Thread regarding Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) layoffs

Note that even Hewlett and Packard put profit and growth above employee in the objective list. The only reason why employees were treated better before was that the company was doing well (growing).

Now you can and should certainly blame the current HPE management of not seeing cloud coming, and got beaten by it. But I doubt just treating employees better (no layoffs, higher wages ...) will magically turn the company around.

My view is that people should just leave companies which are in declining businesses. It is much easier to retool, join a growing company in the right business, than waiting and hoping a declining company to turn around.

HP Corporate Objectives

1. Profit. To recognize that profit is the best single measure of our contribution to society and the ultimate source of our corporate strength. We should attempt to achieve the maximum possible profit consistent with our other objectives.

2. Customers. To strive for continual improvement in the quality, usefulness, and value of the products and services we offer our customers.

3. Field of Interest. To concentrate our efforts, continually seeking new opportunities for growth but limiting our involvement to fields in which we have capability and can make a contribution.

4. Growth. To emphasize growth as a measure of strength and a requirement for survival.

5. Employees. To provide employment opportunities for HP people that include the opportunity to share in the company's success, which they help make possible. To provide for them job security based on performance, and to provide the opportunity for personal satisfaction that comes from a sense of accomplishment in their work.

6. Organization. To maintain an organizational environment that fosters individual motivation, initiative and creativity, and a wide latitude of freedom in working toward established objectives and goals.

7. Citizenship. To meet the obligations of good citizenship by making contributions to the community and to the institutions in our society which generate the environment in which we operate.

The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard

Of course business is about making money that being said the entire work environment has changed. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard said (paraphrased) "We have a responsibility beyond the shareholders. We have a responsibility to the shareholders for a reasonable return on their investment. We have a responsibility to the customers to provide them with products they need and to make sure we deliver a quality product to them. We have a responsibility to our employees to give them reasonable pay and good benefits because this will create good loyal employees who will be focused on providing the quality products and they will do so because they aren't worried about losing their job or paying bills or the spouse or child that is in the hospital because of the benefits and pay we offer. We also have a responsibility to communities in which we do business, to invest in them and make them better able to provide the employees that we need. Lastly we have the responsibility to the business to make it successful so that all the other things can happen".

Today most businesses don't have this kind of opinion, its not exclusive to the Tech Industry but business has largely become closer to the robber barons of the past. Its all about the money, executives can make 500 to 1000 times what the average employee makes and its all good and it doesn't matter how the money is made. Bonuses / stock options / pay increases nor does it matter if you aquire, layoff, outsource or hire visa holders. Employees have been a victim of these practices for at least twenty years. Employees have learned over the years and most of them have little if any loyalty towards the employer. They will come in take whatever they can learn and move on to the next employer. The whole thing has created a vicious cycle. Payment will eventually come due just as it will on the national deficit both of which will be costly and painful for everyone.

Union is a double edged sword. The creeps and politicians start flowing in and take over and run the show the moment a union is created. You just have to look at the history of GM's Geo Prism factory in Fremont California. The creeps, with many complicit employees, were running drug rings and brothels right inside the factory premises. It was completely out of control.

"Free market has rules." it's an unfair market, which is why Unions were created. Might be a good time for an IT union.

"Is it really a free market when corporations are undercutting US citizens by off shoring and importing H1B visa workers and practicing in age discrimination?"

Free market has rules. H1B needs to be fixed, but age discrimination is already illegal. But my point stands. If HPE is underpaying people, and there are other companies hiring, why stay?

It is a problem when there are no jobs around (detroit, anyone?). But if you look at the silicon valley (or housing prices there), the gravy train is still going strong. There are also plenty of examples here on this forum that people are finding much better positions when they leave.

@@SCMgfEi-9tei "It is also a free market." Is it really a free market when corporations are undercutting US citizens by off shoring and importing H1B visa workers and practicing in age discrimination? If you browse other companies on The Layoff, it sure seems like the fix is in for US workers.

It is also a free market. If you believe HPE is underpaying you, you should leave. If customer believes HPE is not providing value (by giving them newbies, not qualified employees), they should go to someone else.

If HPE management runs the company to the ground, it is not your problem, it is the problem of whoever cannot unload their shares fast enough.

I recommend everyone votes with their feet .. like what i did some years ago :)

Employess help that business make money, So Its a two way street in which ans employers pays an employee for their skills.

