Thread regarding VMware layoffs

They don't care about employees, they feed you anything to make it seem like everything is fine

Take whatever management says with a boulder of salt. End of day, when the deal closes they will not be calling the shots (probably are not calling the shots now). Do what is best for you. If you think staying on is best, then do that. If you think leaving is a better choice, then do that. But whatever you do, I would discount any messaging you are getting from existing management. More than likely they literally do not know you and have little invested whether you get laid off or not. They don't care. Take care of yourself and your family from a lens that you are on your own at the moment.

Good luck.

Congratulations for having the mental clarity to make an informed decision and act on it. I hope your new job turns out well for you.

Ignorance is bliss.

I will say, I worked at CA and joined VM a year and a half ago. Second time around with this nonsense and the same company acquiring us. The main difference here at VM, management is out of touch with reality. CA was a complex company to work for, but very early in the acquisition (after announcement and before close), most of our management disappeared. The CEO went missing almost immediately. Most of the executive team at their summer houses. HR and Finance were the only ones still available. HR would post almost daily with answers to employees questions on Yammer and they were direct. Would say things like “if you are in X group, get your resume together”. It was brutally honest and at first seemed weird but at least people were prepared. By the time the layoff happened in early November, people had lined up other jobs and were ready to move on. The bloodbath that took place was not a surprise and people moved on. The difference here, this management team thinks it will be different for us. How can it be if they need to show a profit so quickly? I disliked the CA CEO, all talk and very little action, especially in the end. I had higher hopes for this management team. Time to leave the industry and not be acquired by AVGO a third time,

Yes I totally got caught off guard because I was “Mr Positive”

I was at a small enough and private company that even you could even small talk to the C levels in the hall. No mater what I was facing I was able to stay resilient and positive. I was known for this.

Since the 1950s the company was always a technology adopter and was known for employing people until retirement. If jobs or departments were eliminated they would be offered other roles even in other divisions.

When they announced the “strategic sourcing” plan in 2019 I was sure they would RIF just one or two non-performers on each team and augment our staff like they said. This will get rid of the busy work so you can focus on work that drives the business they said.

I always offered all the senior executives white glove support even though I was a lead on an application delivery team and helped all IT teams where applicable. I was well liked and had many accolades from the senior leadership. I was considered the superstar of my team. I received my first AWS certificate and was planning to pilot Azure virtual desktops…….

I was laid off in the first round of 100 and trained my offshore outsourced replacements over WebEx………….

The one or two LEAST expensive and LEAST performing team members kept their jobs……

They were laid off once the outsource offshore team was up to speed the next year - another 100.

Any functional human being who had anything at all to do with IT was laid off also - another 100.

Only slackers get laid off they said, only quitters get laid off they said, they always keep the best people they said…

It’s a different world now, that era is behind us…

Cool story.