Time and time again I see a very good company with a very poor management strategy: Cut the bottom line. But how far to cut? .... Just keep cutting until something breaks. How smart is this? As a long time employee and technical contributor, I feel somewhat betrayed by agenda and incentives at the highest levels to cut, cut, cut!... We have liquidated entire support departments in the name of cost cutting. Now engineers not only are responsible for the design of world-changing technologies like HAMR, we are also responsible for materials, ordering parts, ordering PCBs, directing vendors, implementing quality, ... the list goes on. Recently, after I thought it couldn't get worse I found out: For the some 800 people we have in our building, we have one (1) IT person. ONE!... Who makes these decisions? I heard Longmont has one IT person for their 1400+ staff. ONE!... Now, an overburdened and over extended engineering staff must troubleshoot their own PCs?... How cost effective is that?!? Just venting, but I suppose they must cut, cut, cut! to support the top-heavy management we have in place. And what does a manager do if engineers are doing everything else? Micromanage of course! Seagate is a good company, yes. But very poorly managed, IMO.
23 replies (most recent on top)
Chao Chee Bye - good to hear from you my friend and an insightful observation as usual.
I see stupid people.
Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're stupid.
They're everywhere.
@TiFQEZc-6hug.... The last poster didn't say the company was In bankruptcy.. They said the company was being run as if it was. Try reading the post properly before posting.
The company is already in bankruptcy?Don’t think so.Post facts not BS.
The company is being staffed and run as if it's already in bankruptcy and pure survival mode in many areas. Maybe they know something we don't. LOL
TlFQEZc-5gqz .A good honest and level headed post.Some managers expect a employee to do the work of two or three people for a one person wage,which is totally unfair.My simple answer is that the employee should only do the work of one person.If people let people take advantage of them then its their fault.I practice what i preach,i will never do the work that im not paid to do.
Back to the original post about one IT person per location at Seagate. From an IT perspective, I can speak to that as there is no way a company can operate efficiently with just 1 IT person. If that person takes vacation, who takes care of what? That's absolutely ridiculous and unfortunately like in my case too, it's the people not understanding and doing the work without spending a day in your shoes making the decisions. Their belief is messed up in that not every employee can be a good employee so they intentionally look for flaws when the flaws exist within management. So I get what you're saying as it's a peeve of mine too. I gave up trying to get everything completed because I found they just gave me more to do vs the others which isn't fair either.
Huh.
I guess what ever you say is true, and whatever I say is false.
Oh well. I will continue to enjoy the benefits and rewards that come with my job, which I like by the way.
Don't work too hard. You likely aren't long for Seagate.
Cheers.
BlackHolesMatter_DoYou is one of those people who's whole life revolves around seagate,worklife and social life are merged into one.Every workplace has a$$holes like him, they talk about seagate on their days off.Seagate is his life and thats why he takes it all so personally.Im guessing hes nowhere near manager or engineer job title.He gets butthurt easily and living in his parents basement must get lonely.
STX is what you make of it. Far from perfect, but for many of us, better than a) what we have been at in the past and b) only company willing to hire us right now. So while I'm here and I'm going to do my part and work hard. BTW go on glassdoor or salary dot com. No one is making a sh-- ton of money at STX. I had an engineer from a gaming company hit me up for a job Friday, I asked how much he wanted, he said 375k. HA HA HA HA are you smoking crack? If that game company is paying that, I'll get hired as entry-level and gladly take half.
Hey BlackHoles, it's not that I can't/won't/want someone else to do something for me. I do all those things. It's just because I actually care about the Company, I actually see the dumbas$$ decisions being made. Just an observation. An appalling one, albeit. I work hard and do the work of 5 people (4 of them non-engineers). I just hate to see a good company with this style of poor management, that's all....
STX was a good company. HDD or HSSD will be things of past. Buying companies to grow top line did not pan out too well. Buying the crytoocurrency company may incur some virtue value. HAMR may only extend HDD life a bit longer. We shall see what temperature makes this technology obsolete.
Right - highly paid engineer that moves furniture and provides own IT - I call BS! You're more likely middle management hoping to hold on to a self-defined existence that exhibits no marketable value and are sweating bullets that your free ride might be coming to an end.
Interesting.
I am just one your basic high paid engineers. And I have no problem moving furniture and taking care of my computer.
I guess there are people the "do", and others that "have to have everything done for them".
No problem.
That's exactly the issue that layoffs are intended to fix.
Cheers!
Like you said, if you don't like it leave. And yes, I am looking. Lots off things are looking better every day. Too bad they won't buy out my severance accrual like they did sick leave. I would have been gone yesterday. When management lays off whole departments that support engineering, guess who does the work? Your high priced engineers. Yes, now they are troubleshooting Windows so they can write the code they were hired to write (1 IT person, remember...?). They are weighing out piece-part supplier issues so they can design the things they were hired to design, at 3x the cost of a purchasing person. They are moving furniture when asked to move. It just seems dumb (no offensive meant). Will we man-up and do what we are asked to do? Sure. That and the 5 other tasks too. Sure. DUMB.
Lol at BlackHolesMatter_DoYou..stop whining like a little b1tch when someone posts something negative about seagate.Dont take it personally.I got to ask, why you take it so personal when someone lambasts seagate?
Calm down management rep - your anxiety filled response speaks volumes about the reality of the situation.
Or, you could just man-up and either do the job(s) you are being asked to do, or leave if you think you are such a super-star and the high-tech companies of the world are going to PlSS all over themselves to hire you.
Oh.... don't feel like you're qualified to work anywhere else? Don't want to have start all over at another company? Too lazy to even look? Just like slamming a perfectly good company that is trying to survive in the current economic enviroment? Your father spanked you too much when you were a mouthy kid and now you have authoritarian issues?
That's what I thought.
See you at work.
Face it folks, all you really hear is that gentle s---ing sound of the waters of prosperity circling the drain, weather its spinning left or right, the concern is only punishing yourself in advance.
Does the Management really care, most likely not as long as it keeps raining dollars their way, when the rain stops and the sky clears, all that’s left is the mud for the bottom feeders to languish in.
So the advice, keeps working but keep your options open, in 100 years all this bantering will have made no difference, none of us are a club members and only the club members get to play.
Look after yourselves and be wary of smiling faces and extended hands, trust no one….no one…..because no matter how important and indispensable you may think you are, there can be a warm replacement sitting in your chair within 24 hours….
Town hall meetings are screened doofus. They don't allow for tough questions.
@TlFQEZc-nvq....Ask what? What is the OP supposed to ask? And to who is OP supposed to ask?
I will next time. The IT thing happened recently. The other things have been enfolding themselves over the last year or so. But good point. Things are so bad, what have I got to lose?
Yes, that pretty much sums it up. Get ready to clean your own toilet and 100% self serve lunch soon. It’s only the start.