Thread regarding VMware layoffs

I wish people would stop saying that everybody had the option for severance by declining an offer. EUC and CB employees were given no such option. There was no offer letter. There was only a welcome letter confirming the base salary was unchanged. If people complain that they had no severance option, it is almost certainly true

Somehow, RTO may be the least of the difficulties coming along. If you can afford it, and unfortunately many cannot, the best situation is to evaluate if you admire the company and leadership you work for. If not,, then that is a sure signal to go elsewhere. Life is short.

“If severance was offered I would of taken it.“

It was offered to those who rejected the offer. It was very clearly stated

I am also one of the laid off ones and I don’t have BC RSUs talking on my behalf. But what IP posted is true. When I joined VMW before COVID, I was told to be in office 5 days a week. I was able to negotiate 4 days a week. In 20 yrs in Bay Area tech jobs, I have always been asked to be in office 4-5 days a week. I have commuted min 2 hrs/day every day till Covid.

Corporate world in US is going back to in office mode. You can like it or not. You can quote as many research as you want. Hard fact is it is now going to be min 3 days in office. All recruiters of remote jobs ask for commitment to RTO before moving forward in the interview process. I agree that for many it’s just Zoom from a different desk. And that is what you need to highlight that my team should be in same location. Unfortunately everyone hired everywhere during Covid. Now that is changing. Even for remote jobs the prefer candidates from same city first, then they look for same time zones. It is very hard to be considered for an east coast remote job when you live in west coast.

Agreed that the BC attitude and approach su-ks. I would not want to work for BC even though I might be fine with RTO. But why don’t people just start applying and get a check on reality?? You already have a job from BC. Go test the waters first before creating a storm about WFH. Forget remote work. Just try to get another good job. See how difficult is that also.

@OP, you strike me as very disingenuous, to say the least. You seem to be very eager to address what by now should have been a minor topic at your former employer.

"It's intentionally communicated to make you want to leave ASAP. This is their end goal."

In hindsight, I know now that I should have rejected the AVGO offer and then get my severance. Truly, I didn't anticipate this mandate and now I feel foolish.

It's my fault. I get that part. Still, this is hard to accept.

"The RTO requirement is based solely on DISTANCE from an office vs. TIME or DIFFICULTY of a commute."

You can't rationalize this RTO mandate from that perspective.
Understand, that the reason for RTO is to force more employees to leave before their scheduled termination date. Broadcom is just doing what many large U.S. employers have already done to successfully reduce severance costs as they cut headcount in 2023. It's intentionally communicated to make you want to leave ASAP. This is their end goal.

"we were assured by Raghu that HT was made aware of the differences between hardware engineers and a software salesforce. "

If you haven't figured it out by now, VMW Execs said literally whatever they had to say to get this deal completed as non-disruptively as possible. If you're an adult, you should have known that the whole time. He had $50M on the line - do you think he gave even a tiny sh-t that you'd have to RTO every day? C'mon, man...

The RTO requirement is based solely on DISTANCE from an office vs. TIME or DIFFICULTY of a commute. A 50 mile commute in Arizona is not the same as a 50 mile commute in New Jersey (especially in the winter, on a road like I95 where accidents and construction delays are the norm rather than the exception. Neither was job function taken into consideration. A developer working on a team has different requirements than a Sales worker who is customer or partner facing (especially those in Global roles where literally ALL transactions are Zoom or Teams calls. "Productivity" in these cases are measured in REVENUE produced (and has been documented by past quota achievement.) Work-from-home employees frequently are required to make 7:00 AM /7:00 PM meetings due to time zone differences to accommodate customers and partners. An arbitrary mandate that they perform these duties from an office requires that they leave at 5:00AM and return at 8:00 PM? This cookie-cutter approach ignores reality. It's easy to mandate by executives who don't need to deal with the consequences of this decision. This was discussed at length during VMware Town Halls, and we were assured by Raghu that HT was made aware of the differences between hardware engineers and a software salesforce.

If severance was offered I would of taken it.

Broadcom is poisoning their 69 billion dollar investment by not going to a hybrid model. Two days working from home should be doable and would be a huge gesture to a company and its culture being demolished.

Speaking only for myself, hybrid is not a problem. 5 days a week in the office when you literally have no one from the same vision in that office and spend all day on Zoom, F that.

Let me paraphrase this post. Hey plebes, listen to our masters and get back in the office. Ignore the data that says remote work is more productive, better for mental health, better for the environment,etc. Our masters have large commercial real-estate holdings and they may not be able to afford another private jet if we don't hold up a legacy model on how people used to work.

hahaha...it'll be interesting to see the reactions to this post. It's hard to swallow, but it is the truth. I personally didn't know about Apple, Amazon taking disciplinary approach. . Just googled.

But I still hate the post...dislike dislike dislike

I don’t have the impression all tech companies are demanding 5 days in office, but I don’t keep close track. COVID did make a permanent change imho, there is no going back to the old ways for a great many people. Even if that is 25% of the tech workforce, it is a seismic shift.

In any case, it seems many people just want to ride it out and see what happens before starting to look for a new job.

The “walk on water” comment was a good wake up call to what we can expect from Broadcom. Thanks for your honesty and simultaneous cruelty, message received.

Where I live, it is already below zero degrees, so walking on frozen water is no problem. I’ll be going to the office as I see fit, probably 2-3x a week. If the Tan man doesn’t like it, I’ll take my skills elsewhere and find a new job. Not a huge deal, just a pain in the a-s as otherwise I would not be looking.