the first rule of employment: If someone offers you free money to leave? you take it.
You're exactly the kind of person they are trying to get to leave -- someone who is only in it for the money and doesn't believe in the mission.
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Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
11–20 of 49 posts
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'd take the $2k vs. working at Zappos, or does the money have to be a material amount? I don't think I'd walk away from Tesla or SpaceX for $100k. (I might walk from Tesla for "a Model S", IFF I thought I could still go back a few months later, but that's just gaming the system.)
not op, but "You'd take the $2k vs. working at Zappos, or does the money have to be a material amount?" Isn't that part of the Zappos standard procedure and not an "event" like this? If I read lsc correctly, then if some event occurs where the company offers money / severance to leave, you are better off leaving. I don't know if anyone has stats on this scenario, but I'm inclined to think the recovery is the long odd…
Yeah. that's pretty much it. If they are offering people money to leave, they are doing layoffs, but instead of firing the low-performers, they are getting rid of those most able to get other work.
Now, sometimes it does work out for the company; if you've got no other options, sure, you will put up with worse treatment and do more work.
either way, it's a pretty strong sign that the company will very shortly become a place I don't want to work.
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're exactly the kind of person they are trying to get to leave -- someone who is only in it for the money and doesn't believe in the mission.
I would love to hire people like you... people who are willing to take a paycut and small stock grants in order to fulfill my grand mission: to make myself as rich as possible.
I would usually just upvote, but this is such a spot-on, perfect comment I wanted to say, well-said.
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#14If you believe it's about "the mission" I have a bridge to sell you. When management offers a buyout, it's about to cull the workforce. It's a go-to private equity trick. Silver Lake probably realizes that Dell can do just as much with a lot fewer people, so getting rid of the excess workforce will result in an instant shot in the arm for profits.
That said, offering buyouts can be risky. On one hand, they're better for morale than just firing a bunch of people. On the other hand, anybody who has any sense knows that buyouts means that layoffs are imminent, and so the ones who have the most prospects elsewhere (i.e. the people you want to retain) will be the first ones to jump ship.
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#15the first rule of employment: If someone offers you free money to leave? you take it.
You're exactly the kind of person they are trying to get to leave -- someone who is only in it for the money and doesn't believe in the mission.
That's one way to put it. Another way to put it would be that they are someone who understands their value and understands that their own personal identity and success in not tied into that of their employer, and that an employer who doesn't want to pay competitively won't have a mission worth believing in anyway.
Either way, of course, you can see why a company might want to get rid of that type of person.
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're exactly the kind of person they are trying to get to leave -- someone who is only in it for the money and doesn't believe in the mission.
I would love to hire people like you... people who are willing to take a paycut and small stock grants in order to fulfill my grand mission: to make myself as rich as possible.
Why does not taking this offer imply taking a pay cut and small stock grants?
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#17I remember when my share options were worth $52.
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're exactly the kind of person they are trying to get to leave -- someone who is only in it for the money and doesn't believe in the mission.
That's one way to put it. Another way to put it would be that they are someone who understands their value and understands that their own personal identity and success in not tied into that of their employer, and that an employer who doesn't want to pay competitively won't have a mission worth believing in anyway. Either way, of course, you can see why a company might want to get rid of that type of person.
Why would taking this deal imply you aren't getting paid competitively?
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#19the first rule of employment: If someone offers you free money to leave? you take it.
Only if you can get another job easily. And I don't think this scheme is meant for those people, those people may very well be excluded from the scheme altogether.
Re: Dell tells staff: If you haven't got stomach for private era, leave
#20the first rule of employment: If someone offers you free money to leave? you take it.
Well, note who is explicitly excluded from the buyout:
"People working in the Software Group will not be allowed to join VSP, neither will folk with vice president in their title, nor exec/ distinguished directors in engineering or employees in India or Singapore."
I don't know who's included in the Software Group, but it probably includes a lot of people like those who read HN.
I once worked for a company where buyouts were offered - we had seen the handwriting on the wall for quite a while. Engineers were excluded and I was an engineer. They came nowhere near their target buyout numbers and finally, grudgingly, offered buyouts to engineers. I took the buyout.