I just heard from a friend that the 300 people in the Consumer Dept. at Dell were fired today with no warning and told to pack their belongings and go.

wow. any particular reason? -M

I don't know any details. Surely it will break on newsok soon.

consolidation. 2 departments.

Typical big corporation. Laying people off at the drop of a hat.

No doubt this rumor will be confirmed to be true, or proven to be false at some point in time. That aside, does anyone know how many jobs have been created and actually filled since the opening of the facility? Give or take 300.

oh that's horrible.... a little notice would have been nice..

These people have children and families to take care of... plus, it's a horrible shock to be fired/laid off without advance warning.

I don't think I'll buy a Dell again if this is how they treat their employees.

I read that Yahoo will lay off 1000 workers.

oh that's horrible.... a little notice would have been nice..

These people have children and families to take care of... plus, it's a horrible shock to be fired/laid off without advance warning.

I don't think I'll buy a Dell again if this is how they treat their employees.

I read that Yahoo will lay off 1000 workers.

I never understood how Yahoo! had many employees to begin with. It's not like they're generating much content. They just link Reuters and AP news, and what few products they have, there are a lot of other companies out there doing the same thing better.

At least Dell has a tangible product with decent quality at a competitive price.

More proof that the economy is in the crapper

bet the unemployment office is fun today.

The econonmy in Oklahoma is doing fairly well, non skilled jobs are always the first on the chopping block.

In today's job market you are crazy if you do not have a degree or some kind of fomal job training. If nothing else you at least need a dual background resume. That way if you lose your job you have something to fall back on.

Just posted on Newsok.com 10 percent lay off. Always wondered how bad is the economy when I see at least ten new cars being driven around. The malls still crowded on the weekends, same with restaurants. Which I learned in school that when ppl go out to eat it means they have some disposable income. But then again I haven't taken much in the way of economics classes. Sad for the Dell ppl.

Dell to lay off 10 percent of Oklahoma City workforce


By Don Mecoy
Business Writer


Dell Inc. will lay off about 200 workers as it eliminates the consumer sales division at its Oklahoma City site.

Dell Spokeswoman Kathy Oden-Hall declined to discuss employee numbers, but said the layoffs affect “a relative small percentage of our overall population.” After the layoffs, Dell’s employee numbers will “hover around 2,000; maybe a little more or a little less,” Oden-Hall said.

Roy Williams, chairman of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, said about 10 percent of the local workforce was being laid off. Williams estimated about 200 people would lose their jobs.

Dell briefed city and state officials about the changes, Oden-Hall said.

“These decisions do not diminish the importance of Oklahoma City as a key strategic site for Dell,” Oden-Hall said. “All other business units located in Oklahoma City will continue operating and aligning their business to meet customer needs and business demands.’

Dell’s business technical support unit will expand its operation in Oklahoma City, Oden-Hall said. Current members of the consumer technical support group will join the growing business technical support unit, Oden-Hall said.

The moves are part of a company-wide global restructuring, she said

But, it's all for the good of the company and the share-holders.

Very unfortunate. You think they would have given their workers at least a month's warning or so to find new jobs. Oh well it could be worse. They've already closed centers in Oregon and Alberta recently.

Just more proof that the economy is really sinking and no amount of rebates or on-the-fly rate cuts are going to help.

Now why would they give their employees a month's warning? That means they'd have to pay them for a month. Isn't it to the stock-holders' advantage that they terminate the employees immediately. It's all about profits, remember. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's just the way big business works.
They don't care about their employees, except for the productivity they can get out of them. And when they're not productive anymore, it's "see ya."

If I recall correctly from my human resources courses in college, a company that employs more than 500 people must give a significant amount of notice to its employees if it is going to close down an operation. How this affects a specific section of their workforce through a layoff is unclear to me. But seems like there certainly has to be a month or two of severance pay for these employees at the very least. I had a friend who worked for AOL and was laid off; he received a nice severance. Now, he is among those in this round of layoffs at Dell. So unfortunate.

Typical call center to fire a mass of employees without warning. I used to work for AOL here a few years back and not too long after I left they let go a whole department. A few years later they shut down the whole place. When I was there there were almost 3000 employees. That's why the city needs to quit going after call centers. Yes, they do pay decent (better paying for the types of people that work there, non graduates, students, blue collar), but they sure are pivotal on a good economy. Sad to see this happen.

What's even more sad is that Dell's spokeswoman, apparently doesn't know how many employees they had before and after this. Shouldn't a MAJOR US COMPANY and the managers over each dept. or site know approximately how many employees they have, if not exact? ( I know they hire frequently) but a manager should have a close figure.

