Layoffs at Microsoft, Intel, and IBM 623
Normally I try to avoid posting straight business news, but I think that these 3 stories combine to something meaningful.
Muleguy noted Microsoft is laying off 5,000,
Mspangler reports that
Intel is cutting 5-6k, while
nonyabidness afraid4myjob submitted that IBM Layoffs have begun with no number, but estimates as high as 16,000.
Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know about Intel or Microsoft, but IBM is at a 20 year high for employment; the highest since it dropped 150k workers in the 90's.
Even though they managed to pull some solid growth last year, they're on the heavy side for a significant down turn. For a company that deals in services and hardware, it'd be shortsighted not to tighten up a bit.
Still, no fun. I sympathize with the workers over there. (Before anyone starts calling me heartless; I work for a newspaper company. My department has lost almost 70% of it's staff in the last 3 years. )
Perfectly normal (Score:3, Informative)
This is a normal management decision. When you have prospects of declining growth, cutting 5 to 10% of your under-performers is just good management.
Rationality aside, my sympathies for the families of those being laid off (although in the USA job market this is not such a big deal).
Steve Ballmer's memo to employees (Score:5, Informative)
No, it's not my blog nor am I affiliated in any way with the site.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Not H1-B: Try Offshore Contracting (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, the answer for IBM is "offshore contracting". Waaaay cheaper. Spoken from experience. More and more of my coworkers are in another timezone. They're in India, the Philippines, South America, et. Al. We've been training up these contractors are some of the systems. Hopefully, lucky for me, the Big Systems with Major Impact are not being segued over.
I'm posting as AC for obvious reasons, I think.
Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know how directly this relates to you personally (probably not much), but there are some up and coming organizations that I think are doing better reporting than most dead tree presses I'm aware of - arstechnica.com is my prime example. They usually provide context, and aren't afraid to draw obvious conclusions - both of which are sorely lacking in "old" media like newspapers, tv and radio (Bill Moyers is an exception to that statement - the only one I can think of).
At Ars the writers actually seem to understand the topics they write about. How many paper writers out there could you say that about?
(Note: I don't have any affiliation with Ars, I've just been very impressed with them as of late - and I hope they make a boat load of money.)
Job OPENINGS (Score:5, Informative)
Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score:4, Informative)
That's the problem right there. Business ALWAYS over-extends itself. In good times, they open tons of new factories and rather than hire some Americans who are ought of work, these businesses insist upon brining-in foreign labor.
Then they turn-around and lay them all off, and what's left are foreigners living off the dole. I think when the economy is booming, the government should say, "No imported workers. Hire some of the unemployed Americans and get them off the government's payroll."
ASIDE:
I was recently laid-off. I had a phone interview for a temporary job, and now they want to interview me in person which is an unusual move for a temp job. The catch: I have to drive 14 hours from PA to NH without any kind of reimbursement, and frankly it's unlikely I'll get the job anyway. Would you be willing to go to an interview w/o reimbursement, for a temporary 6-9 month job?
And yet all are hiring (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Perfectly normal (Score:3, Informative)
What do you mean, this isn't a big deal in the USA job market? Are you saying it's not a big deal to be laid off in the US, or that it's not a big deal because Americans don't have families? Or something else?
As an IT worker who has been laid off twice in the last year due to downturns who has a family, let me tell you, it is a fucking big deal. HR types still very much have the mentality of "oh you were laid off? There must be something wrong with you" and won't even consider someone who's got multiple short stints of employment in a row.
Sun also had layoffs today (Score:5, Informative)
15% layoff - or in that figure. We've known about it for months, coming, too. Today is the "notification day" for many Sun employees, too ;(
Re:Is it cos I iz black? (Score:3, Informative)
...unregulated capitalism was perfectly capable of committing suicide.
Care to cite an example? Pretty much every single economic collapse of the past was -caused- by a centralized control or manipulation of some sort; not free market capitalism.
Re:Some perspective. (Score:2, Informative)
Microsoft are cutting up to 5,000 from a total of 90,000 employees - 5.5% of its workforce.
