire year’s budget in a month! Your department’s broke!
Michael Dell: Uh…oh no! Wait! I think I’ve got the perfect solution.
Mayor Quimby:: You’d better! Because those garbage men won’t work for free!
Michael Dell: D’oh!
Hey Mikey! How about taking one for the team? You could start by cutting your salary and those of your board of directors by 50%. No, you say! Why not? It’s greedy, overpaid CEO’s like you, your high class friends, and the tyrants in Washington who got us in this mess. The time has come for you, your friends and the politicians in Washington to show a little intestinal fortitude and take responsibility for your mistakes. Get off the backs of your employees Mikey, and clean up your own mess. And with any luck the people will wake up and fire the entire lot of incompetents occupying Washington.
Maybe if they stop stocking paper towels in the washrooms?
Oh yeah, that’s a Ballmerism.
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@ Thinker:
Ubuntu also applies to someone who didn’t pay a fortune for a Windows license.
Oh, wait, I think Microsoft’s contracts to box makers like Dell state that you have to pay a Windows license fee whether Windows is installed on the PC or not, so Mikey actually paid the fee for something he’s not using.
Gee, I wonder why his company is having trouble?
At least they are showing some kind of compassion for their staff and giving them a choice.
Compassion? The choice is:
1. Volunteer to take time off without pay.
2. Be told you’re taking time off without pay.
Next up: Dell will expect employees to put in time for free, ala Wal-Mart.
While I hate DULL and Mikey, don’t gloat over more Americans losing jobs…you could be next.
I can laugh with the best of you, but people losing jobs sucks.
And it ain’t gonna change ’cause Obama gets elected either.
Count on that.
We need to level Capitol Hill.
Period.
@Randian
“Nature. ( … the model for all things social in the Western world. The very same place in which a single rule prevails: ONE EATS OR ONE IS EATEN, with absolutely no regard for the greater whole or the needs of the commune.)”
You’re confusing some Ayn Randian fiction with the reality of the natural world.
In nature, the species which work well together have the best chances of survival.
Wolves survive in packs. Lions in Prides.
Lone ants hanging out their own hill? Never.
And yes, even humans need each other to survive.
And the that better humans work together, the better their quality of life.
Maybe the acceptance of this fiction of “Must Step On Each Other To Get Ahead” is a contributor to someone’s tough economic times right now.