HP to Layoff 15,000 Employees

William Robinson writes "ZDNet reports that HP is planning to layoff 15000 employees. IT, sales and services will be among the areas particularly hit, although the sweeping cuts will be felt throughout the company, according to a close source to the company." From the article: "HP is expected to announce the layoffs as early as Monday, but employees are not expected to be immediately notified of their status, the source said, noting such a practice is common in corporate America. More high-level discussions on the layoffs will occur late next week and employees may get a greater sense of their specific status sometime thereafter."

30% Work Force Reduction

[premii]

Thy are no planning, its already been started month ago, my team got laid off couple weeks ago. and before us, atleast 15-20 people got laid off out of around 200 people at Dearborn, MI location. and thy are planning to reduce atleast 30% of work force, and off shoring to Toronto, Malasiya and India, and replacing with cheap contract.

Re:Here they come.

[homer_s]

Are these workers entitled to those jobs? They took those jobs knowing fully well what the rules of the game were - that the shareholders and management can fire them if they think that is in the interest of the corporation.
If those workers didn't like that, they could've:
a)taken different jobs or
b) started their own businesses or
b) write to their representatives to change the political system - a workers revolution and to each according to their needs.

Re:Situation of southamerican countries?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, I think your vision of Chile is a bit flawed. Discussion is getting a bit off-topic now (but still has something to do with the main post anyways... hell, it's the first time I have actually heard a north-american talk about wage differences and things like that. It impressed me :) ).

I'm trying to attack the 'uncivilized culture' most american/outsiders seem to have of latinamerica, more specifically this country.

The north american vision of latinamerican countries , for the most part it seems, is as was described on the upper post, but it isn't all like that, in reality.

I do have to speak locally (and Chile's one of the best places right now in south america to live: Bolivia's boiling with civil unrest, Argentina's still recuperating, etc. ), but situation isn't that bad. I don't know what place you are living right now, but the post-apocalyptic place the guy described isn't the norm (hell, I haven't heard of any place like that). Even if the comment was hyperbolic, I still think it doesn't connect with reality.

While I don't know all cities here, for the most part life is as 'normal' as your every-day american one. Sure, we might have less hi-tech stuff, our cultures may be different, but people don't suffer from "not having enough to eat good food". Makes us sound barbaric :p

Of course there are problems, and they are big. Social injustices, like wage differences, are very real. But isn't that a problem everywhere :) ?

BTW, where are you living?

-Zer0s

HP is anti consumer choice

[Anonymous Coward]

All that HP offers for home computers is Windows.
HP is still supporting Microsoft's monopoly for home computers.

Re:Don't blame the corporation...

[pete6677]

Western Europe has done an excellent job of achieving a healthy balance between the two extremes.

Which is why they have double digit unemployment.

Re:Started by Bush Sr, continued by his son

[arturov]

NAFTA passed under the Clinton administration. Its passage was one of the administration's specific goals in 1993.

Agilent

[geekee]

"Hewlett and Packard would be astonished at what their company is doing today."

The company Hewlett and Packard founded is now called Agilent. What HP does now has nothing to do with what they did originally.

I left the 'Prideful Elephant' in May

[Leeto2]

I found it interesting that the article noted, "additional cuts may lower morale.." uh...morale was already in the pit. It can't get much lower, even in the divisions that are money makers.

Part of the reason I ended my eleven-year career in May was layoffs. I simply hated waiting for the other shoe to drop. People would just disappear, and you'd find out later that they'd been laid off. (WFR'd in HP speak.) Being told by my manager that, "We're pretty safe (from lay offs) but NO GUARANTEES..." about drove me NUTS. Also, when the CEO comes to town and makes a specific point that HP has more IT people than sales people, it's time for an IT guy to take serious stock of the situation.

In the long term I think Hurd will be good for the company, and I wish my former compatriots the best of success. A lot of fat needs to be trimmed, but the question is, "Can he tell the difference between fat, muscle, and bone?" There's a whole lot of fat in middle management right now.

Re:Severance

[patio11]

$21 million over 15,000 employees = $1400 of the average severance cost was as a direct result of her package. Not an insignificant number, also not a huge number compared to $78,000. Note that expenses associated with laying off an employee aren't limited to severance pay, though (just like costs associated with hiring aren't limited to salary).

Re:In related news...

[servognome]

I can prove my point, however. We've already lost the tech industry and we are now losing the biotech industry. Recent job growth has been heavily weighted toward the low paying service industry.

Back in the day people said the US was doomed because textile jobs moved, then steel making, then auto industry, then electronics manufacturing. The same issues of globalization came up in the late 1700's, and early 1800's with Federalism. States tried to tax each other because they were worried about their own industries.
We've lost industries before, and then utilized cheaper goods to create higher value jobs.