Dell’s inside sales team probably has a much flatter bell curve, performance wise, then their outside (traveling) reps.

So yes, they are looking to do a layoff without the headlines, or severance, but probably aren’t as concerned where on the bell curve those employees rank.

Middle and lower management of those teams is absolutely sweating bullets about their teams getting wrecked, but big picture, whatever the net effect the C Suite is expecting, clearly isn’t enough to outweigh whatever outcome their hoping for here.