What was the work culture like?
22 replies (most recent on top)
My wife and i both worked for Intel in the early 80's. Myself in Final Test maintenance and she in the Final test dept.
I was railroaded out the door in their second layoff by a scheming boss who was having an affair with the HR rep. Both were African American not that it matters. My Attendance was spotless, my reviews were all superior, no disciplinary actions and length of employment exceeded that of others that remained. Part of this railroading had to do with my refusing to falsify Military QA documents, the other part was due to my boss creating a shift morale issue by announcing promotions by name that didn't happen when wages were frozen prior to the layoff. He claimed I was undermining him when the opposite was actually true. I have many times thought of contacting an attorney as it was a clear case of wrongful termination.
Not sure about the possibilities of successfully doing so at this point. Tere are co-workers that may testify to the above but ?
definitely went downhill when they brought the foreigners in
I was an Intel scholar in the early 90s and join Intel fresh out of school. Back then Intel was very different. Managers were technically oriented and decisions made for the betterment of the company. Today Intel's a big joke. Almost all management are just jokers who play politics, lots of entertaining and huge amounts of brown nosing. If you want to go up in Intel today, you need to be part of the gang, otherwise you will be "cold storaged" irrespective of your capability. I always refer to Intel managers nowadays as nothing more than GRO (Guest Relation Officers).
Andy Grove was CEO. Enough said.
Sex, drugs, rock and roll. The 90s were a blast.
I can vouch for what @1vis said about the MFT. I had a manager who received 20%-0% scores on multiple MFT's. Nothing happened other than the obligatory "this is why I didn't deserve a low score" meeting. At the absolute least I expected my 2nd level to meet with some of the team, but even that didn't happen. Finally I had to schedule a 1:1 and got a lot of "oh yeah, MFT is super important" blown up my you-know-what, but still nothing changed.
The optimistic people on the team thought that HR would swoop in and help. Yeah right. Not only did they not care, it slipped that the manager received S+SSL3 for 2 years while that went on.
Why do I doubt that Intel was like this 20 years ago?
"Krzanich is no Andy Grove. That's all I can say,"
that sums it up pretty well. Andy is rolling in his grave as we speak.
Joned in 1991 and over the decade intel was a growth company in a growth industry. The days of Byte magazine, attack of the killer micros... intel had big challenges (eat the minicomputers, eat the RISC chips, eat AMD) and as a team we succeeded in all of them. Too bad I joined a lot of others on the ride 'down' with my options! Even post-2000, there was a good spirit, we invented the notebook industry. Wifi everywhere did not happen without intel going around with new laptops making sure that these little coffee shop that were springing up (something called Starbucks), had connections. Basically, for 15 years of my career we were superstars, the magazine racks were as full of computer magazines as they were fuill of car magazines in decades past (and nudie magazines always).
So it was great and if you were lucky enough to transition to server, you still got make good technology and talk to excited and knowledgable customers.
I DO believe that the spirit of management has changed, the hunger is gone, the heirarchies are more impenetrable, barriers are higher and yes, there are more unproductive meetings. Perhaps the NEXT round, where the lean and mean intel throws out the current upper management will result in a company like the one we were in.
Back then when we hit a downturn, Intel would invest and we would slingshot out of it further ahead of our competitors. I remember hearing Spinter speak on it as a new hire.
Today, we hit a downturn and HR is running SQL queries to see how they can maximize the attrition. This is not the Intel I remember.
In the 90's. Intel was absolutely the most awesome company to work for. We worked hard and had a lot of fun. Back then there were "operators" working in the fab. And guess what, over 60% of them were female. LOT"S OF SEX and wild Intel sponsored parties. YES Intel used to pay for outragous parties which included alchohol and party favors. Even our fab manager whose name I will never mention had crazy parties at his own house. EVERYONE was invited! Including low wage operators with no high school degree.
There are many stories of fab operators who became millionaires from Intel stock. Don't believe me? Go look at the charts and stocks splits from the 90's.
WE WERE A HAPPY FAMILY AND THESE NEW CREEPY PEOPLE HAVE RUINED THE COMPANY. Now the fabs are miserable hell holes filled with backstabbers and overcrowded with nasty small minded men.
BK knows this, he was there! He is probably still filled with rage at some very hot fab girl who would not f--- him. That is why he is ruining the company.
So this is a big F---YOU to the morons who ruined Intel! Go do an overlay of INTC, AAPL, GOOG stock prices. You will see just how much intel sucks starting in 2000.
Take the VSP while you can. Go find a cool, fun company to work for in your prime. Don't waste your 20's or 30's.
In the late 90's I could fill out a real paper shipping form, take the package to shipping and have it sent overseas and the whole process might take me 10 minutes, 20 if it was a long walk to shipping and I stopped for coffee. A shipping person would take the form, ask a quick question or two and then work out all the minute details. It was easy and quick.
