I am in Palo Alto and got a gut punch update from my boss today. This has been presented to our ELT. He said this is severely needed and many groups are still bloated. I just hope our CEO says no to this proposal and that we have been through to much of this lately and the workforce is exhausted with all the change. We have so much turnover of leadership, that this is insane. I don't even know who our HR BP is now.
Can we just go 24 months with a stable budget and no WFR exercises? Please
Easier to solve this backward: If you cling to your g-ns and your religion, you ain't it.
I was told by my boss that if I was a black woman, I would have already gotten the promotion that I’ve been wanting.
This is so crazy. Everyone is talking about DEI here at HP. One my friends was told that because she was a black female that the sky was the limit at HP especially in Ernest's organization. She asked her mentor if he thought things were changing and he said he really didn't know as no one wants to talk about it.
Well, thanks for sparking the conversation on "diversity employee." We had a team meeting yesterday and one of my coworkers stated the question to our Director, "What is a diversity employee here at HP?" Our director kept using vague terms and then each employee asked, am I a diversity candidate, am I a diversity candidate and one white guy said I grew up in Japan, does that make me a diversity candidate. She sent a note to our HR business partner and they responded with, I will get back to you shortly on this subject. We are in Texas. I am not sure HP has a DEI program here anymore.
That’s is an unusual definition of a tasking exercise since there are no tasks or deliverables mentioned. What was described sounds like flat out budget cuts.
"I have one buddy that has 2 white males on his team, 4 women, 1 black man and 1 Asian man. He asked me which one of these people are in the diversity category. Is it by team population? His boss told him to ignore the question."
Funny thing is that white males are increasingly becoming the minority at many DEI companies like HP. They are usually the firs to be let go since legally they are still considered to have the weakest legal case.
This is my first supervisory role, and I came across a note on my sheet that says, "Put an asterisk by all diversity employees." Can someone please clarify what qualifies as a "diversity employee"? I asked my boss, but she suggested I reach out to HR, as she's no longer sure. It's amusing, yet puzzling, how no one seems willing to provide a clear definition anymore. My supply chain colleagues say it’s about diversity of thought, the print team claims it refers to women and Black employees, while finance insists it’s just women. What’s going on here? HP has certainly become a bit of a "crazytown" lately. I ended up putting an asterisk by everyone's name and will find out tomorrow if I did it right or wrong. I have one buddy that has 2 white males on his team, 4 women, 1 black man and 1 Asian man. He asked me which one of these people are in the diversity category. Is it by team population? His boss told him to ignore the question.
A tasking exercise where a company asks you to reduce your budget by 20% would likely involve a few key steps. Here’s how it might unfold:
Review Current Budget: You would begin by thoroughly reviewing the existing budget, identifying all areas of expenditure, including both fixed and variable costs. You would want to understand where most of your resources are allocated—whether it’s personnel, materials, equipment, or other expenses.
Analyze Impact Areas: Identify the most critical areas of spending, especially those that directly contribute to the company’s core objectives or mission. This might include areas like marketing, operations, or R&D. For each, assess whether a 20% reduction would affect productivity, output, or key results.
Prioritize Cuts: Next, you would prioritize which areas are more flexible or have room for reduction without significantly harming business functions. For example, discretionary spending such as travel, training, or marketing campaigns might be easier to cut back on, while fixed costs like salaries or infrastructure may be harder to adjust.
Consult Stakeholders: In the case of major cuts, especially to staff or important projects, you would need to consult with key stakeholders, such as department heads, to get their input on what could be cut without compromising essential work. Sometimes, collaboration can help identify savings or efficiencies that might not be immediately obvious.
Identify Efficiencies: Consider ways to achieve savings through improved efficiency or process optimization. This could include renegotiating contracts with suppliers, automating certain tasks, or utilizing more cost-effective resources.
Communicate the Changes: Once you’ve identified where cuts can be made, you would prepare a communication plan to explain the rationale behind these decisions. This should include how the company will manage the reduction without significantly affecting morale, quality, or performance.
