taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (10/16/89)
Hi there. If you're an HP employee who has been recently declared as "excess",
or if you know of someone at Hewlett-Packard who has, I would like to hear
from you. I am, as most of you probably know, associated with "The HP
Chronicle", the premier source of HP-related news outside of HP, and I'm
interested in writing an article or two about what's currently going on
there at Hewlett-Packard.
My understanding of the "excess" program is that a select number of people
in the company (around 10%?) have been declared as 'non-essential to the
running and success of the specific department or division' (or "excess")
and are then given anywhere from 2 to 4 months to look through the LOIS
on-line job listing system to find a new position within HP. If there are
no positions of interest, once the period has expired the immediate manager
then picks a job for the excessed employee, and if they don't like it, they
are expected to quit HP entirely.
The further wrinkle is that when you're looking for a position within HP
you can talk to any group at all (that's hiring and has requisitions), but
once you formally interview with a group, if they offer you the position
you are *required* to accept it.
Is this correct? Is there anyone there at HP that would like to comment
on the accuracy of the policy I've stated above?
If you've been declared excess, also, I would be most interested in hearing
about your sentiments and feelings on the issue; answering with a request
that it be anonymous is perfectly fine (given the situation, it would be a
surprise if you wanted to have your name known). If you're interested in
assisting in this, answering the following questions would be most useful:
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EXCESS HP EMPLOYEE QUESTIONNAIRE
Respond to "taylor@limbo.intuitive.com"
- name (optional), department, and division, including location
- years with HP, and positions held during that time (optional)
- do you mind having your name associated with your answers?
- how did you hear about the 'excess' policies?
- how did you hear that YOU are considered 'excess'?
- how do you feel about it?
- are there aspects of the policy that you don't understand?
- when where you told you were "excess"?
- How long have you been given to look for a new position
within HP?
- do you view this as a form of layoff? Why or why not?
- how much time have you spent looking for a new position within HP?
- what percentage of time do you anticipate spending in the next
few months looking within HP? Outside of HP?
- do you believe HP management is supporting you while you search
for a new position? If not, what aren't they doing?
- at a higher level, do you think this "excess" policy is
necessary for HP given their current financial state? Why or why
not?
- how has the hiring freeze impacted your feelings, loyalty, and
views of Hewlett-Packard?
- how do you think it will affect the industry perspective of HP
as "the one company that never has layoffs"?
- do you feel that the right groups have been targeted for
"excess"? (keep in mind that one goal is to not adversely
impact the longer term viability of the research, development,
marketing and sales of the HP product line)
- If you were capable of choosing which groups should have to
dramatically cut their budgets, which would YOU choose, and
why? (for example, it's not unreasonable to say that, given the
amount of money HP spends on their marketing groups, the company
has the lowest profile and worst image in the biz...)
- Are you considering leaving HP because of this new policy?
- What companies have you been considering?
- What companies might you consider in the near future, as your
search perhaps proves to be fruitless?
- How do you feel this will impact HP in the short and longer
term, especially in the competitive markets of desktop computer
workstations, minicomputers, personal computer peripherals,
calculators and medical equipment?
- Are there big issues about this that I've missed in these
questions? What are they and how do you feel about them?
Thank you very much for answering these questions!
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Please do NOT respond via HP Notes or netnews -- responses via electronic
mail to "taylor@limbo.intuitive.com" or "hplabs!decwrl!limbo!taylor" will
be much preferred, and again, please indicate if you'd like your responses
to remain anonymous.
I do *not* plan on summarizing responses to the net either, so you can
be assured that if you want to be anonymous, you will be very anonymous!
Thanks for your help and I sincerely hope this period of
darkness at HP quickly clears away!!
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems Unix Editor
Mountain View, California "The HP Chronicle"
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylorhuman@hpindda.HP.COM (Aaron Schuman) (10/17/89)
Dave's statement contains several significant errors of fact. Please don't view it as some kind of "inside scoop". Instead, view it as a journalist's wrong guesses. Aaron Schuman
tsu@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Stanley Tsu) (10/17/89)
Hi Dave, For matters like this, you should contact Corporate Public Relations. I don't have the phone number handy. Directory Assistance should be able to tell you, but if not, send me e-mail and I'll help. I'd like to add that, IMHO, using technical forums, such as comp.sys.hp, to discuss rumors and innuendos shows incredibly bad taste. Stanley Tsu Hewlett-Packard tsu@hp-ses.hp.com #include <std/disclaimer.h>
fkittred@bbn.com (Fletcher Kittredge) (10/17/89)
flame warning
In article <152@limbo.Intuitive.Com> taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) writes:
...various non-technical garbage...
This message abuses the spirit of the rules governing posting to an
usenet technical group. Rumor mongering has a dedicated group,
talk.rumors. Kindly take this junque there.
Fletcher E. Kittredge fkittred@bbn.comtaylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (10/20/89)
This note is an apology to the people of HP and related about my recent
survey of "HP people declared 'excess'". I have discussed the matter
with HP Corporate Public Relations and am chagrined to admit that there
are some significant factual errors in the original posting.
A brief explanation is that many of my friends at HP have either left or
are looking for new positions due to the "excess" policy, so I kind of let
my emotions run away with me a bit. By no means is HP going through what
I described as "dark times" -- in fact HP is faring quite well in what is
currently a fairly soft computer market.
I shall shortly be receiving further information from HP PR about the
actual policy and at that point shall post a more informative response
about what's going on. If you would rather not read about it here in
this forum, but are interested, drop me a note to ensure I email you a
copy; I might well decide not to further clutter this group with more
inappropriate postings.
*sigh* as if the earthquake wasn't enough...
Again, apologies for the original article.
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor