Thread regarding VMware layoffs

I am on my second acquisition of this company. Their top executives have no interest in anything other than making money, and believe that the only way to make money is to minimize fuel costs. The only value of a company's existence lies in its responsibility to its shareholders. All of these are correct. The only exception is that they don't take into consideration the humans who become the fuel.

@ewr+1pgFnLXh

I guess you didn't get an offer because it comes with the name of your manager.

The dust will be settling for a while. Even some of us with offers don't know who we're reporting to, what the org will look like, when to even show up to a local office, etc. BC said in their portal - wait until after close for more information, clear enough.
But, I expected more from the VMW side....silence from the execs and Dir. level.

I don't think people are criticizing the cuts but rather the way it is being done, they had 1.5 years to figure how to do this efficiently.

At this point they should've simply had the full list of who they want to keep, then done the close first then that week released the list of offers and terminations together.

"Broadcom is acquiring a company that is double their current headcount."

And most of that VMW multiple layers of clueless managers and bloated IC headcount is involved in relatively pointless busywork that's ready to be cut by BC ASAP.

Remember, BC is a 'for-profit company' that is focused on high-performance growth, not HR benefits and flat revenue or profit like VMW. A very different corp culture.

Last I heard they have exactly 67 people in HR at Broadcom. Skeleton crew.

Some people have a three day option to accept an offer or take redundancy. How can they make that decision when redundancy has not been communicated except in US but in no other locations.

If you're not getting an offer, then you really don't need to know anything else.

FALSE

Laid off employees have a bunch of stuff that they need to know including:

• Notice period & severance
• What happens to their 401k
• What is the continuation of health benefits and if there are program changes
• Do we have access to Workday or is there another portal for making changes to withholding, elections and such during the notice period, if any

and a myriad of other things that can come up.

Your response simply comes across as elitism and arrogance. Oh sure, I got an offer so F everyone else who did not.

It's not disorganized at all. Once you get your offer, the transition team has put together a very nice guide for everything. If you're not getting an offer, then you really don't need to know anything else.

Totally agree with what @zxi+1pgFnLXh said here.

For far too long people have been riding coattails. This is another example of that.

While I do think the deliver of the letters felt untimely, that is without a doubt the fault of Betsy, IMO. In the last all hands, she set a terrible expectation - notification on Oct 16th. She would have been wise to say “at the end of Oct, possibly before”.

The reality is people had time. 18 month to be exact. During this time they needed to self reflect on their role, their importance, and whether or not they were redundant. Sitting here screaming at this point will only ensure you place blame onto another.

I beg you, please look internally at yourself, your skills, etc. and identify what’s needed to grow. If you do t do this and simply p-o on everyone else, then unfortunately you will continue to be let down.

And to send out the letters despite SAMR has not approved yet- very unfortunate.

Layoffs would have happened with or without broadcom ... If to date people still think everything is sunshine and roses then they were clearly asleep for the last couple of years.

Just because you don't like the process doesn't mean it is chaotic .. The process was / is clear for the last 18 months. If you lay back and hope for the best then that is on you.

Why do people think this would have gone any other way? The process was explained months ago by Broadcom folks (remember Broadcom Guy?) and we were told letters will roll out mid to end of Oct. Broadcom is a PE company disguised as a tech company. They know that they have to clean it up before moving in. I don't think they want to make same mistakes VMW made buying companies and never integrating them and collect all the garbage of people, process and systems along the way. If you buy a house you know that it is better to renovate before moving in.

Also if you think it will be any different when folks start working for BC then they are in for a rude shock. Ask anyone who is involved with integration activities for last few months. Everyone is already shocked at the brutalness of how they do things.

Also on internal Slack channel, I have hardly seen folks discussing resigning for full time offers. And transition folks have no choice anyway to walk away. Because they loose everything.

I believe Broadcom’s polite reply would be.

“Thanks for your feedback, now get back to work”

Not really, broadcom destroyed Symantec and ca inc.

CA technologies had whittled their 20k employee highs from the early 2000s to about 11k BEFORE Broadcom had even purchased us so it was an easier corporate demolition project.

VMware is being purchased at their all-time high employee count so … yes … it’s going be a sh-t show for a while until the dust settles.

It’ll probably take 2-3 solid years before everything is running like a normal stable VMware franchise.

Even if you get a stay offer Broadcom will probably do more layoffs and portfolio optimizations 2-4 years into the acquisition.

Things will be fluid for a while

Huge lack of communication skills, indeed. And to send out the letters despite SAMR has not approved yet- very unfortunate.

Welcome to #lifeatbroadcom. This is BAU over and above any M&A. Employees are a liability in Hock's mind. This is just the beginning.

I don't disagree that this su-ks but Broadcom doesn't invest heavily in "colleague experience" so this is not a surprise. They probably have very few in HR working on this and definitely not an established playbook. In addition, CA and Symantec were smaller acquisition than VMware. Broadcom is acquiring a company that is double their current headcount.