Just attended the ATM for Servers today. They announced 250 layoffs in the organization which is approximately 5%. They said it’s a mixture of performance based and just cost cutting. With that being said, how do they typically decide? Who is most at risk?
I’m a mid-level engineer and am new to HPE. My only performance review so far has been good.
Do L3s decide who goes? Does HR decide? What’s the general process usually?
I believe the formula is minimal or moderate on your annual performance review. That's what happened in my teams. HR had the nerve to ask me to justify why these particular employees were laid off. I know one colleague who was WFR'd, and the manager asked the WFR'd employee, How would you reorganize the department? There's no plan, no strategy, no foresight, no prioritizing of projects, no preplanning, or plans for the remaining orgs.
I have a contractor and I'm being asked to justify the need for them. Ge-z I don't know, how about the WFRs from both last year and this year with the same work volume..?
This assumes that management is actually competent and understands what actually goes on at a team level. I promise you it is much more of a crapshoot than this.
Many people think contractors are the first people to consider. This is absolutely false. The company has many ways to keep contractors but cut their pay, such as furloughs or contract altercations. Not to mention, the company doesn’t pay for their benefits. The company can fire and hire contractors left and right with no repercussions.
The first people any large company would let go are people are those they deem redundant. A question I always ask myself is, “If I left the company, would they be able to adapt very quickly or would this team fall apart without me?” If the answer is, “They can adapt very quickly”, then your management has probably identified that already.
No, there are teams outside of "servers". That's my point. They report to a different structure. All you have to do is start with Wood and go downward in the workday hierarchy and see what I mean OR look up who someone in planning is assigned to at the executive level.
WFR targets have been cascaded down. Global Functions have a 10% reduction target. Businesses obviously much lower. Not sure about countries but US is always the bigger target in these things due to cost and ease.
@Ralph Fancher
Well, it was a Servers "all team meeting," so I'm assuming that includes all of the folks you mentioned. When Neil says there are approximately 5,000 people in Servers, I take it as 5,000 employees, not only technical.
Servers is just the technical team. You have Power supply team, supply chain, marketing, etc.
People they don't like are always high up the list...
Typically contractors first, people they don't like second, then the highest paid.
After that it might just be a crapshoot of performance or what tasks/projects you perform versus the next person
Just try your best to create a nest egg at this point, because they are unpredictable.
We saw them got the server team back in 2023 and send all of that to Bangalore with the exceptional few US based agents so you don't know what's next.
250 only from Servers? How many organisations are at HPE? They announced 2500 cuts globally….
Your L2 gets a dollar figure they need to meet or a percent of the group. There are times when the people picked makes no sense so don't over think it. I've seen stellar performers WFR'd but for the most part it's the slackers or people who are not liked by someone above them.