Thread regarding HP (Hewlett-Packard) layoffs

That's not a bad deal. For so long their offers weren't worth taking (against a bet you might be able to keep your job.) I wonder if the terms for people under the pre-2003 plan are getting the same offer.

Last week I got a retirement offer that is one of the best I have ever seen at HP. Those impacted by the April WFR are eligible. While the payout per year might have been better back in the old days, I think the max was always 52 weeks (1 year) of pay. In the old days I don't think the offers included 36 months of medical at the employee contribution rate. Most of the folks who were hit in April, that I know of, will hit the max of 52 weeks with the new offer.

WFR'd in Houston PSS this month.

I got hit with WFR. I was financially and mentally ready to retire soon anyway, so it probably did not impact me as much as it did others. I was expecting an enhanced retirement offer first, similar to the one I got 3 years ago but did not take.

My only issue with the way they handled this WFR was the rushed timeline. I was not allowed to take all of my earned vacation, as I had to spend a solid week training folks to do my job. (Anyone with over 20 years service, who had not yet taken vacation this year, had almost 2 weeks of vacation + personal days earned). Anyone not living in a State that requires reimbursement for unused vacation was not payed for unused vacation. Managers were not required to allow folks to actually take earned vacation.

Transitioning of medical insurance was stressful because the company that handles benefits was not notified that I had retired in a timely manner. The Monday after my last day of employment, the benefits company told me my old insurance was still active and they could not activate my retiree insurance because they were not notified I had retired. But if I had needed care on that Monday, I would have had no access to my new insurance, and my old insurance would have ended up rejecting the claim. (I was switching plans to a retiree plan, not using cobra to continue my old plan).

A longer transition time would have benefited me and HP (at least the team I worked on that ended up taking on my job tasks). A longer timeline would have allowed for me to use my earned vacation (during which time I would have gotten over any shock along with realizing that retiring now was really the best thing for me).

I would have done a much better job of training people to take over my critical job tasks, as I would have felt less rushed. I would have had time to get caught up on some medical and dental stuff before my insurance went into a confusing transition state.

Sorry to hear this folks. I was lucky to retire at my will a year ago.

PS affected in Houston. Several WFRs

Dead weight is getting expelled first in the form of WFR. THEN EER will be offered. Then HP can hire newbies to replace the EER folks. This process allows HP to remove itself from lawsuits arising from directly backfilling WFR’d baggage. Rather ingenious if you ask me. Devious and unethical for sure. But ingenious none the less.

I'm very eligible but received no EER offer. I did get invited to 'participate' in the WFR today. Bosie-based.

If he said they are starting with voluntary first, wouldn't that be VSI/EER/Phased rather than WFR? Those are all voluntary. Now if you don't take it, then you could get WFR'd and only get 9 weeks or so of pay (or whatever they offer.)

That said, I was offered EER and Phased at different times and didn't take it (wasn't worth it.) I was with HP for several years after that so don't assume you will be dumped. You could be what I call an "AGE." Acceptable Geriatric Employee. You could be good enough there is no reason to dump you and worry about age discrimination. They let too may oldsters take a form of VSI in the past and it raise a lot of eyebrows with the government.

At the last Print All Employee Meeting, Enrique said they would start with Voluntary programs first. I heard that VSI was offered to the S. Korea employees (unconfirmed), which makes sense as they have a 5 year job guarantee. But on the US side it has just been light amounts of WFR in Q2.

HP previously (June 2018) had announced 5,000 headcount reductions by the end of fiscal 2019. Looking at the last SEC / Quarterly Results information it says that a "transformation" cost of $700M is expected, of which half ($350M) is for severance. If you look at the $$ charged, $193M has been paid in severance so far, or about 55% of that $350M. So a significant headcount reduction would still be expected.

An EER would be a good way to get senior employees to exit, but is significantly more expensive per-head than WFR. As someone else stated, HP used to do voluntary (e.g. EER) first followed by WFR. So it seems like we are into the WFR-phase. Although I sure would like to see an EER.

Prepare to be "transformed".

The Phased Retirement is fine if you plan on actually retiring but if you want to get another job, the ramp down screws up your ability to work full-time for someone else. You also risk getting a ramp down longer than you wanted (you don't get to choose, HP chooses) or they extend it beyond what was originally agreed (and they can do it.)

I had two friends that wanted 6 months, were given 12 months and then got extended to 18 months. If they didn't accept it they lost all of the benefits of early retirement and were just terminated.

If you are planning on not working for up to 18 months it could be ok although my attention span would go to zero quickly.

Yes, offering EER before WFR is ethical, logical, and it is what they have done in the past.

But I think this time is different. I don’t know why; but I will not be shocked to see EER follow the layoffs.

Perhaps there is legal advantage to HP to do it this way.

I would think that they would first offer the Early Retirement program or the Phased Retirement as they did in 2016.

Yes. They are ramping up for significant cuts for Q3. Credible rumor mill says the Q3 WFR will be ~3x the recent Q2 layoffs. Time will tell.

Executive admins have booked all rooms, all day, every day during the week of April 29. Usually when this happens it means more layoffs

Do I know! I was spun-off to Agilent in 99 when CF took the reins. In 02, after 17 years I and many others were Term’d. Now I hear keysight is hiring for my/our old jobs but with one twist...most positions are contract. I think two year stents only. Variable cost is the norm now. Deep sigh.

Once layoffs became the normal rather than everyone tightening up to get through the downturn, the HP culture ended.

RE CV OR., what is the Co culture like now, since the post split and now a stand alone Company? Former employee, left wafer fabs in 97. Back when the HP-Way was alive and well. Any idea how many employees remain? I read most the site is empty? Best to all.

Yes HO corvallis oregon doing work forxmce reduction right now with new under the new. Company name HP Inc I was one in 2009 several. Employees than guessed it right and said they do again in 8 to ten years.

San Diego quality folks affected...

I suspect the supplies issue is making everyone tighten up.

All areas and sites affected

GSB, hmmm. What sites? Vancouver? Boise?

So sorry to hear. It is difficult to get job if you are above 45 :-(

How many employees might get impacted?

Sorry to hear that. Good luck.