Thread regarding Intel Corp. layoffs

This is one of best posts here. Must read. Very informative and practical!

Agreed. It's BEEN talked about, yet people did nothing. Man, if I hadn't been waiting for a package that lined up with timing of some personal things I'd have left LONG ago.

Good luck to everyone.

Wow, guys. My heart goes out to you all. It brings me to tears reading these stories. Only if the rest of the world could see whats happening to our talents. I was let go last year and I can't stop thinking about what you all might be going through. All I can say is you will be better off. You will see. Everything happens for a reason. Make the best of it and hang in there. Love you all.

As people are sharing their experiences,let me also throw in mine. All these stories are bringing back those memories. This may out me and I couldn't care less. Thank you if you take time to read this long story. If you don't have time, then this is another story about how companies use and discard you.

Few years back, I changed groups because I wanted something different to do. That was possibly the worst decision till date in my career. Horrible team, horrible manager, horrible upper management, no direction for the group, no product road map. People in the team were sh*t scared of losing their jobs and would do anything to sabotage others. Worse was they would gang together and target one person, in my case, the targeted person was me. As I was new to the team, I had no idea about the work and was very dependent on others for first couple of months.They would not even tell where the documents are so that I can learn things myself. Majority of the work had to be done in the lab and I needed some one to help me in the beginning.The person who was assigned to help me ramp up told me that if he had to help me, I had to come to the lab at 10:00 PM. Why? Because he likes working at night and comes to work at 2:00 PM. He said it in front of the manager and manager was spineless to say anything to him. I somehow managed to pick up and got S, SSL3 in that focal as I had done part of my year in another team.

Next year I started working with a customer on a high profile project. Customer was changing requirements for something we had delivered to them. I had to redo the work to match the customer's new requirement. It happened a couple of times, and I always redid the work to match new requirements. Things were a little better as I was not dependent on others.My manager (different one as the first manager left when he was made an IC) was praising me and thanking me for all the work I had done. He used to tell me that his manager also appreciated me. By the end of august, he did a mid year review. I told him that I expect a promotion and I was willing to do whatever that needs to be done to make me eligible for one. He listed few things which I agreed to. But the toxicity of the people was wearing me down and I started looking for another job. I had to take two days off one week and one day off the next week to give interviews in different sites. He called me for a meeting beginning of November and said I was the candidate for IR. No warning whatsoever till then. He said he will start documenting everything from then on wards so that a case could be built for IR. I was shocked, I jumped in my seat, couldn't speak and I can still never tell anyone how I felt. But I remember that day forever in my life. I spent all my time in the meeting choking, trying hard to process what was happening. Next day, he called me for another meeting and offered me a buy out option. I asked him why he was giving me an IR. He said I have been under-performed the previous two weeks (three days off during past two weeks).He said he couldn't give credit to me for the work I had done for six months as it couldn't be used by the customer because of changed requirements. I argued a lot that day how was it my fault if the customer changed his mind. Why did he ask me to work on the new requirements then? I asked him for proof that I was the person who performed the least. He said he didn't owe me an explanation and his manager completely backed him on that.I was asked to give him my self-assessment in first week of November. I gave him my self assessment.

Two days after this, he calls for another meeting. He couldn't look me in the eye. He started apologizing profusely for what he had done. He said he didn't know what work I had done because he forgot what I used to tell him in 1:1 meetings, and he never read my updates because he gets hundreds of emails.He came to know about the work I had done after he read my self-assessment. For the work he knew I had done, he couldn't give credit to me for whatever I had done because customer changed his mind. He had consulted HR about that and HR had asked him that he had to give me credit for the work I had completed.He also said other people in the team (aka his cronies) had complained about me. I asked him why didn't he warn me about the complaints and what kind of complaints were they. No answer for that though. Next day, I left the team. He requested me repeatedly not to leave.His manager asked me I could choose to be in any team under him. I just ran away from there. To make matters worse, my husband's department got shut down (different company) and he lost his job the same week as this happened. I just desperately took the first job I was offered within Intel. Thankfully it turned out to be a better fit for me. However, this incident has impacted my personal life way too much to put it out here.The manager who messed up so much is still there, who knows probably got promoted !!!

This incident broke my loyalty to the company. I felt so helpless, weak, ashamed and hopeless. I felt like an impostor coming to work after that incident.As you start working for Intel, Intel starts becoming a big part of your identity. You take pride working here, you want to take pride about the type of work you do. However, a time comes when the company throws you out like a used napkin,it breaks you apart. Now that the incident is behind me, I think whatever happened was good. I know what it feels like to be handed an IR. I know what it feels like to be scrutinized to build a case against you even though I was scrutinized for just 2 days. It had made me more compassionate towards people who get IRs, SSL4 or whatever that tags them for firing.I have not told this to any one except a couple of people whom I trust, because I think if I tell this to any one they will dismiss it as a rant by a disgruntled employee. Good luck for every one who is impacted. I wish you find better jobs. Good luck for every one who survive, I wish you find a better job before you number comes.

