35 laid off recently in Houston… 25 direct-labor (assembly and test) on the factory floor, and 10 indirect labor at the same.
In related news, some so-called “permanent” employee (as if there could be such a thing at HPE) factory direct-labor person got miffed that there were quite a few contractors working there who were laid-off former “permanent” workers (is contrary to HPE’s “blacklist” policy). He or she complained enough so that the first-level managers had to run it up the flagpole to (or towards) Meg and Minions (M&Ms). M&Ms responded and they all got laid off! So, the “blacklist” policy has now DEFINITELY hardened! First-level managers are now miffed… This makes their jobs significantly harder. It’s as if the M&Ms have serially married almost every willingly foolish man, woman, child, cat, dog, horse, cow, pig, and frog in town, refuse to ever marry the same partner twice, and are running out of options!
WHY did the “miffed-person” direct laborer complain? It’s a fairly straight-forward result, I think, of “forced distribution reviews”, and constant layoffs. Reduce your competition as much as you can. If you interview other possible new hires, recommend the weakest candidate. If you write code, comment your code as poorly as possible, to befuddle any possible competitor who might try to help you write code (make them look stupid). And so on… Eliminating possible competition (even from “low-life” contractors) fits right in!
I cannot see how this makes ANY rational business sense, even factoring in hiring H-1Bs after “we can NOT find ANY qualified American workers”, while turning a blind eye towards the black-listed laid-off folks. HPE can’t find enough H-1Bs to stay in business, long term… Especially with today’s anti-immigrant political climate.
The only remaining viable hypothesis is that the M&Ms, indeed, are not operating under rational business logic. Rampant arrogant ego has taken over. The M&Ms are getting off on feeling vastly superior to the sub-humans that they have laid off… Since no HPE manager, anywhere, ever, has made a mistake, in selecting a sub-human to be laid off! Contemplating anything otherwise hurts our egos!