Furious HP staff stage protest over job cuts HP staff downed tools at the SIMO Network 2011 conference in Spain this week to protest against job cuts. hp_stop_layoffs_protesters If you're HP and you know it, wash your hands... An El Reg contact kindly took a photo as disgruntled workers took to the HP stand on 5 October only to lie down clasping placards urging their …
I do contracted support for a large, well known company that laid-off many workers and then turned around and allowed those same people who decided to lay off the workers pay increases. As is it not illegal to do it, corporations pull this kind of sh*t all the time.
I still do the same support for them. Their employees are overstressed, underpaid, and given 8 hours a day to do 12 hours worth of work.
and one of the well paid higher ups, perhaps a few of them, will end up as the top story on the eight o'clock news "Gunman Rampages Through Corporate Offices". Of course the survivors will claim not to understand why it happened and brain dead psychologists and sociologists will blame video games, slack gun laws or television. The rest of us will know the real reason.
Our CEOs have failed us. Our Board of Directors have failed us, and this is the result. You would feel significantly different if you were one of those getting axed. Combined with the ridiculous forced distribution of grades during the yearly reviews, HP has become a joke onto itself.
Except when you're the one getting one. Pink slips should seldom, if ever be required except for poor performance. Cutting someone's job because the higher ups didn't do their jobs properly is not a good excuse. Unless you're pink slipping the higher up - then you might very well save the company substantial money.
Companies know where the fat spending is, they ignore it. Why would they want to face the fact that some of their upper management make six figure incomes when they themselves make far higher six figure incomes?
To save a company money, they don't need to lay off 9,000 employees who get $30k a year salary. They need to lay off 900 of the ones who make $300k a year for being a relative, friend or frat brother to one of the high ups.
They need to remove the redundant bosses. Nobody needs four bosses. One will suffice.
But companies simply cannot see that. It's okay to create a new position in the lower levels and then close it up when it's not useful anymore. But god forbid it is done in the upper management area where you have an Executive Assistant to the CFO's Assistant. And their assistant as well...and a secretary for each.
Seriously, it's not just HP, but all companies really need to get their collective heads out of their collective posteriors.
... you can layoff a few while trying to restructure the company and make it profitable and more competitive (good)
...or you can layoff 6,000 people just because your revenue dropped 3% while still maintaining a HUGE profit... 1.7 BILLION in 1 quarter!... that's just corporate greed and some sleazy white collars trying to save their HUGE bonuses.
"The company remained profitable, however, posting results that were in line with analyst expectations. HP recorded a profit of US$1.7 billion on sales of $27.4 billion. Earnings per share were $0.70 for its second fiscal quarter, ended April 30"
From:
http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/layoff-of-6000-looms-as-hp-revenues-fall-/109702
"that's just corporate greed and some sleazy white collars trying to save their HUGE bonuses"
On the other hand, it just means that macro-economically, resources are being shifted elsewhere, from black/beige/silver box production to whatever.... definitely hellfire missiles and lovingly grilled children as there will be tax-and-spend thing going on. Or maybe ....
**OPENINGS IN McMANSION POOL MAINTENANCE!**
I have mixed feelings. HP isn't a co-op, and it isn't a government job, and the users are probably not in a union. The owners of the company have the legal right to do whatever they want, including closing the doors, which they may need to do eventually if they can't cover their expenses.
On the other hand, there are decisions that are, let us say, questionable, for instance, outsourcing a major part of a company for what turns out to be greater expense and poorer service. When you see one of these disasters heading your way, I think it's legitimate as an employee to protest.
But to protest a riff in a down economy, although it may make you feel better, seems ultimately pointless. It's not your company, and you have no fundamental right to have a job there.
The "owners of capital" don't dictate anything [they try hard and succeed though - by the use of trade barriers, subsidies, taxes, IP legislation, and "friendly" congressmen, all things that should get the baby seal treatment when the revolution comes], but ultimately, it's the consumer that dictates. A factory owner can only produce the stuff that people *actually want*.
So glad I left this hole. The only people left that I know there are those that cannot find work in that area, those that cannot move (ie, kids, house etc) and those that are waiting for the giant redundancy payout (ex civil service). All the EDS MOD jobs in South Wales are going to Erskine in Scotland in 2012. Technically they will be 'New' roles, so will they have to honour the relocation package for existing staff who wish not to move? Possibly not. I'm so glad I managed to get out...
If people would refer back to the earlier El Reg article they would realise just how fortunate these people were with their payoffs and stock options and the cover for the losses on selling their houses and
Oh sorry, you mean, those aren't the standard redundency terms but surely? You can't mean that only applies to the CEO
Maybe, just maybe capitalism is about to undergo one of its greatest tests?
What might emerge after this huge non-recession?
And what might the intervening poverty years between the start of non-recession and start of non-recovery what seeds might be sown along lines of:
hey! we don't need this wage slave stuff anyway. I work less, get paid less, have more time with family and it is great!
Is there a fundamentalist somewhere positing the demise of western capitalism as an observable event of omnipotent being intervention? (possibly urged on by intervention of - well, you know?)?
And while people in one half of the world starve unto death people in other parts gorge unto death?
What do we make of it all?
Destroy mortgage repayment potential = well, we don't need no steenkeen mortgage anyway?
Whatever happened to:
A man/woman with an adult wage will earn sufficient to keep himself/herself with their dependents reasonably well fed in reasonable accommodation wearing reasonable clothing/kit going on a reasonable holiday at least once a year and own a reasonable car?
Otherwise: what did the bankers do to a common and worldwide work ethic?
Being in a similar position myself (My successful company being bought out by an incompetant but huge multinational corporation) = looking at losing my job, as they know better. I'm tempted to find a few like minded colleagues and visit the next tradeshow
.(AC as I need the money until I can get another job elsewhere preferably before they blow me out)
Our CEOs have failed us. Our Board of Directors have failed us, and this is the result. You would feel significantly different if you were one of those getting axed. Combined with the ridiculous forced distribution of grades during the yearly reviews, HP has become a joke onto itself.
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