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HP to cut 25-30k jobs

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Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#61

Post by mjn »

ekianjo wrote: post #7

> The tech company has struggled over the last decade to keep up with changing demands as customers move away from desktop computers. Maybe, but laptop or desktop, HP has been always synonymous with crappy quality and design - among the worst I have ever seen. I just can't wait for them to stop making PCs so that we can get at least half-decent laptops from other manufacturers.

The layoffs here are in their enterprise division, where I don't think quality is the main problem. Two problems instead: the market is generally moving away from high-end enterprise servers towards commodity x86 servers, and, possibly worse, they bet on Itanium as their flagship non-x86 architecture, succeeding PA-RISC. Even when you remove x86 from the picture and just stack it up against competitors like Oracle SPARC and IBM POWER8, HP's Itanium-based Integrity line is not doing well. To be fair, a lot of smart people at Intel bet big on Itanium too, so this wasn't simply a case of bad HP management.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#62

Post by IndianAstronaut »

wpietri wrote: post #33
iofj wrote: post #4

HP's new business model for the last 2 years : * cut costs (mostly by disabling essential business functions) * buy back stock using proceeds The result: https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&... The person in Charge : Meg Whitman. In 2008, she was cited by The New York Times as among the women most likely to become the first female President of the United States. Because what "worked" for HP, w…

Doing the math on this, they apparently believe that each one of those people is costing the company $108k per year, net. Given that HP's revenue per employee is ~$350k, I find those numbers simply unbelievable. And let's suppose for a second that HP is somehow right. How did they just notice that 10% of their employees are doing something totally worthless? On top of the 55,000 employees that they laid off in 2012?…

> There's also the classic MBA mistake of seeing employees as expenses rather than assets.

Not to mention that more critical people will leave once they sniff layoffs coming.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#63

Post by emp_zealoth »

joshmn wrote: post #8

My father is a field-service engineer for HP in Midwest (based out of Minneapolis, but he has calls all over from Fargo, ND to Mpls, MN to Madison, WI). He is _the_ go-to for their biggest, most senior, most mission-critical clients. He put together UMN's Alpha setup, is the only guy that USPS will call for help, MNSCU, Best Buy, UHG... basically, anyone with an HP setup (server or printer) that's a Fortune 1000 (and…

Wow. Rant incoming. Im just aghast how shitty your country is. I can understand living in fear of mortgages and the like, jak with at will nonsense and the like (gags)

But your employer having a gun to your beloved's head - that what it basically is - is just rotten.

I genuinely wish that any libertarians here (in Poland) move to USA or, Friedmans beloved, Chile. I hope they get to experience shit like that. I guess im a filthy little commie for expexcting to be able to live my life without shit like that /s

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#64

Post by mahyarm »

wpietri wrote: post #49
dasil003 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The uncomfortable truth at this scale is that some employees are absolutely essential and some are just phoning it in collecting a paycheck. Ideally management would have visibility into where the performers were, but with this many layers of management it's very very difficult to see the forest for the trees. It's one thing to repurpose people when the trend lines are positive or at least flat, but in HP's case ther…

If some employees are phoning it in, I think it's worth asking why. It's been a long time since I felt that way at a job, but for me it came out of shitty, disempowering, unrewarding environments. But even running with your argument, that the people laid off are slacking, I think it's an enormous failure that they let 30,000 of those people accumulate such that they were wasting $3 billion per year. Especially given…

You work remotely, life is pretty low stress. Live in a cheap cost of living place, take care of the kids while the spouse is out working on their other job. Never get a raise in 6 years. That is why they phone it in.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#65

Post by jonah »

joshmn wrote: post #30
jfoutz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your dad needs to think about the next best 5 guys, and how to pick them up for cheap when the layoffs happen. At his age striking out on his own will seem absolutely terrifying. Work on him for a few months. He must have built up some serious contacts over the years. His pitch is straightforward. HP can't actually support their products anymore, they don't have the staff. He knows the hardware inside and out. Sell s…

