Look for massive layoffs anytime between March2 and the end of June this year.
Better start updating your CV and looking for a job right away. If you get SSL4 or below, you are a goner for sure.
It is happening ...
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Reviews are coming, do you have your personal things downloaded from your phone, office and laptop?
Another 3-5% will see the next ACT
GPTW
Exactly @LZHdrTm-1bki - "Managers end up using subjective criteria for who to save and who to sacrifice (basically, whoever they don't like), and this has caused many great employees to get kicked or pushed out in the past 2-3 years."
Intel's culture of competitive meritocracy has morphed into one of political sycophancy. Of course the rhetoric hasn't changed...
The common thing I hear from rank and file to the highest level, as well as outsiders was shock and and disbelief at ACT. I know several VPs and talked to several CEOs and none could believe either the layoff motivation and more incredulous when I shared how people were selected and walked.
The reputation of the company is in the gutter at the moment..
To much to highlight with what was flawed with the silent ACT of 2015 as well as ACT.
But with how the strategy and execution is going as well as the larger industry trend another few ACTs are all but certain with this management before it also gets the ACT.
It is a certainty BK won't be a legend he would be proud to read about and aspire as a youn San Jose State dreaming of big time
We have a good mix of managers and ICs on this thread, as well as both current and ex-Intelers. With that said, perhaps someone could answer these questions:
1) In times of large reductions in force, instead of a toxic blame-the-employee cut why can't Intel simply initiate a layoff, state it's for economic reasons, don't blame the impacted employees, and hold open a hire-back possibility if a turnaround occurs?
2) Instead of forcibly cutting 3 to 5% annually because they somehow suddenly are non-performers, why not fire just the obvious documentable non-performers and hire fewer and more-highly-scrutinized newcomers every year?
You could accomplish the same financial goal while avoiding unneeded churn and treating laid off employees with more respect.
i wish i had a penny for every time i read from someone "i have been mistreated at intel for soandso long!" it reminds me of women in abusive relationships who also keep crawling back to their husband only to be beaten up again.
those people are whiners who are either too scared to make a change or too incompetent to get another job. either way, they are poison for intel, because they will be just as fearful when it comes to technical innovation and risk taking, or they are anyway too incompetent to do a good job. or both.
and of course, they are the enablers of the very management culture they whine about. they make it possible.
every employee has EXACTLY the manager they deserve. think about the next time you whine about your manager.
A wise coworker once said there was three kinds of people at intel: the good, the bad and the crazy.
The good saw immediately how terrible the place was and left.
The bad found the place a dream and dived right in and the poisonous environment made them more crazy. A virtuous cycle of sorts. The whole TMG management is populated with these and they now run the company.
The crazy sold a little of their soul Year over year and stayed. I will admit I am a crazy. Loved my team/co-workers, loved the work and what we accomplished, couldn't complain about the pay earlier in career. I had several opportunities to leave but kids kept me. Was the convenient required senior grade L4 offering from my weenie manager and his boss. Had mutiple offers and several offering 30-50%. Nice to look and my fidelity account as those crazy decades were good! Love my new gig! I should have left 5 years earlier.
Decades ago many reasons to stay and be a crazy. Now can't see but one reason anyone should be a crazy except the sorry people trapped by their visa.Compensation and benefits were world class, not now! Intel was doing great things once and you could be proud to say you worked there. Now the pay isn't good, reputation is about past deeds as nothing intel does is something to be really proud of as intel is a stupid follower mostly.
Happy to be gone!
For those that stay better be a bad or crazy with a good reason to stay!
@1jvm You spent two decades in a company where managers yelled at you?
So either you are some kind of masochist or didn't have the necessary skills to move to a better company. Because no intelligent adult would stay in such a company unless they enjoy it or have no other choice.
Either way, the joke is very much on you.
@LZHdrTm-1yi ? Not in my groups, in two decades managers yelled at us in public meetings as well as privately about how stupid we were. The ones that yelled the most got promoted the fastest and those that's embraced that came along too.
So happy to have left that $hit hole
GPTW
The problem is not the forced distribution. The problem is that during the year, we managers are supposed to give positive motivation to our team members. So we tell them how well they performed. Then in the Focal talks, we tell them how well they performed. Then we're told to give them lower SSLs, so we have to tell them "Actually, your performance s---ed." And HR tells managers that they have to stand behind those decisions 100%. Can't blame "the system".