Dell to lay off 10 percent of Oklahoma City workforce


By Don Mecoy
Business Writer


Dell Inc. will lay off about 200 workers as it eliminates the consumer sales division at its Oklahoma City site.

Dell Spokeswoman Kathy Oden-Hall declined to discuss employee numbers, but said the layoffs affect “a relative small percentage of our overall population.” After the layoffs, Dell’s employee numbers will “hover around 2,000; maybe a little more or a little less,” Oden-Hall said.

Roy Williams, chairman of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, said about 10 percent of the local workforce was being laid off. Williams estimated about 200 people would lose their jobs.

Dell briefed city and state officials about the changes, Oden-Hall said.

“These decisions do not diminish the importance of Oklahoma City as a key strategic site for Dell,” Oden-Hall said. “All other business units located in Oklahoma City will continue operating and aligning their business to meet customer needs and business demands.’

Dell’s business technical support unit will expand its operation in Oklahoma City, Oden-Hall said. Current members of the consumer technical support group will join the growing business technical support unit, Oden-Hall said.

The moves are part of a company-wide global restructuring, she saidThis is just another case of we the taxpayers being screwed once again by corporate America. Dell's spokesperson states that after these 200 layoffs that their workforce will "hover" around 2,000 jobs. Therefore prior to the layoff they (Dell) employed around 2,200. Yet, when Dell approached our City leaders with their hands out asking for "Economic Development Incentives" of Millions and Millions of our tax dollars, which they recieved, they promised our City 3,500 jobs. For those who will say that I'm anti-business I'm not. But I am against the businesses not fullfilling their commentments after we've upheld ours.

In today's job market you are crazy if you do not have a degree or some kind of fomal job training.

Not picking on you, but a lot of those people probably do have college degrees; there are a ton of them in these call center environments in OKC.

IBM also had a large layoff recently that affected several Oklahomans. IBM has been steadily offshoring its white collar job base.

Don't think for a minute that these large corporations aren't looking for ways to cut out high-paid, high-skilled white collar workers for lower paid peons overseas (with just as much education).

If you allow yourself to believe that you're "high skilled" and immune to such layoffs, you're not paying attention.

The Dell layoff has been coming for months. When I bowed out at the end of last year, you could tell. I wasn't part of the consumer portion, instead in one of the business divisions, but word spreads pretty fast amongst the "little people." For my position a person was expected to gross anywhere from 50 to 90K a year. Once the bonus cuts came, that hit people by up to 20-30K a year. Then with the jacking around of commissions and who gets paid for what, that really stressed people even more. Unfortunately it is an operation to where you don't know what you'll get paid on the next month. Then you have employees structuring sales a certain way to make sure they get paid more, while screwing over a co-worker.

The writing has been on the wall for awhile though. Building C was suppose to be built already - it was removed from the planning stages before I left. Improvements to the center courtyard were stopped...so you are left with the grass and brick (and a few tables).

The situation sucks...unexpected? Nope. I don't see them shutting the facility down...but the dream of a nice campus with 3 to 7 buildings is long gone. I left and haven't looked back even though I had a lot of good friends there. The company didn't treat me that badly, but I did feel stiffed on a few occassions - but who doesn't? Not to mention that for those of us who were quarterly and never got our quotas until 6-8 weeks into the quarter, you lose a little bit of trust on just how exactly you were getting paid.

This is just another case of we the taxpayers being screwed once again by corporate America. Dell's spokesperson states that after these 200 layoffs that their workforce will "hover" around 2,000 jobs. Therefore prior to the layoff they (Dell) employed around 2,200. Yet, when Dell approached our City leaders with their hands out asking for "Economic Development Incentives" of Millions and Millions of our tax dollars, which they recieved, they promised our City 3,500 jobs. For those who will say that I'm anti-business I'm not. But I am against the businesses not fullfilling their commentments after we've upheld ours.

I agree, Andy. Typical though. Very typical.

It's inevitable that the whole place will shut down. With Dell now moving away from phone sales, and getting into big box retailers, it's only time that those beautiful buildings will be empty. It's sad for the city, and mostly for the employees.

I never understood how Yahoo! had many employees to begin with. It's not like they're generating much content. They just link Reuters and AP news, and what few products they have, there are a lot of other companies out there doing the same thing better.

At least Dell has a tangible product with decent quality at a competitive price.

I imagine yahoo has more than you know...same with GOOG..it seems weird that they all stay in business, but Yahoo has made some decent acquisitions...flickr for one..

