I hear that layoffs are coming this month. Anyone know which groups will be affected? Core teams? Will Shakopee be closing? I heard CSSG is ramping up so that's one group that I assume won't be impacted.
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It is especially bad for people with work visas if they become unemployed. Being out of status will mean having to leave the US. That would be a very bad situation to be in.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I know HAMR department lost a bunch of guys in the past years. Some went to Apple in the Bay Area, some even went to Academia abroad to become a professor. Instead of praying not to be axed, everyone here should think about where I can go next.
Even if Shakopee does not close, it is Irrelevant, either way there will be alot of layoffs coming soon. And this is coming from the CEO, not some random employee who stated this. The company is restructuring, and for good reason. HDDs are not as relevant as they used to be at one point. And they are not future bound lets say 5-10 years from now, no matter what anyone tells you, period end of discussion. The 6500 will effect every HDD department world wide not just Asia, this is a fact not some rumor. The rumors are just about the date between now and the need of FY 2017. But it will happen before FY2017. I love to see employees who are c---y and acting like they are indispensable. The fact is that anyone except for the execs are replaceable anywhere, at any company, under any circumstance. Even the execs can be replaced. So when the CEO tells everyone that Seagate will layoff 6500 because of HDD being less relevant, that means you should definitely ask questions and doing something. Looking at possible alternatives in case of anything is always good. This means, stay with Seagate and look at the SSD department, or look for opportunities at another company which is future bound. Obviously if someone is on this site and posting comments that means they are thinking about the facts that they might be replaced or let go, no matter what their comment states. But most managers will just say go back to work and just ignore all things until somethings happens, and then you are on your own. Shrewsbury MA site same thing happen, top manager left right before site closed. That shows alot. Same thing happened at Shakopee site. Top Director left for Samsung SSD and 4 months earlier he was stating how great HDDs are and that HDDs are future bound. The hypocrisy in this case definitely shows.
There are 2 distinct sites/buildings in Shakopee. "Closing Shakopee" may have come from plans to close what is called "Shakopee East" when the lease is up. This location is NOT the design center, but a leased nearby building. From what I've heard, even closing the "east" location was postponed or cancelled when the cost of transfer was calculated and people realized what a pain it would be. Shakopee proper is probably safe until next year anyway. So, stop waiting for a package this year and go redo all that work you have done half assed because you thought it was shutting down in 2016.
Closing a redundant plant is different than moving manufacturing. NRM is open for the time being because they need the capacity and because it was the lead site for future head technology. If the market shrinks, Derry can probably handle the volumes, while NRM would require a costly expansion to do so. Since it appears that head technology is reaching a limit, Seagate doesn't need the expensive research staff in the US. They can pay a PhD much less in Derry than they can in the US. Finally, the UK pays Seagate millions to do technology development; the US does not. Given all of the upper management staff is not native to Minnesota, their interests are to execute their orders as directed.
If Ford can move the manufacture of the Focus to Mexico, and Carrier Air hasn't changed their mind on moving their manufacturing to Mexico from Indiana, I don't see why Seagate can't do it as well.
Would Seagate really close a USA manufacturing plant in favour of a foreign one. There would surely be some political fallout over that move especially if Trump gets elected.
The big shots from Ireland are in NRM to prepare for moving wafer completely to Derry. For years, wafer attempted to push technology from NRM to STST by sending American ex-pats to there to set it up. It didn't work well. Before LaCroix left, they set it up so that non-NRM managers could pull the necessary materials from NRM for STST. Making Burns VP was the last step. NRM wafer will gradually be shrunk until a bare-bones manufacturing facility is left. When volumes drop to the point that Derry can handle it, probably ~2020, NRM wafer will be closed.
Well they have 2 locations in Minnesota. Its not like they need 2, most other sites have 1. It's not like Seagate will move from Minnesota, if Shakopee closes. As well I heard there are alot of open offices at the Normandale office. As well no more 2.5 inch HDD, this is all going to SSD. Everything HDD will be 3.5 inches, which is good for LCO. Most mission critical products will be SSD as well. And the source is someone who told me to ignore the rumors. As well, there are somewhere under 1000 employees at Shakopee location and 1200 employees at the Normandale location. 6500 employees would be equivalent to Shakopee+Normandale +4~5 other similar sized location. I can't believe that 6500 people are all management.
Shakopee is NOT closing! All the big shots from Ireland are at the NRM facility and the managers I have contact with are scared, which they should be because they are basically worthless. With all
the other plant closings and a 10-20% cut in management, this will make up the bulk of the RIF. All
non-managment workers in the wafer division should be safe as those layoffs were completed
already.
Stop getting my hopes up
RIF at SSDC coming end of year. Get ready.
Shakopee will be closed down by next year, from reliable source. Singapore design center will also be closed.
CSSG ramping up, in your dreams!
Production workers are relaxing with low volume outputs, warehouses look empty.
It seems really unlikely that Shakopee will close. If you have evidence, then share it.
Any idea when in September?
Shakopee is definitely closing. In addition heard some consolidation of IT location in the US. IT SV and Longmont will close and key folks will be offered relocation packages to OKC/Normandale while rest will be RIFd.