This sounds like a great idea, but I don't know if he's such an entrepreneur or risk-taker. Some people are, some people aren't. It's a natural thing. I'm not sure of the papers he's signed (non-competes...), or the contracts that HP has with their customers (there must be some), but... he could definitely "get the band together" and pull off such a feat. Again, I think this goes back to the contracts he had. He's on…

And whatever tasks he doesn't like, accounting, bookkeeping, etcetera. He can hire someone full time or even just part time to handle for him. That way he can focus on the things he does well, selling and doing the work.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#66

Post by voltagex_ »

nattaggart wrote: post #50
hardwaresofton wrote: post #6

Wow this is a pretty huge cut. However, I won't lie/sugar coat it -- I think of HP as one of the most stereotypically bad big companies (where you can go in get a job, and almost never get fired, despite not doing very much work), so this is probably a great move for them. I can't imagine it really takes 300,000 people to do what HP does. I'm sure there are departments that do cutting edge hardware/software work at H…

After they bought VoodooPC they turned that org into their Envy line which put out industry-leading PC's for a minute. Now it just makes low-end Mac knock-offs :(

The new Spectre is pretty good.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#67

Post by test001only »

joshmn wrote: post #8

My father is a field-service engineer for HP in Midwest (based out of Minneapolis, but he has calls all over from Fargo, ND to Mpls, MN to Madison, WI). He is _the_ go-to for their biggest, most senior, most mission-critical clients. He put together UMN's Alpha setup, is the only guy that USPS will call for help, MNSCU, Best Buy, UHG... basically, anyone with an HP setup (server or printer) that's a Fortune 1000 (and…

I am sorry if this question comes of as naive. Is the medical cost so high that it can only be covered with an insurance? Would a small amount of savings set aside for this purpose be viable in case somebody loses their medical insurance? Also would you not be able to take your own medical insurance which is independent of the company you work for? I am just trying to understand how the medical system there works. I hope I phrased the question appropriately.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#68

Post by iheartmemcache »

joshmn wrote: post #36
jfoutz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of people who are great aren't great because they want to be. they don't have a choice, they need to be. He's got some time, he can figure it out. Maybe partner with those friends. Sharing the load is incredibly motivating. At least get him to take a long look at those contracts. Heck, he might be released from them on severance. Talk to him about it. No matter what happens, it's going to be a rough…

Thanks, I'll be sure to echo this to him.

Those contacts are worth a ridiculous amount of money. Niche consulting for the enterprise can yield literally millions of dollars/a year in support for a client like UPS. An Alpha setup.. I'm guessing OpenVMS? Mission critical to their business. Whatever support contract they're paying HP, he can join any big-name tech consulting firm, play golf with the CIO or purchasing authority in charge of maintenance/support and just _happen to mention_ he moved firms.

He doesn't have to go on-site to UPS to bring that business over to another firm, and when you build up _30 years_ of trust, that Rolodex and trust is worth 50x the best technical engineers ability (in terms of generating billables). He's in a great position. Senior Partners at McKinsey aren't paid millions because of their ability to put together a nice deck. They're paid that way because they have 20 years of billables and reliable after-work. If he's laid off and not picked up in 2 weeks, tell him to e-mail me.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#69

Post by jsudhams »

Also this is why US should get better immigration policy and allow incoming people rather than outsourcing. My cousin was just hired in hp in India for he get about US$ 5000 per year or Rs 20000 per month(He is very happy as he was getting Rs,9000 with a indian company). whereas in US even for small company that job would be atleast $25000? so no way to compete for USA guys. Just ensure companies create healthy competition for people in the country.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#70

Post by steveax »

ekianjo wrote: post #7

> The tech company has struggled over the last decade to keep up with changing demands as customers move away from desktop computers. Maybe, but laptop or desktop, HP has been always synonymous with crappy quality and design - among the worst I have ever seen. I just can't wait for them to stop making PCs so that we can get at least half-decent laptops from other manufacturers.

Certainly not always. Your memory (or experience) must be short. HP workstations (and servers) were excellent up until at least the late '90's. I was doing 3-D work during the '90's and lusted after an HP workstation to run Softimage on.

Not to mention the legendary HP laser printers. Those things were built like tanks!

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