Well to say the Dell OKC facility will shut down is a little over the top. When I was there, there were about 20 some departments in OKC. Anything from consumer sales, consumer tech, XPS support, small biz, mid market sales, resellers, and large corporate accounts. My department had people that delt with account sets that did around $15-30 million a year in sales for Dell - per account team (3 people). So the point there...don't generalize this as just another call center with cheap labor. The jobs lost were consumer yes, but there is more there than just them.

Now the move from Dell into retailers which they must do to survive against HP...is going to hit the consumer and small business side of the business. That makes up a lot of the people there, but not all. It will be interesting to see how it is balanced it with tech support type job moving in, even inside IT jobs that aren't your typical tech support type calls. Also, how much of the Small Biz and Mid Market accounts they want to move up here from Austin.

I would not be shocked to see them close up floors of Building B there and consolidate into one building should they need to continue to cut back.

As far as Yahoo and Google. What people need to remember these companies are more than just search engines. Yahoo is a MAJOR internet service provider in Asia. Both them of also are responsible for providing a ton of data and information for the public. The server farms that these company are massive and employee a good number of people - including the one in Northeast Oklahoma. Also these companies have ton of other IT projects they develop behind the scenes that we don't see. They all have products...but a lot we don't see like the online shopping portals and services. Yahoo's store fronts are massive in number and bring in a ton of revenue. Google's shopping engine (formerly Froogle) and their new Google Checkout service which is going to be much more cost effective for small businesses than typical credit card merchant accounts.

I never understood how Yahoo! had many employees to begin with. It's not like they're generating much content. They just link Reuters and AP news, and what few products they have, there are a lot of other companies out there doing the same thing better.

At least Dell has a tangible product with decent quality at a competitive price.

Yahoo! is a huge company. They do much more than regurgitate content. In fact, I just checked, Yahoo! has 14,000 employees.

I know how many employees they have, and they've got a lot of hardware...But they don't PRODUCE squat. They're a self-perpetuating mass of sucky internet. The fact that they're an actual provider overseas does little for me, I've never found them useful for much of anything. Buying Flickr doesn't make them good, it makes them good at avoiding competition by utilizing their deep pockets.

Anything I've been able to find on Yahoo!, I've been able to find somebody else doing it better for free.

As for Google, they generate some genuinely useful products in my eyes (all free) and even managed to shoehorn ads into the internet without them being intrusive and annoying. They make some really slick stuff and give it away to the masses. I'm not saying that they do no wrong, but at least they're innovating and moving forward with new stuff all the time.

Well, SOMEBODY thinks Yahoo! is worth a buck. Or 44 billion of them anyway.

Microsoft bids on Yahoo! (http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/microsoft+offers+446bn+for+yahoo/1457847)

Not picking on you, but a lot of those people probably do have college degrees; there are a ton of them in these call center environments in OKC.

IBM also had a large layoff recently that affected several Oklahomans. IBM has been steadily offshoring its white collar job base.

Don't think for a minute that these large corporations aren't looking for ways to cut out high-paid, high-skilled white collar workers for lower paid peons overseas (with just as much education).

If you allow yourself to believe that you're "high skilled" and immune to such layoffs, you're not paying attention.

I read somewhere where it's not the people with only a high-school diploma that will be suffering the most, but that people who graduated with just a college degree will be suffering. I know many of my friends who are college graduated that are waitressing or working at department stores. Anymore, you almost need a post-grad degree to be certain of any stable income.

I read somewhere where it's not the people with only a high-school diploma that will be suffering the most, but that people who graduated with just a college degree will be suffering. I know many of my friends who are college graduated that are waitressing or working at department stores. Anymore, you almost need a post-grad degree to be certain of any stable income.

I disagree mecarr...I think it has more to do with college graduates expecting too much just because they have a degree...They need to understand that work experience and references are much more of a factor than a degree that helps very little when it comes down to doing that particular job

Think the younger folks simply think they can grab a $30,000 job because they spent 4 more years goofing around and that's simply not the case...It may get them a job over another applicant with similar credentials but no degree but thats about it

They need to understand that it will take them a few years to prove themselves and work their way up....Unfortunately many recent graduates just don't have the patience to do that

My wife works for a major corp. who will remain nameless in case any management for said company sees this.

For the past two years they have had cycles of rumors of layoffs, announcements of upcoming layoffs and then the layoffs and a few unannounced layoffs. While she is still there I have had time much time to think about this and if she were to be laid off I would rather it be out-of-the-blue. That would be much better than a constant state of wondering or dealing with the terrible morale of coworkers who know they're going to be laid off.

I always feel so bad for the employees affected - so tough.