Monitor and Adjust: After implementing the cuts, you’d need to monitor the results closely to ensure that the desired outcome is achieved. You may need to adjust or fine-tune your approach depending on feedback or performance changes.
The key challenge in such an exercise is balancing cost reduction with maintaining the company's overall productivity and morale.
What is a tasking exercise?
"But nobody in SD got any calls to provide a 10/15/20 scenario. Is it because everybody left already?"
I am not sure if you are being sarcastic, but SD will close down in October 2025. Many have already been let go in SD in anticipation of the campus being closed, and HP moving out of Rancho Bernardo completely.
FYI, HP sold the campus to a developer for 65 million dollars. The developer renovated it for around 100 million dollars, and then sold it to Apple for 445 million dollars.
"Put an asterix by all diversity employees" -- Does this mean they are exempt from the WFR?
Please give people this resource ahead of all their access disappearing https://www.hpalumni.org/
But nobody in SD got any calls to provide a 10/15/20 scenario. Is it because everybody left already?
I am in Corvallis and I got the same request be we are meeting on Wednesday.
Print here, same call. Tuesday will be a busy day I guess. I am hoping this is just an exercise.
Well, I thought this was all BS and I got a call from my boss on Friday, he said to provide a 10/15/20 percent scenario together to discuss Tuesday, 02/18/2025. Put an asterix by all diversity employees. I am in PS.
Yep big ones coming 2/24
So are CW full stack web developers still safe, or should I be worried?
Nah, nah, still looking bloated—some teams don’t even need to exist, and it’s obvious. Take @Kobi org, for example—completely overstuffed, overlapping left, right, and centre. That whole group/p g? Just rolling up to events, basically a glorified party squad. And the layers? Mad. Partners, sellers, reseller support, operations (which, let’s be real, just means attending partner events)—everywhere you look, there’s another department stacked on top. Whole thing feels like excess with no real direction.
Oh, and let’s talk about the lack of diversity—way too white, almost blindingly so 🤍🤍🤍🤍. But my real question is—where’s the money coming from? They’re out here doing layoffs while cash is getting splashed on Ferraris. Make it make sense.
Well HPers get your pencils ready, I just had my one on one with my boss and her boss and it looks like I have to provide a 10/15/20 percent scenario by EOD. I don't think this is just an exercise this time. I am just exhausted. 28 years of letting friends go and some don't even talk to me anymore.
"There’s no incentives for consumers to buy and replace their current productivity equipment every year."
They are banking on this with Windows 11 since many PCs cannot upgrade. I think consumers will finally revolt this time against this blatant forced upgrade.
I was laid off from HP in 2023 but I still keep in touch with my former colleagues.
First of all, HP right now is probably in worse shape now than when I left. Layoffs are a guarantee because you have to have some cash flow in your pocket to reward your investors. I hate to tell you this but HP will do anything possible to keep their investors happy.
Secondly, HP has horrible money management practices. They will pay for parties, they will furlough contractors a million times, they layoff hundreds of people, they will reward stock options and dividends… but they will not retain employees, they will not prioritize their supply chain, etc. HP is really good at damage control and will do everything to boost morale and protect their brand.
Thirdly, frankly, I agree that HP needs to chop their bloated organizations. The fact that this is still a problem means they’re not making the correct decisions. Too many organizations were competing with each other. I don’t know what it’s like in Palo Alto, but when I was here in Houston, there was literally a corporate coup where a VP made their own organization, developing their own products, poaching people from their previous organization, and going behind management to steal resources from the previous organization. It got so bad that other directors and VPs escalated the situation to Alex. So that organization started competing against the previous organization and ironically didn’t do well. Tech reviewers gave the products some rather mediocre reviews. So with that being said, yeah, I think HP still needs to sort out their inter-company competition issues. There’s hardly any synergy. No one knows what people do outside of their own organization.
Personally I think the PC industry is doomed. Enrique, like many tech leaders, overhyped AI and now consumers are seeing the empty promises. With inflation and tariffs happening right now, the situation is not going to get better with HP or anyone in the PC industry. There’s no incentives for consumers to buy and replace their current productivity equipment every year.
I don’t see an end to layoffs for HP.