It's that whole two-faced bipolar thing that bothers the managers who have still maintained a last shred of morality. If Intel could at least be honest and upfront about it...
I hear forced distributions are a great moral booster. Assembly elite teams of talented people to do great things. Every year have the commanders get into a room and cut the perceived worst ones regardless of anything.
Look around in every peer group of 20. Your so called manager/coach/supervisor has decided one of you is getting kicked to the curb.
GPTW
@1bki The reason why they can get 3-5% out of SSL5 and IR is because we managers are being explicitly asked to provide 3-5% SSL5 and IR. The manager two levels above me was told very clearly by top HR that he shouldn't dare come out of Focal with just 1 or 2 percent SSL5.
And no, I am not defending this system. I am just saying that this is Intel's meritocracy culture. It's been that way already before ACT. Every Intel employee should be aware of that by now.
And there is no shifting criteria. IR meant "You're out" in the last Focal, in the Focal before that and in the Focal before that. And it will be the same this year. Same with SSL5. The only reason why SSL4 and long-term SSL3 became criteria in ACT was that Intel wasn't enforcing the usual 3-5% fluctuation but was trying to lay off 12,000 people, i.e. 10% of the workforce. This year, unless BK feels like getting rid of more people again, we're doing the usual "3% in, 3% out" hire and fire game.
No need for act2 when the h1bs all leave.
It all depends on the Q1 numbers -- just like last year, bad results and a bleak forecast can move things from "no ACT2.0" to "StealthACT2.0" or even "FullOnACT2.0". Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
@gtg - No way they can make 3-5% with IR and SSL5 alone. Last year, they got less than 4K layoffs from those + single-year SSL4s. And now all of those employees are gone. VSP criteria was repeat SSL3s and long in grade. So, logic would dictate most of the unaccepted VSPs would be the target for SSL4s and SSL5s this year. Even with a highly forced distribution, it seems difficult they will be able to get to 5% without dipping into the previous VSP criteria for layoffs this year. And this shifting criteria/forced distributions is exactly why this system doesn't work and does more harm than good. Managers end up using subjective criteria for who to save and who to sacrifice (basically, whoever they don't like), and this has caused many great employees to get kicked or pushed out in the past 2-3 years. So I agree with the poster that said that even SSL3s and long in grade are at risk. SSL4s and below are goners without a doubt.
After the secret layoff.."no more
After the ACT .. "no more"
I ask has growth returned to PC
I ask is server growing in high single digits
I ask is intel reducing RD and product development
Is 14nm and 10nm exceeding yield and cost targets.
OP got it right big ACTs a coming
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@hsm didn't BK say the same thing last year in the BUM before he fired 12k people?
Intel Viiv was doing well and there were no plans to kill it. Intel was not giving up on Wimax. Tablet continued to be a focus area for the company last year. What's your point @hsm?
Straight from a Richard Taylor today - no Act 2 happening. You can believe or disbelieve him if you want.
@njs- an HR Rep confirming or denying any question at Intel would be a first .
@aqm Which part exactly is the "fairy tale"? Any HR rep at Intel would confirm everything I wrote.
More fake news.
If you get an IR or SSL5, you are most likely out. At the very least, you will get a VSP and a strong suggestion to take it. So that means that 3-5% will have to go, as that is the strictly enforced IR/SSL5 ratio. That is nothing new. It has been like this for years. It's not a "massive layoff". It's Intel's culture - permanent enforced fluctuation and winner-takes-all. Intel's word for that is "meritocracy".
SSL4 does not imply that you get a VSP. Repeat SSL4s can be a problem though. And if there is another organized ACT, SSL4 will likely be a criteria.
Source: I am a manager at Intel and not some dude who got laid off 2 years ago.
Yep just heard yesterday that in certain groups it's already starting, even before focal. I guarantee this will not be announced and will go down very quietly.
@erh new fab in chandler isn't happening until 2020, so they say. If it does happen, it'll come at the expense of NM fab closure (meaning more layoffs.)
Yeah. America the greatest.
BK can't afford any more people let go. They're adding a new factory in Chandler in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
No brainer that everyone who is long in grade or average at best can expect to be walked the day they have their lovely focal review.
Expect HR and manager and them to have a cardboard box for you, complimentary USB drive and collect your laptop before the hour is done and badge as they kick your a$$ to the door. Don't expect to say goodbye to anyone. You'll be lucky to get six weeks of pay and six months of Cobra.
Heed the OP, start your job search now and use all your vacation now!
Welcome to BKs GPTW