I personally think that the reason WHY HPE top mismanagement can NOT get acquisitions to be successes, is flat-out arrogance! They immediately think that they know more than the experts at the company that they just acquired, and that they can lay off the acquired experts and employees… And replace them with monkeys, squirrels, toads, and worms. And all the components of all the hardware being sold, will be replaced by the cheapest “stuff” that HPE can find. Tool steel will be replaced by cardboard, and silicon chips will be replaced by wood chips! Phone help will be replaced by random word generators and speech synthesizers. And then they will wonder why the new business segment goes belly-up!

Sleepless,

Well said. I remember from one of my early classes at Hewlett-Packard Company, the purpose of a business is to make money. Not to provide employment.

Run from a dumpster fire if you are at all able to. Good Luck to All!

To the one that wrote “one of the easiest way to grow a business is by purchasing someone who already has a business”... honesty who old are you?

I'm old enough to have worked for half a dozen companies who've grown their revenue via acquisitions. For software companies, it's the oldest trick in the book.

Tell me, is it like Autonomy ? Buying a business is done by CEOs ( and many others consultants) to cash in bonus. It Is not aimed to help employees. After employees from the new acquired company are terminated where is the value? New base of unsatisfied customers?

HP, HPE and Yahoo are generally regarded as the companies that do terrible acquisitions. Microsoft is up there too.

If you look at Yahoo's list of acquisitions, nearly every one went off the rails.

But it CAN be done competently. For instance, the Zappos acquisition was so seamless, many do not realize that Zappos is owned by Amazon. I believe they'll absorb Whole Foods well too.

To the one that wrote “one of the easiest way to grow a business is by purchasing someone who already has a business”... honesty who old are you? Tell me, is it like Autonomy ? Buying a business is done by CEOs ( and many others consultants) to cash in bonus. It Is not aimed to help employees. After employees from the new acquired company are terminated where is the value? New base of unsatisfied customers?

The thought that MS would even entertain an HPE acquisition is just appalling... That rumor floats around whenever a company is failing and folks start to pray that MS will bail them out... Won't happen... Not going to happen... HPE is gone, along with Bill and Dave... Meg put this B!TCH to bed a long time ago...

If you are going to ride with this company, make sure you have an exit strategy... HPE is in its death throes...

"Its a consultancy, why don't you just HIRE THEM to train HPE ..."

Because HPE is looking to grow it's business. One of the easiest ways to do that is by purchasing someone who already HAS a business. Also, it's a way to get their client base.

"Then power-seeking arrogant money-oinkers start descending in droves into the management ranks, like vultures circling down on a pile of rotting weasels. And we are all vulture bait after that!"

This is the American corporate way now. Not just HPE. These people are just doing what they learned to do in college and this is the same culture that got President Trump elected.

The next assault on the American worker will to be to totally eliminate overtime pay. Mark my word.

Workers are no longer workers. Just survivors of greed. aka Vulture bait

"they seem to believe that there is magic in management and corporate structure but that the worker bees don't matter."

...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!! = = Management arrogance, plain and simple. Early on, in the life of a company, common people with ethics and a sense of humility (like Bill and Dave) start a decent and common-sense company, where the pooop of the managers DOES smell and the worker bees ARE valued. But then "nice guys finish last", and slowly, the bad drives out the good. Due to things like "forced distribution" performance reviews killing all teamwork. Then power-seeking arrogant money-oinkers start descending in droves into the management ranks, like vultures circling down on a pile of rotting weasels. And we are all vulture bait after that!

"why can't hpe do anything organic? ... seriously... Its a consultancy, why don't you just HIRE THEM to train HPE?"

they seem to believe that there is magic in management and corporate structure but that the worker bees don't matter.

I do not see a scenario where Cisco would even remotely be interested in buying hpe in the absence of Aruba. If they buy, they would want the whole. Then after acquisition they would keep Aruba and jettison the other parts to the highest bidder. An of course they will jettison all the dead weight overheads such as HR etc.

HPE is going to get acquired by HP Inc. Together they will form the greatest company that will ever be.

HPE is going to be bought by Huawei.

HPE is going to be acquired by Cisco; Aruba will split before

really? a UK based consultancy of about 70? ...

leaves me to ask... why can't hpe do anything organic? ... seriously...

Its a consultancy, why don't you just HIRE THEM to train HPE ...

I wonder if they ever thought about acquiring a completely new C-Suite...

unbelievable .. i hear another bell .. the death knell of another hpe acquisition . . .

I also wonder if Microsoft is planning to buy HPE, considering new Microsoft’s focus on cloud and how small HPE is now.

I wonder if Microsoft is driving some of these deals? RedPixie is an Azure shop, and Microsoft is eager to promote that.