In 1989 Seagate purchased Control Data at during this time they had five operational buildings in Oklahoma City. We built millions of hard drives, in fact one of the very first clean rooms was built here in Oklahoma City.
Over the next few decades Seagate downsized Oklahoma City to just one operational building at Morgan and Reno where prototypes were built to be sent to China for mass production. After they shut down production entirely, Oklahoma City evolved into a customer service center, a call center, but they decided to instead call it a “Solution Center”.
After thirty years, Seagate is shutting down Oklahoma City Operations and putting the only building that they own outright, for sale. All that history is now on the market. After June 25th, Seagate will leave Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City has always done was what was asked and more. We were told that we would be moving over to the over side of the building, that Oklahoma City Employees were important to them. All this came to an end an email, tonight Patrick O’ Connolly states that we are being outsourced a 3rd party vendor.
Oklahoma City did a lot for Seagate. People taking jobs where they were not trained for and having to learn as they worked. We stepped up and did the job. We have absolutely have nothing to be ashamed of. People worked double shifts, worked on their days off just for coverage because resources were not there. We were understaffed, yet we held together. But in the end, we come to the conclusion that all our hard work could not save us.
It’s sad to see something with over three decades of history being cast off, but it isn't worth getting angry about. Oklahoma City, hold up your heads, you more than proved you worth to Seagate .
It's unfortunate that Patrick O' Connell's email did not reflect this, acknowledge the hard work. Perhaps it was due to the fact that it wasn't personalized and was directed globally. It is also unfortunate that no one from upper management held a meeting to address the issue. Perhaps they will in time.
But in the end, OKC delivered more than was asked, if anyone says anything different, it is a lie. The foundation of every company is its people, OKC was as strong as they come.