this goes out to the US or other high-cost geos - is anyone else hearing about a new team that was secretly created and "want to learn" about your project/product?
i've heard from 2 different groups that this has happened outside of my coterie.
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@cq The plan is more sophisticated: 10 lowers skilled, yet cheaper, workers with AI models can generate enough as the 1 western worker fired. We really are seeing the mask fall off as Zitron says: This is how this sort of C-suite person views us, their employees, as a waste of money, as a resource to be replaced by AI and 10 randoms off a street in India.
GK has long given up on any idea of innovating at NetApp. The plan is to milk the core product as long as possible while reducing costs by replacing expensive engineers with cheaper ones in India.
The pattern has been established for quite some time. Major features are moved to new teams who do not have the capacity to understand them. When the feature or function breaks, they cannot diagnose or troubleshoot the issue. When they get in trouble, they go back to the original engineers who do not have the time or inclination to investigate, and offer vibes and lamentation about the lack of clarity during the requirements and design phase. The support team repeats the response to the account teams and product management over and over until they give up and inform the customer "this is hopelessly broken". When you try to hold them accountable, their management accuses you of over-zealous behavior. Then you quiet-quit, leave, or retire.
I wouldn't call it "shadowing" but recently two feature areas my team used to own were transferred over to two brand new teams in NB. They hired new people and then asked us to train them on the feature. We spent weeks teaching them everything about it, then they took over ownership of it. For one of those feature areas, the guy doing the training was just laid off right after he finished the TOIs.
After recent layoffs and reorgs, there are suddenly 2 different teams "wanting to learn" the product.
The bulk of the management chain is now in India. I think it's obvious what happens next. Give it a few quarters and we'll have another great replacement on our hands.