What's the average age of those laid off?
Are we looking at another cleansing of those in their late forties and early fifties (with a few younger employees thrown in to avert suspicion, of course) or is there an actual chance that for once layoffs are actually going to get rid of employees who really are dead weight?
Age 60+, gone
If you are into this kind of stuff, check out #AgeDiscrimination hash...
Age
What's the average age of those laid off?
Are we looking at another cleansing of those in their late forties and early fifties (with a few younger employees thrown in to avert suspicion, of course) or is there an actual chance that for once layoffs are actually going to get rid of employees who really are dead weight?
possible, not sure...
but...
ibm...
In the past five years, the investigation found more than 20,000 IBM workers — about 60 percent of its estimated total U.S. job cuts in that period — were over the age of 40.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/22/ibm-eliminated-more-than-20000-american-workers-over-the-age-of-40-report/
It’s everyone... my team was heavily impacted..... all ages
I was one of the older people laid-off in 2015. I was very grateful to Q for giving me essentially a years pay as i was retiring. Yes, I volunteered. I know several other see people who did the same thing, and I know several more who are doing so this time.
When you criticise the company for "age descrimination" keep this in mind. There's definitely going to be a preponderance of older people laid-off when you accept volunteers.
Thank you Qualcomm!
@ -nsa : what you write is spot on accurate but missing some subtlety
"Why would a company get rid of experienced people just for their age?"
Well, the answer is fairly easy. The old folks likely are experienced, likely have accrued salary/benefits. Thats true. BUT, they are also much much more likely to have family and kids. Perhaps they want to spend their evenings with their kids ? Making dinner, playing games, doing homework from school, quality family time. The last thing they WANT to do is spent 2-3 hrs on endless conf calls with India.
There are other subtle ways of discrimination, for example. Perhaps the old individuals, while average to good performers, are not willing to take piles of 'sh--'. Like, maybe, last moment demands travel to China for 5 days to 'fix' a fiasco not of their making. Or perhaps, reluctance to engage in the people politics, because as an engineer, they want to do stuff and make stuff happen, not relentlessly negotiate and get 'buy in'. And perhaps those older individuals are citizens and willing to put a foot down and "enough, I am not going to call India for the THIRD evening this week".
An H1B with his visa on the line is much less likely to put his foot down.
Oh and the age profile of H1Bs - young
The age profile of older folks - citizens.
I think you get my point.
Q claims the layoffs are not performance related, but 'business need'. Ok, fine. But thats a suitably opaque though true justification. The unfortunate side is that 'business need' is aligned closely with 'compliant, will take sh-- without a complaint, have little to no interests outside of work and thus available 24/7'. I think its clear H1Bs meet 'business need' far better than older, experienced citizens.
As well all know, pink people do as they are told. Blue people, perhaps, stand up for their rights more.
Why would a company get rid of experienced people just for their age?. That is counterproductive.
What happens in all, especially big companies, is that you accrue benefits and perks along the years, sometimes performance based, sometimes not. After a good amount of time the decoupling between productivity and cost is massive, in some cases, and the company periodically readjust itself.
Is it hard from the human perspective? It is, but understandable.
Let's not forget that if someone is worth X remuneration that is applicable in Q and wherever.
Oh yes, the usual cleansing of the late 40s and 50s with some real low performers from their 20s thrown in to make it look non-discriminatory. HR advice : pick the oldies you want out, then match them one-for-for with some young low performers. Double win, lowers your employee costs ('savings' !!) and avoid the painful dragged out BS of figuring out how to PiP the low performers or just have them hanging out not performing well.