Human Second Approach

Lots of threads on the topic of F5 layoffs that has put 620 talented individuals now searching for opportunities. For those impacted, I wish you all the best in your search.

First, I can tell you that F5 treats its employees with full respect and has always put forth the human first approach as the company mantra. FLD has continued to lead by example and this has shown throughout the company. I do have some concerns on the way this was approached and I believe the employees did not have the proper way of being notified before being impacted.

You make the announcement on a company all hands & then make it known on the earnings call (all within 45-minutes); Basically - F5ers, you have 24-hours until those being notified will receive an email asking to join a specific theater all hands with the EVP running. I could only imagine the feeling of having to try and sleep and play the waiting game. Did I get selected?
Compensation - Execs should remove this 100% from the plan. How many jobs would have been saved based on reducing the MBO to 0% for FY23 and to remove the exec bonus of 30%. Maybe 20-30, if not more?!? I could imagine that some current employees would be willing to part with this vs. having to lose entire teams. <--NGINX being hit the hardest.
Severance - I would say this is pretty fair IMO. 20-weeks minimum + 2 additional weeks for every year of employment.
Employee Moral - This is going to take a huge hit with many talented individuals who made an impact to the company. Better start to consider retention now that the flood gates for departures are open. Maybe another round of layoffs in the coming year ahead. Remember, F5 has stated they have not pushed on layoffs, but this has happened multiple times in the last 4 years.

Again, I wish things did not happen to those impacted, but now you will see other companies take advantage and hire these great people!

Comment! It's anonymous!

9 replies (most recent on top)

@7moj+1missLk2 You didn't read that right. It's not that the bulk of people let go were over 15 years, its that the bulk of people over 15 years were let go. A lot of the NGINX terminations were long term NGINX employees as well, so that's a bad comparison.

That's not true on the tenure of employees that have been let go. Yes, a few with 15+ years of experience @ F5, but the majority of the employees are less than 6 years of employment and the cost of keeping them employed. Look at the amount of NGINX employees cut as part of the restructuring. Acquisitions that have not met expectations are the first ones to go. Also, looks like they might be hiring a new VP/GM of NGINX per job req available on F5.com.

Stock options will NOT be cut (yet), that has been confirmed by FLD. It makes up a significantly larger portion of salary than cash bonus for most employees, so we can try justify that F5 was trying to be 'human first' in not cutting stock options.
One thing to note is that a large percentage of the employees who worked at F5 over 15 years are now gone, they obviously removed 'the old guard' first.

The company is some what affordable with a market cap of just under $8B (USD). Not saying anyone would fork out the money, but what about Broadcom, HP, heck even Cisco [10th attempt at the ADC game =)]. I can see the failures starting to show with their recent acquisitions - NGINX & Shape. That's close to $1.5B and for that, many F5'ers had to pay the price of losing their jobs.

„Acquisition on the horizon?“ exactly my thoughts… who‘s gonna buy F5.

F5 has been one of the fairest to its employees and does their best to take care of the employees, however,"Human First" is an untruth made up be HR departments all over the world. No business is "Human First", because they can't be. Businesses will always be business first. If you sacrifice the needs and protection of the business, they business will fold, and there will be no humans to care for. You must protect the business first, and that is what F5 is trying to do here. Will it be successful? Time will tell.

there will be another RIFF next year no doubt. The company's market cap is the same now as 15 years ago so its in very bad shape.....Acquisition on the horizon?

Too late for 623 people!

the largest part of compensation for leaders seems to be made by stock options not bonuses.
public info says CEO got 10M last year in stock options and only 1M in bonus.
Will leaders cut 50% stock options award too for the good of F5?

Thread regarding F5 Networks Inc. layoffs

Human Second Approach

9 replies (most recent on top)

Post a reply