"What was an eight-hour day at my old company is now a 12-hour day," said a friend who works at Dell's logistics department. "They don't require those kind of hours. Instead, they call it the Dell meritocracy. How much a person contributes is what you get in terms of bonuses and stock options. People try to last three years. Then you can take what you learn here and go just about anywhere. What you learn is the world's best supply chain management."

That tone, a mixture of exhaustion and admiration, was absent from another acquaintance. "I had to get out. The ambulance was coming to my building every week. Two guys in my building died right on the job. I worked at least one 18-hour day every week. The stress was terrible," she said.

For an IT manager, on the nights when he makes it home for dinner, his co-workers immediately start calling his home number, his cell phone, even his wife's cell phone. And with responsibilities worldwide, it's not unusual for his cell phone to ring at 3 a.m. with a call from Dell's IT people in Asia, looking for answers to their problems.

People working at Dell are glad, very glad, to have jobs. About one-fourth of Dell's employees in central Texas, some 4,500 people, were laid off in 2001. People that were making well over $100,000 a year are waiting table at Steak'n'Shake.

One friend who develops business-to-business software got the ax and quickly found another good job, at Compaq Computer. So he lives in a room in Houston during the week while his wife and kids remain here in Austin to finish out the school year.

A buddy who retired from Dell said people join Dell knowing that the company pays well but demands a lot. "It's been that way forever. Would you rather work long hours at a successful company or work normal hours at a company barely making it?"

Dell reminds me of Japan, where the long commutes and corporate work ethic combine for a real grind. As they say, success has its price. I wonder if Dell is far from the norm these days.

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