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Print 13 comment(s) - last by YashBudini.. on Jun 6 at 1:32 AM
HP will cut 9,000 jobs before hiring 6,000 new employees

Hewlett-Packard has announced it plans to cut 9,000 jobs over the next few years, though it promises to hire new employees after its planned $1 billion data center expansion is completed.

Around 6,000 of the 9,000 total jobs will be replaced as HP expands its sales force -- the company still has around 300,000 employees worldwide.  The job cuts are being caused now that HP is shutting down aging data centers, and will need a short amount of time to get new data centers ready.

"We have an opportunity to further accelerate our competitive advantage," HP officials said during a recent conference call.  "We think the next 10 years are going to be about who can automate the delivery of services."

For example, HP purchased Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 2008, and has worked to integrate the company's technology into its portfolio.  HP has diligently worked to integrate EDS technology into HP's business lineup, and the integration is almost finished.

HP's efforts have led other companies to make similar acquisitions, as they all try to create a one stop shop kind of consolidated offering to consumers and companies.  Both Cisco Systems and IBM, major rivals to HP's corporate business, also seek methods to upgrade data centers with new technologies.

HP also will use Palm's technology to offer new cloud-based printing services, and could use Palm's other technologies for a renewed attempt to create new smartphones.

HP remains one of the largest PC and printer manufacturers in the world, but has had to expand to new markets due to lower demand and increased competition.

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HR Managers
By drycrust3 on 6/1/2010 4:22:24 PM , Rating: 5
I am a bus driver. I drive buses. I have driven buses for 7 or 8 of the last 10 years. I used to work for a phone company. I worked there for 23 years. I have worked on electromagnetic and computer based systems. When I left I was a technical call centre specialist, meaning I worked in a technical call centre and looked after things like data links and fixed problems with their voice mail system.
Their HR department decided they had too many people in that section, so regardless of the work load, that was the end of my job + 6 others there. Legend had it that one new guy thought no one liked him because hardly anyone would talk to him. Then after 3 weeks the penny dropped: everyone was working flat out and just didn't have time to talk to him. Anyway, regardless of work loads (huge) and company profits (huge), the HR department knew they had too many people and getting rid of them was what the company needed.
Within a month of my leaving the computer links into the local stock exchange crashed, and were down for a whole month. It cost the country millions (not America). Any one of us 7 could have fixed the problem in a few minutes, so the cost of loosing that 7 staff was huge as well.
Since I don't know, I won't say no one in the HR lost their job over this, but my guess is none would have.
After that, I coulnd't find any permanent work, so I went to drive buses.
About 4 years ago I left and went on an overseas trip, and when I got back I got a contract role with a well known supplier of consumer electronics in their repair centre in New Zealand (where I live). When I got there they had a 3 week turn around on their products being repaired. One of their staff was leaving to go and work in the same place I had left at the phone company. I don't think I ever saw him do any work the whole time he was there, and he left after about 4 weeks.
In addition to him being "not there", because it was winter time we had staff being absent through sickness and annual leave.
By the end of two months the turn around time was less than a week. That's right! From inward goods logging it in until outward goods logged it out, the average product was fixed in under a week!
What was the difference? ME! And what did I do that was so different from everyone else there? I just worked slower than I had at the phone company.
One day my "manager" from the agency that paid me came to see what I was doing. I showed her all the faults I was responsible for (about 70) and explained how I would check every one during the course of the day. On top of that I would do the technical outcalls because the technical call section wouldn't do it. She left and didn't say much. In hindsight I think she just realised that I was so totally better than everyone else there. Of course, the management there didn't think like that, they think I want to take over their jobs, regardless of the fact I never even thought of it. So my job finished there after 6 months.
And guess what happens when I apply for jobs? The HR manager sees "bus driver" and says "who's next".
My advice to the 9000 employees is to be respectful to every lowly person you meet because one day that could be you.




RE: HR Managers
By MrBlastman on 6/1/2010 5:03:02 PM , Rating: 3
Interesting story and good advice. No matter the job, be it a janitor, cashier or even a bus driver, in today's economy you have no idea where that person came from to get that job. They might have been a very successful project manager or someone on the fast track to becoming an executive, only to be shot down in all of this economic mess. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity no matter who they are (as long as they treat you right).

As for your situation, I am sorry to hear about your plight. That is a lot of years under your belt (30 - 33), you must be pushing your late 50's or early 60's, eh? I know a few people in that age bracket that have a very hard time finding employment. It isn't because of their qualifications (one was a Controller/CFO of major companies) and the only reason they can not find employment is because of their age and over-experience. It might not be that you are a "bus driver" but more your age and prior work that has to do with it.


RE: HR Managers
By The0ne on 6/2/2010 12:17:49 PM , Rating: 2
There are many stories like yours out there, people are just blind to them and/or outright refuses to consider the very thought of them :)

I lost my Mom and job in the same month. About 1500 employees were cut and I was one of them. This was during the Father Bush era and when the market crashed :) I took on some small contracts but eventually ended up as a Office Depot delivery person. But I'm not the person doing the delivery, I'm the sidekick that tags along :) hahahhahaha I wasn't "qualify" enough :P

Before that I also worked at Target, night shift, stocking products. It was convenient to give me time during the day to search and attend interviews :)

It's funny when they ask me what I was doing before. I'm an Engineer, I've worked on wind turbines, jet motors, set up shops in other countries, etc etc.

So ya, take to heart the people you meet out there. Sometimes people just have bad luck and end up where they don't want to be, if only for a little while.