The days of the "company man" have gone. That sort of loyalty to a job/to an employee are over. Most employees will jump ship for a better deal at any point. The loyalty you used to see - 50 years of service, a gold watch with a pension you could live on - are gone. Workers need to be trained and educated because that is all they can count on - and they need to be the ones to make sure it is done because no one else will. And they need to be looking out for their own retirement because the days of pensions, unless you work for the government, are gone.

The companies aren't in business to take care of their employees - harsh as that sounds. And they won't do it, unless you are very fortunate and have an exceptional employer - probably a small business or a family owned business. My father had a business for decades and did well but when the oil boom went bust (he was in office supplies and had some big oil clients) he lost the business. He nearly gave himself a heart attack worrying over how he was going to hang on to his employees and keep their benefits. He'd stay awake night after night going over the numbers. Those types of employers can't be compared to the big companies.

Corporations work for the shareholders - not the employees. The shareholders don't give money out of the goodness of their hearts - they invest it and expect a decent return because they are counting on that to pay their own bills/retirements. And the vast majority of those shareholders aren't Donald Trump and his ilk - it is your grandad, your aunt or your brother. My retirement funds (that I earned working for the state) are invested in mutual funds which, in turn, are invested in companies like Dell. I NEED that income to pay my bills and I'm certainly not wealthy. You can bet that if it turned out the company was spending money on the employees resulting in a lower profit, the investors would yank out their funds so fast the company would be bellyup in a heartbeat. That helps no one.

We consumers are part of that because we want lower prices for goods and services that can be more cheaply created overseas - so benefits, salaries and jobs are cut. That is not necessarily a terrible thing since, overall, we have a higher standard of living, including the workers making less money with less benefits. We all need to save, save save and invest.

There have got to be a lot of panicky people out there. I feel really bad for them. I'm glad this didn't happen right before Christmas.

While she is still there I have had time much time to think about this and if she were to be laid off I would rather it be out-of-the-blue. That would be much better than a constant state of wondering or dealing with the terrible morale of coworkers who know they're going to be laid off.


Yes, I can see how that would be horrible too.... but I would use this 'limbo' period to save as much as possible and limit spending..

a lot of people at Dell probably assumed they would have a job/paycheck to pay off all of their holiday spending ... and now are jobless, stuck with debt. Very sad.

Jumping back to on what Dell has met to the community for jobs...

http://staging.okcommerce.gov/test1/dmdocuments/Oklahoma_Major_Employers_2901081238.pdf

This was just recently updated and some how they are only telling the state they employee 1500 to 1600 people. I highly doubt that they hired 500-800 people in the last couple months just to downsize. It's interesting to see how other companies stack up.

Well said East Coast Okie. In the words of Rodney Dangerfield. Look out for number one, but don't step in number two. While a reference to bodily functions, it really means that you should do what is best for you, but not at the expense of someone else if you can help it.

........I would use this 'limbo' period to save as much as possible and limit spending.....
Actually, we did/are doing something like that. We paid a ton of stuff off so we wouldn't have as many bills if she did get laid off. In a couple of months we'll owe nothing but about 65K on a 130K house. So we've learned a lesson in living more simply and WELL within our means. I'd have still much rather bought a book than lost as much sleep about it though.

that is wack!-

Imagine the impact that out of the blue laying off has on someone that spends a great sum on a new home, thinking they'll have a job to pay for it. Can anyone say Foreclosure? And it isn't even the person's fault.

But, it's all about business and all about the share holders.

I read somewhere where it's not the people with only a high-school diploma that will be suffering the most, but that people who graduated with just a college degree will be suffering. I know many of my friends who are college graduated that are waitressing or working at department stores. Anymore, you almost need a post-grad degree to be certain of any stable income.

You got it. Bachelor's degrees are basically the new high-school diploma. Can't get anything without it, can't get anything with it. The biggest downside is when you're done, you have about 30k to pay off. Hello, federal debt, goodbye decent jobs.

This Dell thing makes me sick.

But, this is Catherine O'Connor's proudest accomplishment? Someone needs to clue her in that these jobs at Dell require people to work 12 hours a day, never see their families - and make decent salaries only after reaching difficult QUOTAS.

But, this is Catherine O'Connor's proudest accomplishment? Someone needs to clue her in that these jobs at Dell require people to work 12 hours a day, never see their families - and make decent salaries only after reaching difficult QUOTAS.Well, if Ms. O'Conner is going to be given credit for these Ecomomic Development deals, or she takes the credit, which ever the case may be, then she should also be held accountable when we the tax payers get screwed.