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HP to cut 25-30k jobs

bbc.com

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Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#111

Post by mapt »

melling wrote: post #103
x0x0 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good news: you're almost certainly wrong :) Obamacare in MN is through https://www.mnsure.org/ . Your father being fired or laid off qualifies as a special enrollment event. If your mother is seriously ill, look at gold plans and simply look at the maximum out of pocket. Find a plan with a maximum out of pocket of $2k or even $1k pp. They'll spend it all, and after that, your out of pocket expenses will be limited to…

At $1,000/month that's over 10% of his pre-tax income at his current job. That's a lot of money if you aren't working and your income goes to zero.

Yes, but if that happens, thanks to the other half of Obamacare (the Medicaid expansion), if income goes to zero / povertylevel for any adult (no longer merely special classes of disabled or child-raising adult), then healthcare becomes free.

People with big enough health problems that the heavily subsidized Silver market category is insufficient, but who have only a middle class income, do get stung in this system; But before Obamacare they would have been treated much, much worse should their employer fail to provide them with good health insurance. The Silver market plans are supposed to represent the standard level of care, and be subsidized on a sliding scale from 99% right above the Medicaid threshold, down to 0% at ~$100k income or so, IIRC.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#113

Post by notNow »

elorant wrote: post #80
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…

Posts like this remind me how shitty the business model of most Fortune 500 companies is. They lay off people just to increase profits regardless of productivity goals. For most management councils out there everything is about numbers. Perhaps we ought to do something as a community to stop such practices. Like boycott the shit out of companies that adopt them.

they're laying off not to increase revenue but to slash costs. It's a defensive move not an offensive one.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#114

Post by crdoconnor »

dasil003 wrote: post #44
wpietri wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?…

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…

>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

Even if they could, they have no real incentive to be truthful about it.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#115

Post by DanielBMarkham »

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…

"Who would hire him at this age, with this kind of experience?"

This is a question that only the market can answer. While we can speculate all day long, none of us have any idea who would hire him or not. One thing is a certainty: if he never tries to get another job, he will not get any.

Here's something I learned from watching hundreds or perhaps thousands of folks navigate the tech labor market: people skills and networking rock -- much more than technical skills! If your dad has all of these companies who only want to work with him? Wow! The day he gets laid off, if he does, he picks up the phone and starts calling all of his friends. After that it's just a numbers game. For his tech and people skills there are a certain percentage of folks that will positively respond. If that percentage is 10% and he knows 20 or 30 people? Odds are pretty good that he'll have a lead on a new job before the day is over.

The difficult part here is psychological. Very difficult to work for one company for a long period of time and then feel confident talking to others about getting work, even if they like you a lot. Older folks such as myself also start carrying a chip around on their shoulder, looking for ageism everywhere (Yep, it exists, but staying angry or depressed about it is not very motivating)

The psychological part is the hardest. He could be 10 seconds away from getting another job and manage to talk himself out of it instead of trying. It's a very difficult spot to be in.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#116

Post by carlob »

x0x0 wrote: post #93
test001only wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

CA/usa, broken ankle, two surgeries: $110k in billings. All told, probably 10-12 doctor-hours. Insurance, beyond insuring you, does something perhaps more important: they negotiate massive discounts with all medical practices/hospitals/etc. My insurer negotiated that to something reasonable (approx $35k, though memory fails me); I could even afford that if I needed to. Crucially (and I understand this is fucking stup…

> Like integer multiples greater than 3 and up to 20 times more.

Or maybe even real multiples. :)

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#117

Post by jsprogrammer »

cmurf wrote: post #42
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…

If he's called-in to early retire or otherwise let go, make sure he doesn't sign a non-compete at that time. He should have anything he has signed, and is asked to sign, reviewed by an attorney. It's just not reasonable for companies to terminate someone's job and tell them they can't compete including being hired by a competitor, but they try this all the time in blatant ways and it's not just the old guard companie…

Would HP really try to get someone they are laying off to sign a noncompete contact?

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#118

Post by notNow »

stevewepay wrote: post #43

The sad part is that it's Carly Fiorina's fault for turning HP into the mess it was. And now she touts that as the reason why she should be president. It's a sick joke that she thinks gutting one of Silicon Valley's preeminent companies makes her worthy of being president. HP was the first company to pioneer Silicon Valley culture, ie. The HP Way. It was only after Fiorina's tenure that HP turned into a shadow of its…

It seems to me that she was engaged in org restructuring a la Perestroika under Gorbachev rule of the USSR i.e. the enemy within.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#120

Post by bkor »

jsudhams wrote: post #69

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 compe…

You're being totally unrealistic. The salaries are higher because the cost of living is higher. They don't go down because of "competition". Nor should companies rule a country, most just act in their own self interest.
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