RE: HR Managers
By YashBudini on 6/3/2010 12:12:49 AM , Rating: 2
"Within a month of my leaving the computer links into the local stock exchange crashed, and were down for a whole month. It cost the country millions (not America)."

In their mindset if they were not fined then getting rid of you was still the right thing to do.

I'd up your score but you're at +5 now. Sorry.


Oh noes
By Spookster on 6/1/2010 11:25:23 PM , Rating: 2
Our company outsourced its IT to HP. Now our help desk is located in Costa Rica. Oh please don't get rid of our costa rican call center. </sarcasm>




RE: Oh noes
By The0ne on 6/2/2010 12:21:57 PM , Rating: 2
Just curious, how is it in your view? I absolutely hate China and India call services. I found I hate India the most. Sometimes you get services from a group that speaks good english, calm and has non-Indian names BUT they still won't have a clue to your problems or how to deal with them. It makes it that much worse because it appears every one of them have been brainwash to act in this fashion! Oh, and the reading of a index card is too obvious as well, especially when you hear it over and over again!


RE: Oh noes
By Spookster on 6/2/2010 12:46:15 PM , Rating: 2
In the first year it was the worst. Employees would end up spending hours on the phone with the helpdesk explaining and rexplaining their problems. Nobody could understand a word they said and they couldn't understand us to the point where our company had to force HP to provide a help desk that spoke/understands proper and clear English. Now we are the point where we can understand what they are saying but they are still about useless because it's obvious they are just reading from something and don't truly attempt to diagnose problems. Now when I call I ask right away to be transferred to the next tier of support.


RE: Oh noes
By YashBudini on 6/3/2010 12:14:47 AM , Rating: 2
I plan on getting even by opening a 7/11 in Bangalore.


RE: Oh noes
By allajunaki on 6/4/2010 9:11:26 AM , Rating: 2
Well, there are reasons why Indian Call Centers will suck.

First of all, most of the Indians who work in the call centers have no clue on the products they support, till they work there. Bit like "Foxconn" situation, where the very people who make the apple stuff cannot afford one.

Second, some of the devices Indian call center support are stuff they have never even seen. If only they were given the gadgets that they need to support, perhaps they would have done a better job. I don't know why the call centers cannot provide the equipment they support, something like a lab, where they can play around with it to figure out how it works.

Some of it can be attributed to lack of aptitude for this kind of work too.
But the ones who are good are absolutely crippled because of the first 2 things, so most of them are stuck to the cue cards. I mean, how do they know about little quirks in the devices they support, when they have never held one, let alone get a chance to fiddle around with one?

As you would have guessed by now, I am from India. But I do not work in a call center.


sign of the times
By Stan11003 on 6/1/2010 4:49:54 PM , Rating: 3
This is the problem with an IT career. Your job is connected to technology that continually advances. A rack-mounted HP DL380 G3 server from 5 years ago had 2 cores and a max of 12GB of RAM while a modern b460c blade server can have 12 cores and 96GB of RAM. We utilize every bit of that power. Since you need less hardware to accomplish the same job you also need less people to manage it. Yes businesses do more but the supply of processing power out strips demand. My advice is to get your Bachelors degree if you don't have it or think about an MBA or some other business related discipline, brush up on your power-point and conversation skills, network with the right people, basically do anything that doesn't just connect you to that hardware in a rack.




RE: sign of the times
By Chadder007 on 6/1/2010 9:54:43 PM , Rating: 3
I'm in IT, but have become disillusioned by Corporations not giving a spit about their employees. They want all of your loyalty, but will not give you an ounce when it comes to you who keep them going and make them money. They no longer see you as an asset, but a cost to the company.


RE: sign of the times
By YashBudini on 6/6/2010 1:32:59 AM , Rating: 1
"I'm in IT, but have become disillusioned by Corporations not giving a spit about their employees. They want all of your loyalty, but will not give you an ounce when it comes to you who keep them going and make them money. They no longer see you as an asset, but a cost to the company. "

While just about everything you said is accurate I must disagree with you about the asset part. I've worked at several major companies, and in each and every case IT itself was always considered a cost. It didn't even matter if you saved the company more money than what you were paid, all the company saw was that your presence did not bring $$$ into the company. The only people who were gods where the sales force. Even the people who were the most essential were not immune to layoffs. Sometimes when a company wanted to maximize the dollars savings per person the most essential (the highest paid) were the first to go.

Being essential doesn't show up on a fiscal year end statement. But yes they actually expect loyalty to be a one-way street, something only they can ask for.

I wish I had gotten out of IT years ago and I get quite mad when some asshole college tries to recruit into an IT program by telling me it's the place to be. These schools don't have any more ethics than Wall St banker scum.


RE: sign of the times
By jdsal on 6/2/2010 10:52:35 PM , Rating: 2
Thank god this is the case because I certainly hated replacing failed disk drives and power supplies. I shudder at the memories of the mid to late 90s, which generally pre-dates storage networks in corporate datacenters, where servers were 6-13 rack units tall and loaded full of Ultra3 SCSI drives. Even in a datacenter with 40-50 of these type of servers you would be replacing several drives a week.

So thank you HP, Dell, IBM, et al for improving hardware reliability and thank you to VMware for sparking the server virtualization technology.

Now I spend more of my 50+ hours listening to the business and finding appropriate IT solutions to accommodate their needs.


"Spreading the rumors, it's very easy because the people who write about Apple want that story, and you can claim its credible because you spoke to someone at Apple." -- Investment guru Jim Cramer











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