Today, the same process is "streamlined" so that you fill out an incredibly cryptic online form, and once you fill it out, you get an email back from an bureaucrat asking mundane questions so they can check their boxes in another online form. And if you haven't taken the "shipping class" in the last 12 months, you must stop everything and take it again, because you won't have access to the shipping tool otherwise. It once took me over an hour of actual work time to simply get a package out the door.
To me, this sums up everything that is now wrong with Intel. What used to be easy and quick is now filled with roadblocks at every turn. And then management complains that things are moving too slowly.
You might go all year without hearing from your 2nd level manager, but you will get a direct note from him if you fail to complete your 3 hours of yearly required online training, the vast majority of which is common sense and no different than last year, but having done so fills in their checkbox.
I could go on and on and on. It's not 1997 anymore, that's for sure. I used to love this job and this company, now I endure it for a paycheck and honestly would be relieved if they offered me VSP. I'm not that lucky.
Today there is too much strategy by senior folks in a room deciding what ARs they can give to slow progress.. there are also so many darn meetings you have to present in to obtain any decision. Total BS.
In the 80's and 90's most of the GM's were engineers. Today they are all Marketing, Finance, and MBA's. Today Finance runs the company.
I joined late 90's, by the time I left a few years ago definitely not the same company. I was excited to go to work everyday until 2006, after SET it all went down hill but still loved my colleagues and managers hit and miss. Now, hearing what is currently happening, the company is unrecognizable to me :( Echo about Mike Splinter...great guy. Managers used to be measured on how well they managed their ee's to be successful, and if they had ee's who were EE/O it was a testament to how great they were as manager, when they changed Focal in 2007/08, it became clear that Managers were giving ratings to their wolf packs, no longer measurement of what a great manager they had been....also, when they did away with SMP and used MFT/LFT but never seemed to hold managers accountable who were getting consistent scores below 50%, what's that about???? If ICs get IR they're gone, but managers can get YoY MFT scores in 30's and 40's and NOTHING HAPPENS TO THEM!!! I know, I was on a team of 10 people and our manager's MFT scores for 2 years were between 30%-40%, he even took us in conference rooms separately trying to find out how we scored him as a means to intimidate, the third year only 3 people completed his MFT survey because we all feared what he might do to us at Focal...and now, there doesn't appear to be any such thing as "managing performance" rather, mangers simply "managing" employees out of the company....shame on Intel
Back then managers never asked you to do something they weren't willing to do themselves (and you usually watched them do it first...) There were plenty of genuine role models. Mike Splinter did my NEO and I was in heaven. Meritocracy was real and people helped and mentored each other to reach the goal. There was not much "Look what I did" because it was "Look what WE did - let's have a party!" Managers need to get out of the spotlight and shine it instead on those who work for them and with them and then THEY should be ranked and rated based on how successful their direct reports are.
Pretty much echo all previous posts. I joined in 83 and have seen really bad times, but knew the company would pull through stronger than ever.. Today I can't echo the same outlook... The biggest thing I see is all the added rocks in your path to be agile.. That was a given 20 years ago
It is very easy to identify a growth company from a company in death mode. In a growth company when you identify a problem and propose a solution outside of your "area" you are thanked enthusiastically and asked for your help on another problem they are struggling with. THIS WAS INTEL IN THE 80s/90s! In a company in death mode when you identify the same problem and propose a solution you are told to "mind your own business". The end is near. This is Intel now.
The main difference I see is the attitude and working relationships. 90s was very high growth, getting things done, working as a team to accomplish great things. I sat through a painful meeting yesterday where my employee's ideas got challenged and roadblocks were thrown for no reason; just grandstanding to see who is the smartest guy/gal in the room. People on ego/power trips...not seeing the big picture. 3 hours of meetings to make a small decision that in 1995 I could have made alone.
I'm not sure if we can blame Indian managers or Andy Grove's book for shaping to such sh--ty culture now. I remember we used to have fun at work and managers were real and genuine. At that time there were lot more white managers and engineers around. Being Asian myself, I much prefer a white manager over the alternative s.
I joined Intel in the early 80's and took what would amount to today's VSP in 1998, after 16+ years at Intel. Intel was indeed a GREAT Place To Work back then. I earned my MBA after completing my Air Force obligation, then joined Intel at the age of 30. I felt I had died and gone to business heaven. We were encouraged to take initiative, a common phrase: "If you see a job that is not being done, it is your job until someone else owns it". This opened the door to all kinds of opportunities if one just took the initiative. When times got tough, everyone took a 10% pay cut, even exec. staff (when things improved, Intel reimbursed what we had given up). In another rough patch, we did the 120% solution where every one worked a lot of overtime to pull us through. There was real esprit de corps back then.
By 1998, I could see the beginning of what employees are dealing with today. I lived a frugal life, had always maxed out my ESOP & 401K, squirreled away my stock options. It was great to "retire" at 46.
I really feel for everyone going through this now. I remember going through this so many years ago. Krzanich is no Andy Grove. That's all I can say,
Agreed, a lovely company
Less bureaucracy, fun place to work, and managers actually cared about their employess unlike the current crop of worthless self-centered buffoons that are running the company to it's grave these days.