I can confirm that, for me, a sabbatical negatively affected my focal. Had a great year, talk of a promo at EOY, performing above the next grade level, accomplished the most on the team even though I was on sabbatical that year, etc. when I got my results, S SSL3. I was dumbfounded and my manager had no explanation at all. The only remotely negative thing he said was "you did take sabbatical last year", I challenged that it's not supposed to negatively affect things, and he just sat there blithering the rest of the time. I still to this day have no idea why I didn't at least get higher stock, other than taking sabbatical (at a mutually agreed upon time).

@H3D5Wma-eln it is standard process that RCG's get SSL5 in their first Focal after being hired, though after 6 months of employment your status changes from RCG to RFT in the system and beyond one year you are given the same consideration wrt RIF everyone else...my sincere best wishes for you, get out now if you can

With that likelihood how motivated would anyone be to perform this year? As I think through this, majority of the company gets SSL3 or worse, just playing the probability game about half the company would feel that their job is in serious risk next year. Who would feel motivated to deliver? It appears that Intel will loose a lot quality talent above the 12000 they intend to lay off. I know my focus would be to develop marketable skills alone.

@H3D5Wma-oxx that is already the case, in another thread it was confirmed that the VSP offer criteria includes 4+ consecutive years of Successful SSL3. The thread does not elaborate on if there is any additional criteria. And this should not be surprising, for as much as Intel focuses on performance, you should be concerned if you are not earning an EE or O rating every few years. And even then, you may still be impacted, I had 9 consecutive years EE/O w/ promo and different managers every 24 months and was walked out after 15 years. No one is safe.

I am a recent graduate, who fell for my managers argument that he bargained for more salary increment, in lieu of the lower SSL rating. I was fine with the S rating, and since I never intended to stay for 4 years anyway, I didn't care for the RSUs. I wonder if my manager himself knew that the SSL rating will be used for the xSP criteria, and that is what I am most pissed about.

I was top of my class. When I received the offer from Intel, I joined without looking around for other options, because it had been a dream company. I have been under utilized for months, with projects that almost always met dead ends, and was already looking for other jobs! I blame my manager for not giving me enough meaningful work to demonstrate my skills. My manager has really let me down, and he is the only person I blame for this mess!

Whether I get fired or not, I am certain my manager deserves to! He is wasting Intel money by hiring people he doesn't need!

@H3D5Wma-odm - Completely agree with @H3D5Wma-hoz...you'll find that 85 - 90% of people who either went out on MLOA or took Sabbatical during the year receive low SSL the following Focal and the reason provided is ALWAYS that your peers did more than you. And just as @H3D5Wma-hoz states, these ODIs do not go through HR, they go through a team of managers within your own business group who have committed to investigating ODIs for the year, they receive a 30 minute preso and then are considered qualified to perform the ODIs for your business group. In fact, the only ODIs which go directly to HR are the ones considered statutory, or, involving harassment and/or discrimination because those types of issues require HR/Legal oversight as they have legal penalties if they are in fact deemed legitimate

Prediction: Successful SL3 for too many times in a row is the next group to go as the pond shrinks. Watch and see!

@odm: technically, they are not supposed to use your leave against you. But managers are still required to meet the ssl4/5 distributions.

When your boss has to choose, he will choose to give you the ssl4/5 and will say "your peers did more." This JUST happened to me. I was on protected leave for 18 weeks and on restrictions for 8 additional weeks.

Managers can't fight the distribution requirement without putting their own jobs at risk.

The escalation process for ssl4/5 no longer goes thru open door with HR. It goes back thru the same management chain that made or approved the ssl4/5 distributions in the first place.

Start looking for another job now. NOW

This (SSL4/5 stuff) was actually an old topic that was discussed and complained about heavily last year when over a thousand people got fired based on SSL they received. Now this is second time, and people are talking about it as if it happened for the first time. When BK was then questioned about using SSL4/5 as a layoff criteria, he claimed that is how meritocracy works. If some one ask him again this time, he would say we already did that before and you should have known how SSL works. I guess people don't learn until they are victimized themselves. It is not too late for those who are not impacted to learn from this time - you are next to be fired you are given SSL4/5. This should no longer be a trap to you because you know thousands of people in front of you already fell into it.

They did this in 2015 and now in 2016. For those not impacted will you stick around for next year focal ? Why would anybody with their right mind stay @Intel? I know, you always think it's not going to be you.

