My Career With Dell

Background: Originally published February 28, 2007. I wrote another column about DELL computers' Roseburg call center, titled "Of Gnomes And Dell Interns," which has already been posted on my blog site. This is a separate column focusing on the lawsuit that was initiated by some DELL employees. DELL closed its Roseburg call center in August, 2007.

     A plastic green lizard sits on the upper corner of my computer screen. I've had the cheap trinket since 2002. That's when I was working for the DELL computer call center in the North Roseburg Plaza. During the third week of training, new employees spent their time inside the training "queue." Whenever an employee sold a bonus item (printer, camera, three-year warranty, etc.) with a computer, the new employee received a "reward." The employee could choose a dime-store plastic figure from inside a box full of cheap merchandise. I chose the green lizard, because it most closely resembled a real animal. Perhaps it was the GEICO iguana?
     The nine months I worked at DELL was one of the most challenging and stressful times in my life. Normally, I would feel embarrassed to leave an employer after working for them less than one year. But I actually felt proud that I had remained as long as I had at DELL. That's because more than two-thirds of the employees who began at the same time I did had left the company long before I had.
     Not everyone could endure the twelve-hour shifts on rotating days of the week. But those who could were often weeded out if they failed to meet the company's unrealistic sales quotas. DELL would give employees the option of resigning before they were terminated. Most of the recent high-school graduates chose to resign, not realizing they could be eligible for unemployment if they remained until they were terminated.
     The news was announced this past month that a group of DELL employees and former DELL employees had filed a lawsuit against the Fortune 500 company, alleging the Roseburg call center violated state and federal wage laws. The workers allege they were required to conduct company business, such as checking e-mails and calling back customers, before they actually began their work day of accepting phone calls to sell computers.
     They allege DELL's convoluted computerized time-keeping system known as "KRONOS" did not record the total number of hours actually worked. As a former DELL employee, I can vouch for those allegations. DELL supervisors told employees not to log in to KRONOS until they were ready to take calls. That's because of the competitive nature of different "teams" inside the DELL call center.
     Each team was in competition with the other teams. The team with the most sales got to choose the shifts they worked. That's why employee work hours were constantly changing. As different sales teams moved into higher ranking for computer sales, they were allowed to displace the working hours of other teams.
     Employees didn't dare log in to KRONOS early. For one, they risked the wrath of upset team supervisors who didn't want their sales ratings to go down. But just as important, every minute OFF of KRONOS meant the time was not computed into a team's sales figures. Put simply, each minute on the clock was supposed to be spent selling computers. If an employee was logged into KRONOS while checking e-mails or returning customer calls, that kept team members from selling new units.
     That's why many DELL customers often found it difficult to reach a sales consultant whom they had talked with earlier. If a sales associate couldn't sell a computer system to an undecided customer during the customer's first phone call, the sales associate usually didn't want to risk wasting more previous time calling back the customer.
     Confused yet? If you are, then you know how many DELL sales employees felt. Most never questioned working off the clock. That's because DELL sales employees (when I worked there) were on salary. From my perspective, there was no such thing as on or off the clock. However, I began to question the legality of the Roseburg call center when I calculated my paychecks. If I divided the number of hours worked by the amount of money earned, it fell below minimum wage. Even if I factored only the KRONOS hours, and NOT include hours spent off the clock, I was still pulling in less than minimum wage.
     I remember once asking DELL Human Resources Director Chrissy Rohrbaugh about the discrepancy. Even though I was a salaried employee, I believed Oregon labor laws still required me to receive at least minimum wage for all hours worked.
     Rohrbaugh firmly told me DELL complied with all state and federal wage laws. She told me in a tone to suggest that I was a trouble-maker for even asking the question. It didn't matter if I were older than Rohrbaugh. It didn't matter that I had a bachelor degree. It didn't matter that I had prior supervisory experience working in Oregon and dealing with local wage and hour laws. No, DELL's human resources person gave me the impression the company was entitled to ask employees to work as many hours per day as they wanted, as many days of the week as they wanted, and employees should always feel guilty for never reaching the 95 percent quota that the sales associates never achieved.
     Attorneys representing the DELL employees who filed the lawsuit claim hundreds of former DELL employees at the Roseburg call center are eligible for back pay, if their lawsuit is successful in court.
     The plastic green lizard continues to sit on my computer screen. It doesn't remind me of the prospect of receiving back pay from my former employer. No, the green lizard reminds me that no matter how difficult a day I may be having, no matter how many setbacks I may have in live, I'm much better off now than I was working in the stressful Roseburg call center.
     I'm proud that I survived nine months, longer than most of my co-workers. And I never passed out (fainted) from the stress, unlike one of my co-workers did during the Christmas season.