https://m.startribune.com/medtronic-begins-global-layoffs-following-through-on-plans-to-cost-cut-this-year/600267966/
8 replies (most recent on top)
Don’t you love how the press knew before the employees of a company that supposedly put “people first”. 100% the interview for this article had to be a few days ago.
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@uyz+1mcj22vc they could interview some employees anonymously for more info or at least reactions. or interview an industry analyst, or compare performance and layoffs to competitors. would have been pretty easy seeing as we all knew this was coming for months. plenty of options besides copy and pasting a corporate press release and calling it news.
Very interesting analysis in the comment section of that article:
As a 30 year employee of Medtronic that has been retired for a few years this is no surprise. The beginning of the downhill slide began with the Covidien “merger” engineered by Martha himself. When you combine a Class III active implantable device company (the most complex medical devices per the FDA regulations) with a company that made bandages, adult diapers, skin staplers, gauze pads and other disposables (not one single Class III device ever) you have a cultural clash in the making. I worked in both Engineering Operations and Design and the shift in culture went from “To strive without reserve” (for the highest quality device) to how can we reduce the cost of the device as much as possible. The result is more “voluntary”device recalls and FDA warning letters. I ended up reporting to a VP from Covidien that could not have been further in philosophy from our Founder Earl Bakken as well as having no experience in implantable medical devices. I got to the point where I could no longer put up with the total degradation of the culture that made Medtronic that best medical device company that I decided to retire. It is very difficult to see such a great company that has provided so many patients with life saving and quality of life improvements degrade so rapidly. My heart goes out to the other long term Medtronic employees that will no doubt be affected by this layoff.
What do you expect the writer to do? Medtronic won’t comment. They’re not going to make things up. If you have hard information about number of layoffs or communications in writing, then send it to the reporter rather than just whining.
Thanks Strib. $20 a month to repeat the company's press release hours later and add absolutely nothing.
Same information as GM’s email today, nothing new.
Thanks for sharing - no specifics were mentioned, however.