IBM might cut 16,000 from a workforce of 387,000, a cut of 4%.
Intel are cutting up to 6,000 from a workforce of 84,000 - 7% of jobs.
Microsoft is only cutting 2000 to 3000 though in the long run. And the cuts will take over 18 months. They are getting rid of 1800 today, which will be the bulk of their layoffs. The rest is basically getting rid of bloat in one department to hire in another. It's not much of a net loss after today.
Re:Some perspective. (Score:4, Informative)
Intel is actively trying to make sure those people aren't cut, but rather just moved to another facility. They're just temporarily consolidating their labor into fewer plants, since the need for production has been scaled back.
Disclaimer: I work for Intel, but I don't have any more information about this than the general public does. The only difference is that I knew about this last week, before it was made public.
Re:well... (Score:4, Informative)
Huh? I thought it was the unregulated American financial sector that caused this world-scale shitstorm. Way to shift blame.
Re:Some perspective. (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite.
Maine is known, among other things, for the blueberry crop. This used to be picked mostly by Micmac Indians from Maine and Canada, and high-schoolers (like me) and other locals that would do what is by any measure back-breaking work for pretty good pay. I made $600 a week for a month in 1970-1972. Not bad for a student. The majority of the crop was picked that way through the 80's.
Today, maybe a fifth is picked by hand [seacoastonline.com], and most of that by Hispanic migrants. The Micamcs mostly pick on an Indian reservation farm.
The reality is that the major producers prefer migrant workers from away for several reasons. The one I hear the most is 'lower pay'. Just the way it is.
I hear a complaint sometimes that migrants, illegals, etc. take jobs Americans won't do. Mostly, I suspect this is because we 'Americans' don't want to do some jobs for the pay some employers want to pay. Not the same thing as 'not wanting' a job. How did toilets get cleaned before we had a serious illegal immigrant problem?
But the H1-B problem is a particularly nasty slap in the face. There are so many stories of qualified citizens not able to find work in fields where H1-B workers were being recruited that I'm not going to list any. Not hard to find.
I work for a company that uses both H1-B and other immigrants liberally for many sorts of IT work. Many of us are at a loss to explain how they can claim there are no US citizens available for the wor, the skill set is not unique, and neither is the workload.
One clever way around that they use is to contract with an offshore firm. No justification needed. the biggest number of these offshore workers are part of, you guessed it - IBM.
We'll be dealing with this soon enough, won't we?
Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm on H1b. If I lose my job, I have to either find another job or be out of the country in a week.
Go figure.. (Score:2, Informative)
Well I can't say that I didn't see this coming since during an interview at IBM in Poland I was told by the head of a department that they will be recruiting at least a 100 new employees this year just in the Krakow office.
Already the currency makes a difference and adding the fact that IBM is known to be very cheap in pay here makes a great savings plan..
Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score:4, Informative)
You're right, they're only the worlds third largest company, after Exxon Mobil and Petrochina, and second in the BrandZ (brand recognition) ranking to Google. Oh wait...
From Wikipedia, "GE, which was a conglomerate long before the term was coined, is arguably the most successful organization of this type."
Welch left GE in 2001, when they were doing significantly better than they are even today.
Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score:1, Informative)
omg, w3 BluePages -> Reporting structure
http://w3.ibm.com/jct03001pt/bluepages/
Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score:3, Informative)
And on a basic level, I strongly object to the idea that it's a good business practice to just keep turning up the heat on your employees. I worked for many, many years for a very successful company that thrived because we kept a strong, informed staff that knew how to work together. We were acquired by a "high pressure, gotta deliver now, fire the bottom 10%, no time to do it right just do it!" company ,and the result was dismal failure after dismal failure. So to say the least, I'm not impressed.
That's probably because you don't have a strong enough personality for it, and the organization wasn't structured for it. Welch wasn't big on firing the grunts, he fired the bottom-performing 10% of managers. Performance motivated people need to be in place for the system to work. Strong performers loved to work at GE under Welch because they were promoted quickly and paid accordingly, with brutal honesty respected more than gushy crap.