I have had to take medical leave this year. Does that mean that I should expect SSL4/5 automatically next year? Any insight from the manager on the forum?

well, I took a medical leave and my manager said, you took some time off. So, it means, compared to others, I am the one who should be picked for SSL4 but don't worry either feel bad becoz there are still SSL5 folks. Hahahahahahahahahha

to @H3D5Wma-iln, that is over. SL4 will clearly mean now that you manager wants to fire you and is too lazy to give you a IR or BE mid year to give you fair warning.

They are doing it because it's the legal way to get rid of older people. It's age discrimination, without the icky lawsuits. Older workers are much less likely to get good stock awards because managers want to use their stock allocation to incentivize the younger workers to stay, plus older workers are more likely to accept higher raises in exchange for less stock. For summer 2015 layoffs (which used stock level as the criteria), workers over age 50 were twice as likely to get laid off, and those over 60 were 3x. google it.

As manager next years focal will be utter hell. Two years ago giving SL4 was with an S was a easy message. Many reasons to give it, performance was one, but the coaching back then was it should reflect the long term value of the employee, since the shares had a 4 year vest. It was treated not so much as performance value but a managers way to give some equity bonus to under paid employees or people that did really well that year. That all change last year when 2 SL4 in the past 3 reviews meant your out the door. This year its 1 SL4 in the current. And worse your just not out the door your out the door and blacklisted, there is no rehire policy this year just as last for ISP. So Intel to something that was an incentive differentiator and turned it into the ultimate fire weapon. In general (up to now) your immediate manager had full discretion with no documentation to give you an SL4, remember your still successful. You could not even open door it HR. But now its very clear to everyone that a SL4 means your fired and will be walked out and blacklisted never be allowed to work at Intel again. I have never heard of a company giving managers such a powerful weapon. No documentation, you don't need to justify it just give an SL4 and the employees is gone. In the pat you had to give BE or IR spend half your days documenting why the employee sucks and after much HR and legal review you walk them out. No longer... This whole SL4 and out the door blacklist process Intel has created will create a VERY TOXIC work environment were all works will be in FEAR and try to POINT FINGERS so that come to focal they are not the few 10% that get the SL4/SL5. COLLABORATION IS OFFICIALLY DEAD AT INTEL

btw, I left Intel a few years back and we still had IR/BE/EE/O so it sounds like they eliminated BE and now grant Successful SSL4/5 in its place. That's very sad, it means they are trying to escape the honest and frank discussions with employees during Focal and proliferating a perception that as long as you're "Successful" you're performance is acceptable.

@XWA, completely agree... I remember Slower Than, Faster Than and Equal To - and R&R quadrants, total waste of time. They should just get rid of ratings all together and use SSL if that's what they're using for RIF criteria. So glad I'm not there anymore, and everyone who is still there are in my thoughts...

SSL4/5 is a scheme; it is a trap. It used be BE and people took it seriously when it was giving or given. Because of that, Intel eliminated it and people was kind of relaxed. You thought SSL4 was better than nothing and felt grateful for the fact you are rated successful and even given Intel stocks. Intel shocked the world by using SSL as a criteria as a lay-off criteria in July 2015. How did you feel about it then when you were not one of them impacted? Did you try to avoid SSL4 or 5 since? I was given SSL4 in 2014. Once I know what could happen to SSL4 or 5 receivers, I let my manager I'll do whatever it take to avoid SSL4 or 5. I also let my manager know that I would ask for SSL 4 or 5 when I want to leave Intel someday so that I can get a severance package.

SSL has always been communicated as an ee's future value-add to the company hence if you receive SSL4/5 then your manager is indicating to you that their assessment of your future value to Intel is minimum to none. Sadly, many managers tend to be vague about this at Focal delivery when giving Successful SSL4/5, they minimize it with the ee so the ee doesn't escalate or question. Then when RIF comes, the ee is blindsided. If people don't fully understand the meaning/usage of SSL, it's not necessarily their fault, I see it more as an indicator of poor managers. The only time SSL4/5 is acceptable is when it's a New Hire or RCG going through Focal for the first time - all RFT employees really should be concerned whenever receiving SSL4/5 (regardless of rating) at Focal.

Well it used to to be O EE S BE IR.. L4 is the new BE.. L5 is IR...

For the old Intel folks remember the trending - faster, slower, equal? It used to take days to cover a small rank group. We used to black out weeks to cover the agony..

No real change

you would have thought stock grants were an incentive - only intel could turn the process into one of dread.

Totally agree, a game of iterative elimination with SSL4/5... IR is a full defeat!! Someone loose and someone will win in the race of becoming educated slaves at Intel, mainly who work at TMG division (process, integration, yield etc.)!!!

Agreed. From now on it's obvious that at focal SSL4 means out the door end of April every year. What a toxic atmosphere...very Darwinian and horrible to retain top talent.