I don’t understand the talk about the degrading of Intel culture over the last several years. I started working at Intel in 2001 and it was already a toxic work environment then. Rampant backstabbing due to ranking and rating, favoritism galore, silos, inefficiency, arrogance. It’s not that the culture was better then, it was just the borderline monopoly keeping things going. It was always going to end this way as the culture was always broken.
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I started in 2001 in F20 and it was a fun, challenging place to be. We worked hard but I felt part of a team. We used to have regular team events (and everyone seemed to show up voluntarily). We had dinners to celebrate 5 year anniversaries and retirements were a big deal. It was common for a whole team to go out for beer after the week ended (Dr Feelgood’s anyone?) and the place would be swamped. I retired 4 weeks ago (missed the separation package ) and all that happened was a 5 minute meeting w/my manager who I had barely seen in the past six months….and a $300 gift card.
In the end, I loved the company. It treated me fairly and it was good for me and my family. I liked most of my managers and I was never told to do anything I thought was morally wrong. To be honest, I don’t think we stood a chance once we lost the cell phone market and let TSMC get ahead of us on EUV. Their cost structure and size meant they could just outcompete us based on economy of scale learning and savings. If/when they build to fabs in AZ, they will be the largest maker of chips in the US.
When you talk about hiding flaws, does anyone remember the "Big Red X" campaign?
It was a completely different company before Craig Barrett took over in1997. I agree with the comment that Intel went from a company to a corporation. It was a company of people working together to put out great products then it turned into to a Corporation full of many tiers of management who would hide flaws and defects that their teams found and would also lie and say that everything was always on schedual because they didn't want to loose their rung on the corporate ladder.
I started with Intel in '95. It was the best place ever. I even went 1 1/2 years without taking a vacation day or sick day off, that's how great it was. They took care of, and really cared about us. I left at the end of '21. I hated every day there. I tell people that Intel was a company when I joined. It was a corporation when I left. When it stopped being run by the original engineers and the MBA's took over it went down hill fast. And don't get me started on how BK totally sc--wed Intel's future...
Indeed full of lies and political gangs and parties. Once I escalated to TD Integration manager that the project is not going well and in fact, it is delaying development for at least a year, the Integration's reaction is: which political side are you on? I said I am by myself as an engineer.
I wish you all had contributed to fixing it so I could have enjoyed it. What I do today was my future dream job when I was a kid in the 90's.
I worked at Intel 1991-2014 and mainly loved it, the people, and the work environment. The work could be high pressure sometimes, but I felt to be part of a great company. Wonderful friends and partners. The people I've seen for years on this site are usually the exact opposite. I consider the entire tech industry to have gone evil now .. Apple, Microsoft, Meta, AI, all of it makes me sick. Glad I'm out. The old days were truly beautiful and exciting.
@xfe+1tPJPgap - I think the word you are looking for is complicit not complicated but I have been called that before too. By your logic you are complicit too if you actually work for or have worked for Intel at any point in time. By your logic you are also guilty of everything wrong in the world unless you are actively fighting it.
all old values are gone.
@fbm+1tPJPgap they are selling minority shares of factories to private equity.
They got $30 billion from Brookfield Asset Management in 2022 - https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/23/intel_asks_private_equity_firms/
They got $11 Billion from Apollo for 48% of F34 in Ireland - https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/intel-apollo-agree-jv-related-intels-manufacturing-facility-ireland-2024-06-04/
Good post and I hear you. But make no mistake you played a part . You were complicated even if you didn’t mean to be.
Yes so are we paying for these enhanced packages? What kind of loan are we taking out?
I understand the frustration. I was there for the same cr-p. Honestly some of the sm--k talk and antics over the years were embarrassing. No one complained when it was happening and frankly we were getting industry leading compensation for most of the time. Now that all of this has accrued and everything is collapsing we really can't complain about it without being hypocrites ourselves. Maybe we should have left for companies with higher standards. I thought about it when Intel got the first ever billion dollar fine for its sales practices when we were nearly a monopoly. I didn't and now here we are. I did my job everyday, worked hard, and got paid well. I controlled what I had control over and accepted what I couldn't control. I never scr-wed anyone over. I have no regrets. Good luck going forward everyone needs it.
I will say that I wasn’t around in the 90s, but accent removal classes seem a little farfetched even for then. Would love to hear from some OGs from that time to confirm.
When you commanded a premium, you are full of bravado. That's how Intel behaved over the years. Enter ARM, FPGA accelerators, AI, Intel didn't learn and chanted x86. Nor did the technological ramp ups bear fruit. Acquisitions were ruinous and disastrous and were not managed well. However, the corporate ladder bloated up with Principal Engineers, Fellows, VPs who creamed the company. The Board and the CEOs who came and assumed took their huge pay packages. That's it. They let go off many thousands through Voluntary, Involuntary severances. Now with the suspension of stock dividends, it's clear that they are on the way of depleting cash reserves. Intel will hardly recover from their missteps.
In my org, the culture has improved. The people complaining about culture seem to be the toxic people who thrived in the culture you speak of. I heard there used to be accent removal classes in the 90s….now we know that’s racist.
I think it’s more than that. We are a company built on lies. We try to be the first to 14nm. But were we really? No. And no one cared. We did this over and over again. And we got the news headlines etc so the public saw us in limelight and by the time we got called out on it no one cared. Everyone just remembered we were first. He-l we tried to change how the nodes were classified to cover up some bullsh-t. Change a classification system ONE OF OUR FOUNDERS invented! Now fast forward a bit and our empire is built on sh-t and lies. The lies got out of control. How much of our stuff do we outsource? Because we can’t produce. And now we are on the hook for a lot. A lot a lot because of the lies. And now it’s time to face the music. Time to pay the piper and we can’t.
Why are you surprised? You state a founder in your post. This is what the company was built on. You just used to get better compensation.
Indeed horrible culture. Kingdoms, fiefdoms, trying to pull the rug from your peers (competition), assigning useless ARs to show you're the smartest guy in the room, telling customers how to run their business, always promoting from within no matter how unqualified, powerpoint engineering, stealing IP from suppliers and partners. Andy's paranoid survival puts you in fight flight or freeze mode - it doesn't create an environment of collaboration and creativity.