HP to cut 25-30k jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#311

Post by stephen_cagle » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 5:47 AM UTC

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…

You should 100% check with a lawyer about those supposed non-compete things you sign. In many states, as I understand, they aren't even worth the paper they are printed upon.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#312

Post by nickthemagicman » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 8:48 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #184

nickthemagicman wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It bothers me when people suggest unrealistic possibilities to people being layed off like starting their own businesses. There's 10% unemployment. Is that really a legit solution? Capitalism is built on the idea of everyone 'working' and 'having a job' and theres lots of people like his dad who really want work, and are loyal and hardworking. But there's not enough jobs to go around and the amount keeps decreasing d…

> Capitalism is built on the idea of everyone 'working' and 'having a job' I think it was just built on the idea of selling stuff to people and making as many things as you can sellable commodities. Whether those working are many or few doesn't matter, as long as you get to sell to enough people to make your profit. In the days of advanced British etc capitalism, the homeless/jobless/disenfranchised living in London…

So whats the solution to the multitudes of people in need of work?

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#313

Post by dexterdog » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 12:30 PM UTC

mbreese wrote: post #202

dexterdog wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He has probably already signed one as part of his employment.

If you're laid off, that probably doesn't apply anymore. It would have to be negotiated as part of the severance package.

Said package usually includes those items even though in many places it's totally unenforceable.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#314

Post by cookiecaper » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 3:34 PM UTC

JupiterMoon wrote: post #156

MC7447a wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to pay your mortgage if you get laid off in Poland?

In some European countries (probably not Poland) the unemployment you get for about 2 years if you lose your job is sufficient to cover a mortgage. The philosophy is that it is cheaper for the state to help people stay in their existing home than to have them lose it and potentially have to house them and them never go back to being a net contributor.

All states in the United States have unemployment assistance programs, as well as programs like Medicaid to provide health care to the poor. OP's dad is nearing retirement age and can probably take advantage of some state-provided retirement benefits, like social security and/or Medicare.

While things may be less extreme here than in Europe, you aren't just left to die if you become unemployed. Government-provided insurance that you have to be either poor or old enough to get is actually much better than a lot of the private insurance plans that are the only option for the middle class.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#315

Post by cookiecaper » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 3:44 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #193

emp_zealoth wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 gues…

>Im just aghast how shitty your country is. We have a lot of social programs for the poor, especially in regards to health. No its not Euro-style universal healthcare, but this idea that they'll starve in the streets if they lose their jobs is ridiculous. That's on top of COBRA, which allow you to stay on your employers plan for a bit while you work out a new provider. Or subsidized ACA exchange insurance. We are dow…

>For example, food stamps are mostly used by white people.

Not how ratios work. In absolute terms, there are more white people who use food stamps than non-white people because 3/4s of the country's population is white. Per capita, many more non-white people are on food stamps than white people.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#316

Post by cookiecaper » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 3:49 PM UTC

muzz wrote: post #52

joshmn wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amazing coverage they have is barely cutting it. He pays pennies on the dollar for the coverage they get. I can't imagine it would be like this at all on the exchange.

If his employment does end, he can do COBRA for 18 months (although he'll lose the employer contribution of course). Afterwards, ACA guarantees that a plan will be available. Depending on the state, you may be able to even get a quick quote online to get an idea of what the cost would be today.

COBRA is not a realistic option for most people. Without the employer contribution, most health plans end up costing more than $1k/mo. That's too much for a steadily-employed person to afford, let alone someone who was just laid off.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#317

Post by mdpopescu » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 4:13 PM UTC

sbov wrote: post #247

nickthemagicman wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It bothers me when people suggest unrealistic possibilities to people being layed off like starting their own businesses. There's 10% unemployment. Is that really a legit solution? Capitalism is built on the idea of everyone 'working' and 'having a job' and theres lots of people like his dad who really want work, and are loyal and hardworking. But there's not enough jobs to go around and the amount keeps decreasing d…

> Capitalism is built on the idea of everyone 'working' and 'having a job' Capitalism wouldn't work if everyone who wants a job has one, so I really doubt that. Employees could just demand ever increasing salaries until all profit is gobbled up, and there's nothing the business can do about it because they can't replace them since everyone who wants a job has one.

But everyone who wants a job already has one, by definition. (Think about it.)

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#318

Post by StillBored » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 9:42 PM UTC

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 always thought the field service guys would be the last to go. But, after a number of conversations with SEs it seems that the efforts IBM/HP/etc have put into producing "choose your own adventure" guides to repairs and escalating everything else to remote "engineering support" have changed that. At least in the mind of the bean counters, my experience with a lot of the newer service engineers is that they can't actually fix anything that isn't already in the manual. AKA, the quality of service sucks and no one cares. My last couple of interactions were basically cases of me telling the SE how to fix the problem after the field service guide (which I asked for) failed to be helpful and the 24 hour turnaround to china for engineering support was dragging on for weeks.

Re: HP to cut 25-30k jobs

#319

Post by Swannie » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 11:48 PM UTC

norea-armozel wrote: post #176

I do hope the Board of Directors sells off the Machine assets to a company that could actually pull it off (that's not Intel) like Microsoft or even, hell, Apple. The idea of moving processing to a memory-centered architecture just seems very interesting and possibly useful in non-trivial situations. And for that idea to die horribly with a company ill equipped just bothers me. If they're hurting enough to layoff ten…

Assuming you mean the non-memristor version of the machine?

Microsoft are not a hardware company by any stretch. There are a few hardware engineers in small areas (Xbox, handsets, Surface), but almost none in server. Apple mostly make consumer facing equipment, again, no enterprise/server heritage.

If not HP, then who has a true system development background?

Well, not sure why you say not Intel. They are one of the few that actually does systems development.

IBM makes the most sense. They've distances themselves from x86, and still maintain a system development mindset, including heavy investment in big data processing. They have the OS development skills.

After IBM, there are a few maybe's:

Google would be a realistic company too, as they have shown system engineering skills, end to end, including a lot of OS development work.

Facebook - continue to do full system engineering in areas they believe are differentiators. I could see them doing something similar for analytics crunching.

Outsiders: Oracle could be viable. There must be a few Sun guys left there that do system development, and they need to show they are still relevant in big data, but they don't spend much in R&D.

Cisco - continue to do full system engineering, but would likely break this by making it too network centric. No real OS development heritage.

Broadcom - continue to expand their areas. This would be a huge step for them in systems integration, but not big at all in terms of silicon and interconnects.