REPORT: Dell Layoffs Are About To Hit And Could Be Huge
Sources told the Register that Dell may lay off as many as 20% of its U.S. sales and marketing people and 30% of its sales and marketing staff in Europe. It's hard to say how many actual jobs will be cut across Dell's entire employee base of 111,300 people.
Dell sent us this statement that neither confirms nor denies a pending layoff, nor the number of jobs involved.
Dell continuously evaluates and implements opportunities to improve our operational effectiveness and allocate our resources. When necessary, we'll continue to make tough decisions to help ensure our long-term success - some of these decisions may affect our workforce. Meanwhile, we are committed to building upon our multi-channel approach to serving customers - channel, online and direct - and are investing in sales coverage and training. We won't comment further on rumor or speculation.
A source close to the company told Business Insider that nerves are raw at Dell's Round Rock, Texas headquarters.
Last month the company asked workers to volunteer to be cut, called a "voluntary separation program" (VSP), where it asked employees to quit in exchange for a severance package. Not every employee was eligible. Some employees were not happy about the program, saying they had to throw their name in the hat weeks before they would hear if they were accepted.
A source close to the company tells us that the employees heard on Monday who was accepted. This source says that the most heavily affected departments were finance, services, accounting, and sales. Employees who got the ok must stay until the end of January, we're told.
This source thinks that if a broader layoff is coming, it might not be for a few more weeks, until after all of the people leaving under the VSP program have left.
Now that Dell is a private company, we'll see if and how it reports the layoff.
If it rips the bandage off all at once, Dell could be required to notify workers of the layoff a month in advance under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. That law requires companies to disclose in advance layoff information that affects more than 500 people in a single location.