Thread regarding Intel Corp. layoffs

Moving people across groups in every few month/weeks

Is moving engineers across groups every month/weeks a common Intel culture? This is so frustrating when it comes to work productivity! Difficult to take over task from old team mates and ramping up in a short duration of time. Not exactly knowing the work in depths and just trying to put patches on bugs. Delayed product tapeout.

What is the strategy or thinking behind this action from management point of view- Firstly it is so discouraging for people who have worked on it for months to just give it up and move to another project, which might be completely new. Secondly information is lost during knowledge transfer from old team to new team and there is this back and forth with unnecessary extra work load of current work and old work. Thirdly it is so unproductive for the work hours everyone puts in it vs the outcome.

Is this common across industry or just at Intel? My previous job did not have this. Thinking of quitting.

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| 1868 views | | 11 replies (last August 27, 2021) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1cpuANil

11 replies (most recent on top)

There is always a overhead with old team leaving and new team taking over the task. Lot of information is lost in this transition. You end up adding patches to fix the bugs and never really fix the real problem. Although management try to fix immediate problem by adding loaner/contractors, in long term it is bad. Eventually the house of cards will fall. Original coders are long gone either left intel or moved to another team. Hire more people, build team where everyone help each other and create env where people dont have to knock on new doors everyday to get information.

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Post ID: @8bux+1cpuANil

It's a required part of your job to help when other teams need some extra manpower to make the schedule. My project was in trouble and we got loaned a bunch of engineering talent from another team that had completed the design of their chip, to help us get to the finish line. We were so grateful for this help with trained Intel employees who knew what to do rather than the external contractors who kept missing deadlines. After we taped-out our design, the team moved to the next long term project, we just needed the help for a short time. A very good use of the Intel talent.

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Post ID: @4quy+1cpuANil

It's Gene Frenkle who knows, not Gene Smith.

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Post ID: @3jwg+1cpuANil

So, tell me Gene Smith, what are they producing?

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Post ID: @3raf+1cpuANil

That is not what you think. It is not about managers, it is about RELEASEs who decide on people future at Intel. They now in advance, up to 4 (four) years who will stay at Intel and who will will leave Intel. There is even a PDF document where all layoffs and people ages in all Intel groups are listed. That document is given you only when they get you laid off. Mostly, all layoffs are about Intel people's AGE. Better, if you are in the favorable Intel age group that is the age before 40 years old. That is a critical age, and it does not matter what you do, provided you have connections with RELEASEs. Most of the Intel people are peasants and do not have such connections.

Interestingly, Intel keeps people who are completely incompetent and mumble during presentations, no one can clearly hear them and understand what they are talking about. But those people continue get promoted and stay at Intel for many years. One example from my career at Intel was a German guy, Winkel, Sebastian who had terrible accent, mumbles at his presentations, no one can hear him and at the same time got constantly promoted no one could understand why. Now, I feel more that Intel is a very corrupted organization, producing not microprocessors but something else. Microprocessors are just a cover.

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Post ID: @3oje+1cpuANil

I guess someone from management have finally commented!

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Post ID: @ynk+1cpuANil

Part of it is people leaving and not able to hire new people. There is no option for management to get loaners from different team and move them back once they know who will be working on it permanently.

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Post ID: @ugt+1cpuANil

I agree that no one likes change especially moving to new team and getting to know new technology, but it's part of job and life. That what make job interesting.

But this is exploited at Intel and they move you tooters. One day you are in team A next you get up you are in team X. It's crazy. I haven't heard this culture in other companies.

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Post ID: @rbn+1cpuANil

I have heard same culture in AMD and Apple!

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Post ID: @eww+1cpuANil

My team use to do that couple of years back. People starting pushing back to their managers about moving them into new team. If Managers were really hesitant on moving then they eventually quit. Management is mess at intel. No wonder everyone is quitting!

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Post ID: @had+1cpuANil

Welcome to intel! Very common in my group, where you are moved into a new team and thrown into FIRE on day 1. They expect you to fix the problem in a week without prior knowledge and keep bugging you if the problem is fixed! Bunch of dum managers who do not know how to push back their managers and how to manage a team

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Post ID: @gvs+1cpuANil

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