Re:well... (Score:3, Informative)
Fannie Mae [wikipedia.org] and Freddie Mac [wikipedia.org] - the two firms most responsible for the "crisis" (they were the ones buying shit mortgages and loans from everybody) - are practically owned and run by the government. That's what the "Federal" in "Federal National Mortgage Association" and "Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation" means. You don't get more regulated than that.
But nice FUD.
Ballmer's e-mail to employees regarding layoffs (Score:2, Informative)
In response to the realities of a deteriorating economy, we're taking important steps to realign Microsoft's business. I want to tell you about what we're doing and why.
Today we announced second quarter revenue of $16.6 billion. This number is an increase of just 2 percent compared with the second quarter of last year and it is approximately $900 million below our earlier expectations.
The fact that we are growing at all during the worst recession in two generations reflects our strong business fundamentals and is a testament to your hard work. Our products provide great value to our customers. Our financial position is solid. We have made long-term investments that continue to pay off.
But it is also clear that we are not immune to the effects of the economy. Consumers and businesses have reined in spending, which is affecting PC shipments and IT expenditures.
Our response to this environment must combine a commitment to long-term investments in innovation with prompt action to reduce our costs.
During the second quarter we started down the right path. As the economy deteriorated, we acted quickly. As a result, we reduced operating expenses during the quarter by $600 million. I appreciate the agility you have shown in enabling us to achieve this result.
Now we need to do more. We must make adjustments to ensure that our investments are tightly aligned with current and future revenue opportunities. The current environment requires that we continue to increase our efficiency.
As part of the process of adjustments, we will eliminate up to 5,000 positions in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, LCA, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, of which 1,400 will occur today. We'll also open new positions to support key investment areas during this same period of time. Our net headcount in these functions will decline by 2,000 to 3,000 over the next 18 months. In addition, our workforce in support, consulting, operations, billing, manufacturing, and data center operations will continue to change in direct response to customer needs.
Our leaders all have specific goals to manage costs prudently and thoughtfully. They have the flexibility to adjust the size of their teams so they are appropriately matched to revenue potential, to add headcount where they need to increase investments in order to ensure future success, and to drive efficiency.
To increase efficiency, we're taking a series of aggressive steps. We'll cut travel expenditures 20 percent and make significant reductions in spending on vendors and contingent staff. We've scaled back Puget Sound campus expansion and reduced marketing budgets. We'll also reduce costs by eliminating merit increases for FY10 that would have taken effect in September of this calendar year.
Each of these steps will be difficult. Our priority remains doing right by our customers and our employees. For employees who are directly affected, I know this will be a difficult time for you and I want to assure you that we will provide help and support during this transition. We have established an outplacement center in the Puget Sound region and we'll provide outplacement services in many other locations to help you find new jobs. Some of you may find jobs internally. For those who don't, we will also offer severance pay and other benefits.
The decision to eliminate jobs is a very difficult one. Our people are the foundation of everything we have achieved and we place the highest value on the commitment and hard work that you have dedicated to building this company. But we believe these job eliminations are crucial to our ability to adjust the company's cost structure so that we have the resources to drive future profitable growth. I encourage you to attend tomorrow's Town Hall at 9am PST in Cafe 34 or watch the Webcast.
While this is the most challenging economic climate
Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score:3, Informative)
Posted results are the past. Layoffs are based on expectations of the future.
Last summer at raise time they told IBMers that the new raise package was based on the expectation of future revenue, and since it wasn't looking good, the raises were small. Now IBM made more than expected, but everyone who got shafted by the raise won't see it.
Posted results are great -- except that they don't make up for an (undeservedly) low raise. Who do you think will see the unexpected money earned in Q4... the rank-and-file, or the executives and shareholders?
I'm glad I got out.
Re:Flakes off Bill Gates Ass (Score:3, Informative)
Not quite as insignificant as you think.
Microsoft's June 2008 worlwide head count 91,259
was http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/inside_ms.mspx [microsoft.com]
So 5,000 being let go is still a > 5% layoff. 1-in-20 being let go.