The culture at Broadcom is a culture of fear

First off, the culture at Broadcom is a culture of fear. Fear of when you will be laid off, fear of when the next shoe will drop. The employees have no time to gossip or be political, so while that may seem bad, you don’t have to deal with drama. I worked in a G&A function there a few years back, I sat next to a woman for 8 years, I never knew she was married or had 2 children. We never had time to chat or talk. That is what I hated about working there, no personal connection at all. If this is important to you, run don’t walk. If you are OK with working as a “number” and just doing your job, you won’t be miserable. They pay well and you work hard, but it is not like working in a prison. The CEO is very hands on and involved in almost everything. Back when I worked there, he approved everyone personally to work from home, not sure if that has changed as they’ve grown, something tells me it hasn’t.

I'm bumping this from @kvf+1h1ONTok for more visibility. I'm not the OP, but I thought more people should get a chance to see this.

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the comment on mangers giving projects to show how important they are - true that! I saw that in the last company I was at - managers assigning busy work to their direct reports that had no relevance to the end user customer, working to look like they are doing something productive. I would be fearful if I was a manager at any IT company.

Culture of FEAR in Broadcom !!! Apparently you never worked in India.
It was all about fear and b*tt kissing. But the good thing is everyone would be in fear and not only Indian Employees afraid of their Management.

@wzh+1h2HhY8f
VMware/Broadcom won't be laying off 6k employees per year for three years. They will lay off a majority of the 18k the first day or at most within 3 months -- like 10-12k. Hope I am wrong.. but ...
HT is ruthless.

Also true at Broadcom that because there are so few managers, they mostly leave you alone and are there when you need help with escalated customer issues.
Because we only have a single manager whose overworked there are no projects to do that previously were done so the other managers could show how important they are.

VMware wasn't laying off ~6K people every year over three years, which is what it looks like it will take to fit into their financial model. See https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1gXkDulV

This isn't 'business as usual' at VMware, it is private equity gutting.

Post #2. So my manager at my previous company would walk and talk like this. Exactly like you. He oozed confidence out of every pore and walked around like he had a cape and taught us so do the same. When our company announced the “IT Strategic Sourcing”. Initiative he assured us our team was so talented and lean and strong we would not be impacted.

………
…………
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We all got laid off and so was he 12 months later.

He struck out in his first 4 companies that went multiple interviews in and in a phone call with me privately confessed that all that “I’ll find an even better job in a heart beat herp derp, I’m the real deal I have nothing to fear herp derp” didn’t seem to be happening in the real world and he was in a deep dark depressed place and to be honest god d#mn scared.

In contrast I was the one who was scared s-less right out of the gate. People didn’t understand why I was freaking the he-l out knowing I was getting a 5 month severance package.

Well me, mr “Freak out” ended up landing the best position out of our entire group and a serious career bump in capability and responsibility.

Lesson learned it’s ok and normal to be afraid and it’s one he-l of a motivator.

Also learned toughy Mc Confidence tough mc macho sandwich “oh yeah JP Morgan Stanley would hire me in a heart beat it’s not your decision what my team does mr Vice President” (storms out of meeting swinging shoulders) can one day call up mr freak out looking for career advice sounding like he’s about to call the su----e hotline after not getting hired for 5 months.

Don’t kid yourself. This isn’t our fathers job market.

When my dad was giving me career advice in my 20s they weren’t hiring 1,000 new people ……… in Mumbai every year…

I agree with the OP on this post.
The place is boring and there were days when I was in the office and didn’t speak to a single person. I was busy, they were busy. I had no one to go to lunch with and people actually just stayed to themselves. Usually because they were doing the job of 10 people and had no time to do anything else. If you are an introvert and prefer not to deal with people and get “personal”, you will like it.
Not trying to be cute with this response, but it was a lonely job, but pay and benefits were good.

This is my favorite "The employees have no time to gossip or be political, so while that may seem bad,"

Are you kidding me. That sounds awesome. I am sick of hearing gossipy BS or about someone's bu-t hurt politics... We're here to make software. To market software. To SELL software and services. If I didn't have to hear about politics from whinners that is a frickin plus in my book.

Good performers and resourceful/skilled employees are not under fear in any company they work for, Calle it Broadcom or VMware, no matter the culture or the position. For these folks, when one door closes, another one will open quickly.

I mean VMware laid people off every year so it is pretty standard to live in fear....... I remember support getting gutted in americas one year and then next year it continuing as an example.

Thread regarding VMware layoffs

The culture at Broadcom is a culture of fear

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