So the official strategy for staff retention is to decimate the compensation package as we all stay because of our colleagues.
Which they keep laying off.
106 replies (most recent on top)
Alex wanted to be Illumina's CEO and got laughed at, rightly so. He claims he was in charge of two big areas: Basespace and Population Genomics Initiaitives.
Both of Alex's claimed remits are massive failures for the entire company, and ILMN shareholders should be well aware of how Alex's gross incompetence made life harder for Illumina and its entire ecosystem.
Basespace could have been everything, it turned out to be nothing - with Illumina's Illuminati acquiring a nothing-burger like Bluebee Genomics just to pretend they have a platform.
PopGen projects stopped years ago, after Illumina's marketing division set up a PopGen team in direct competition and open conflict with Illumina Sales. With two teams stepping on each other's toes and zero coordination, it all fell apart.
Alex wants to say "GRAIL bad, I told you so", but he is responsible for comparable if not greater disasters not only for Illumina, but for the industry as a whole.
And when Brady died, Alex had the courage of starding a GoFundMe - a charity request for a dead illumina executive whose San Diego villa is worth millions by itself.
Alex is a stain on the industry.
What sites are you talking about?
Site A is 1.4x more expensive than Site B
Site A is 2x more efficient than Site B
Site B think that Site A will be first to let go
Site B think that they are safe and take things for granted
Make sure swinging the cut to correct site!
Cut Cut Cut Site B pleasezzzz!
Is the ELT using the $260M saved to do stock buybacks to stave off the incredible downward stock pressure ?
HODDOOORRRRRRR
After "sleeping on it", my take: we're living through a real life case study. I suspect in the end ILMN under this LT will be required B school reading to inform discussions around what happens when you overhaul comp in this way... among many other learnings. I'd like to believe this will land as a major black mark on their "leadership" and not a reflection of the people here who do the important work every day ...the only thing left to do now is grab the popcorn and watch the show.
Your analysts huh? You might want to dig in a bit deeper than a Yahoo message board.
@14a+1jn4803np / @y3+1jn4803np, my analysts predict ILMN can go to 100 by mid to late April. Good call on the bullish. Well done sir/maam.
ILMN is going up! I bought at 80. Interesting science company indeed. Do you Illumina folks think it will keep up?
@y3+1jn4803np Hmmm. Trolling on a thread where people are upset about the future of the company they care about and their own future at said company. Talk about being a sad and pathetic human.
@y3+1jn4803np Get out of here Alex
Just ran into this weird thread. Looked up “Illumina”… Seems like an interesting science company. Is everyone ranting here from Illumina? Sad. Anyway, do you guys think ILMN is bullish?
@x1+1jn4803np I am also really curious about his pettiness towards Ilumina. On his Linkedin he lists being senior vice-president at Illumina from 2010 to 2017. The dude's current occupation apparently is just being a member of boards on a bunch of small companies, if you can even call that a job.
Ask Alex what happened to the PCR tech (his company) that Illumina acquired.
See if he’s honest.
He can’t help himself - he craves this attention on his journey to become an “influencer”
He is reading this thread and occasionally quotes from it on LinkedIn.
Alex if you're reading this we're not making fun of your name this site is just automatically censoring it
Di-kinson is the TMZ of the NGS community at this point
Can’t say whether Alex Di-kinson has a grudge against Illumina or not but it’s pretty clear he has an agenda- exemplified by his sensationalist tabloid-like reporting, often with incomplete/incorrect information and obvious bias toward Illumina. I can only assume Illumina provides a platform and the interest level for him to gain more followers on LinkedIn and increase his presence/influence. When he sticks to the science he can provide useful insights.
any old timers know what the deal is with Alex Di-kinson's grudge against illumina? did FDS fire him or something?
@vy+1jn4803np What chaos? It’s venting. It’s cathartic. It’s also letting others at Illumina know that they’re not alone by feeling not-so-positive about the future of our company or even appreciated by our leaders. Leadership won’t listen to this chat and nothing will change.
That being said, it’s sh---y that it’s feeding into the public Illumina detractors like Di-kinson. We could come out with a truly innovative tech and he, and his LinkedIn copycats, would sh-t all over it.
@st+1jn4803np are you stupid? Considered checking on E-Trade?
@wv+1jn4803np Probably cooking up yet another harebrained scheme to replace Pinnacle?
Happy monday. Sitting at home catching up on my HR trainings. Pretty sure my manager boss is doing the same. And maybe his Sr Manager boss as well.
Wonder what big brain problems our 2 x matrix skip ADs are solving today.
What is left for SM and below? More cuts ?
Wait for Illumina to become Agilent, and your resume will too
For as long as I worked at Illumina, I blindly believed the “top of market” pay BS. I left for a 80% hike in my TC and haven’t looked back. There was a time when the people, mission and leadership kept me engaged and excited to work there but it sounds like all of those things are in the dumper at the moment.
Cut your losses & move on before even the Illumina brand on your resume means nothing
we're all Alex Di-kinson sock puppets trying to sow chaos at illumina
It's pretty clear they cut staff to the point where it was obvious that they couldn't meet goals so now they have no choice but to cut pay in order to fund the ongoing stock buybacks.
@s2+1jn4803np Confirmed removed
@sq+1jn4803np the one he posted a few hours ago is the second time he linked to this thread. the first time was 2 days ago when news broke about RSUs being cut
I also tried to check my total comp and they definitely removed the RSUs. I also found that frustrating. In fact, I can find the past awards anywhere on workday but I also might be looking in the wrong spots.
@sg+1jn4803np he only commented on linkedin about it a couple of hours ago, this thread has been going strong for a few days now.
@s2+1jn4803np Gone for me too…
Alex is the reason why this thread blew up and why anybody even knows about this thread in the first place lmao
These posts are some serious Alex Di-kinson po-n.
Guys can anyone confirm with me that they have pulled the stock grant amount over last 12 months off from our total compensation on workday? (just go to your profile > Compensation > Job & Pay). I definitely remember that it was there but now it's gone. So they don't just destroy our morale they want it to be harder for us to leave
Nepotism within Illumina
I suppose I was one of these ‘top performers’—equivalent to AD on the IC track, with generally 3 grant awards per year (2 AEG, 1 CEO award). Internally, HR set my level higher to increase base salary and avoid peer jealousy. I was ‘promoted’ every 9-12 months for 5 years.
Was I one of the actual top talent unicorns? No. That was obvious. But I knew how to play the game—working on highly visible projects, prioritizing short-term wins, and stacking up massive technical debt along the way. And it worked. Year after year.
I watched the company and the culture sink. The best talent—those with actual insane domain knowledge who could do the work of 10+—all slowly walk away.
So I did too. Now, I’m at a competing startup, in a role where I don’t have to (yet) rely on playing a silly game to win.
If Jacob, that scoundrel, were serious about the competition, he would take care of his people better. This is when you need a very aggressive and engaged workforce. Now you have apathy. Do you think the AD-Sr. Director does the work around here??? Good luck with Roche!
The problem of competition is above my pay grade now. The AD and above folks can use their superior intellect to figure that one out. 🫡