If you have a social life (or want a social life), find some place else to work. During my eight plus years at Dell, the emphasis was ALWAYS Dell first; your family, friends, etc. were always a distant second. Work/Life balance is an EXTREMELY bad joke unless you either work in one of the administrative divisions of Dell or you are a C-level or higher manager. Work schedules can (and often are changed) with less than 24 hours notice and overtime is always considered "scheduled time" (aka MANDATORY).
The primary motivational tool that Dell management uses can be summed up in one word: FEAR and the management team knows how to use this "tool" to the fullest of its ability.
When head count reductions are needed, the people that are on work restrictions (most of the time because of medical conditions caused by the job) are normally targeted.
More often than not the facilities and equipment are poorly maintained combine this with long shifts for many days in a row and these are the leading causes of work related injuries.
The most common medical conditions for Dell employees are bad knees, bad feet, stress or depression and every admitting nurse in Austin normally asks a question to this affect when they see Dell on the employees insurance card.
Management is a joke. Almost all of the lower level managers are either fresh out of college with no management experience (and in many cases no people skills) or new from a different industry with no idea about the Dell corporate culture. During my time a Dell, I only know of five people that were promoted to the management ranks from the production floor.
Dell tells all of their new hires that promotions are based on Merit. This has been an out right lie since November 2000 when Dell changed the promotion policies from merit to a policy based seniority, skill sets and "office politics" (stick your favorite cliche between the quotes).
