For Whom The Dell Tolls

I was reading an article about one of the major employers here in my state, Dell, and found myself chuckling throughout the article. I was muttering to myself — one tends to do that when one gets older — about companies’ turnabout with allowing their employees to work from home. One constant about those in management positions is their unmitigated need for control.

I feel safe saying that most people who have moved into any management position unmistakably believe they need to exercise relentless control over those they manage and supervise as they never learned how to trust those they supervise. Trust is a significant factor in the world of management and supervision.

Learning to trust those one manages is not something automatic. Everyone involved in this relationship (a relationship) arrives at a level of trust based on the relationship established with fellow workers and, most of all, the person they report to. Management guru Patrick Lencioni describes it as the foundational block for eliminating team dysfunctions in teams. Trust is essential for those who manage people. If it were so obvious, Mr. Lencioni wouldn’t have written numerous books and become a top-level management consultant to numerous major corporations.

Dell and many other corporations are having difficulty dealing with a workforce that is becoming obsolete with the advancement of AI technology, a problem most corporations ignored earlier, believing they have time or that they will always need the level of employees they have to provide the products and services they offer to the general public and their overseas customers. Like all technology, AI has moved faster than many anticipated. Those profit-greedy CEOs and stockholders are looking for ways to eliminate one of their significant costs to increase the bottom line and the value of their stock.

Over the years, Dell has managed to innovate its products, make strategic management decisions, and be ruthless when necessary. It has made its founder, Michael Dell, wealthy and those who bought in earlier. But, as with any major corporation, its goal is the continuation of profitability. They seek to maintain that by any means necessary, meaning employees become expendable.

The aspect of the article around Dell that I believe people are having problems with is what is not written but implied within the article’s overall context. The realization is that a human workforce is beginning to become obsolete far faster than many expect. Also, many are shocked at how ruthless many billionaire business individuals are, comments many I speak with often remind me of. Something else I am seeing also spells trepidation on the horizon, which is staring us in the face, and many refuse to see and acknowledge Trump has laid the foundation for his ruling by fiat.

As corporate enterprises grow and dominate their respective industries, they constantly seek ways to reduce costs, increase profits, and leverage their power toward achieving their bottom line agenda. One of their most effective and quick ways of reducing costs is the typical reduction in workforce process, which most know as layoffs, typically starting with older long-term workers as they are usually higher paid and more costly in numerous ways.

However, younger and skilled workers should not rest on their laurels, believing they are indispensable. Automation will eliminate many jobs. Some of the younger may be able to transfer to other departments but will no doubt encounter steep competition from older workers who have seniority, strong internal connections, or someone as young as they are with a stronger relationship with the department head. However, they have youth on their side and stand a better chance of being hired than some in their early fifties or sixties.

Dell looking to pull in its work-from-home policy shouldn’t be a surprise. Corporations continuously seek ways to minimize their overhead costs to maximize their bottom line and increase their stock value. Robert Owen, a Welsh textile manufacturer, said:

“a good horse is worth five pounds a day. A good man is worth two pounds.”

Dell is doing what is what more and more companies are doing. They are looking at their bottom line, seeking to eliminate any expenses they can, and if advances in AI will help them obtain as much profit as possible, they will do it.

People should not be surprised at Dell reassessing its work-from-home policies, which is inevitable when you consider the actual meaning of the word “manage.” The word’s entomology stems from the training of horses.

“to handle, train, or direct” (a horse), from the now-obsolete noun manage “the handling or training of a horse; horsemanship” (for which see manege, which is a modern revival of it), from Old French manège “horsemanship,” from Italian maneggio, from maneggiare “to handle, touch,” especially “to control a horse,” which ultimately from Latin noun manus “hand” (from PIE root *man- (2) “hand”).

Considering the original definition, one can better understand why some people are horrible at managing people. I have no doubt those of you reading this can count on one hand the number of skillful ‘managers’ you have had in your careers. By skillful, I mean showing the ability to understand you and how you performed your job best. They provide the room you need to grow, but when they need to correct you, the correcting comes from helping you improve at your job, which is more uplifting than criticizing. Dell, no doubt, will make extensive use of AI technology where it makes logical sense for them to do so.

So, if the Dell employees believe the reason for calling employees back to their office center is a prelude to a significant layoff, they most likely are not wrong. If they are nervous about it, they should be for one important reason. Trump is back in office. He is already disrupting the American economy because he lacks knowledge and understanding of how it works. The following job report will reflect Biden’s administration’s progress during his four years in office. Not only did he fix what Trump broke, but he managed to make it a robust economy that Trump and the Republicans will destroy because they are some of the dumbest people on the earth.

So, if Dell calls people back to effect a significant layoff, it will help them but hurt those they fire. It will also significantly impact all college and university students scheduled to graduate this year and are looking for employment. There may be a rash of job rescinds due to sudden hiring freezes.

Some of those rescinds may well be for early offers Dell to graduating seniors who already made plans and will now have to start their job search over only to find the doors shut to them not because they are not qualified but because corporations are doing what they always do with a market implosion, retreat and entrench themselves.

Welcome to the rebirth of the age of Trump, the destroyer of all that is good in the United States, as he paves the way for the end of democracy as we know it and will be known as the man who allowed oligarchy and autocracy to replace a democratic republic that was working pretty well until he alone decided he could fix what was not at all broken.

Yes, it will indeed be for whom the Dell tolls.