Thread regarding VMware layoffs

They are non-technical folks hired as part of useless scrum mania.

The question answers itself.

As an owner, I’d like to have not useless employees.

What will happen to so many Product Owners who are in BizOps ? They are non-technical folks hired as part of useless scrum mania. Some of them even don’t know how to write decent user story.

Its like upside down pyramid in some orgs, it took a hyper-capitalist, profit above all company to prevent it from tipping over

For those freaking the F out, next time you get 1.5 years notice that your company is being taken over by private equity style vultures, start looking for a job right away.

"Instead of 10 direct reports, they'll have 30."

Not according to Broadcom's employment data. It's closer to 1 manager for every 10 employees on average. Where is this 30 or 40 number coming from? There must be teams with 2-5 employees for every manager to offset this exception.

"Here' s the thing, filling your week with attending internal meetings and reading your inbound email is not a job, those are tasks. At Broadcom each employee must produce 'something' of substantive value"

Everything!!!! is on a go-slow at the moment. Whilst I would love to continue to drive change and move forward, all efforts are quashed by leadership.

1st half extremely busy/2nd half seems much slower; perhaps intentionally?

@amz+1oTquqRd

You are so right. It is this part that people are missing. The habit of stealing thought leadership only confounds this. Dog eat dog, going forward. For the thieves.. well you will drown. No faking’. No more.

Here' s the thing, filling your week with attending internal meetings and reading your inbound email is not a job, those are tasks. At Broadcom each employee must produce 'something' of substantive value.

Be prepared to describe how you deliver meaningful value to the business. Nobody cares how popular you are, or if a VMW VP wants to protect you from the layoff. Game over!

The managerial structure will be four levels
H - Hock
O - VP/Exec
C - Manager
K- You

Post-acquisition structure will be much flatter than the current VMware structure. They already identified some of the re-structure post-acquisition. Renewals, Commercial, Partners and OEM will all report to Cynthia Lloyd at Broadcom who reports directly to Hock. They are taking VMware VP’s and removing 1-2 layers between them and Hock in the new org structure, and removing most layers beneath them to the lower level employees. Gone are the days of having 6 levels of oversight before you get to the CEO. You will be looking at 3-4 levels of leadership max, after October 30th.

"Flatten the hierarchy, and individual contributors should report in large numbers to Broadcom leaders."

I agree, based on my experience with managers who have been with the company for more than a decade. Over the last two years at VMW I have wasted time and effort trying to convince our marketing management to evolve and catch up to the recognized market leaders. We need more open-minded middle managers, not just executive leadership.

You think you wont have a manager at BCOM? You think things will be better?
It will all be over soon priest, ssshhhh

Current individual contributors ... do not need managers.

I laughed. I understand that there are different types of managers and responsibilities, but this comes across as ICs want to stay hidden in the basement and just be left to do their job without interruption.

That may have flown in VMware, but not in BC. There is a magnifying glass on everyone, especially the most seasoned IC. You will not be able to blend into the background. So either you will spend hours of your week writing justifications for why you're doing the work you're doing, and its business impact, or you have a manager do it for you while you work.

Flatter orgs mean managers with more responsibilities. Instead of 10 direct reports, they'll have 30. Instead of one main project, it'll be three. While it'll be great to have more 1:1 time with someone who has authority, you'll now be just one time slot out of 20 1:1s that a manager has any given week.

This is not to say that we need stacked hierarchy. There is dysfunction in many BUs in both directions. Sr. Managers who do nothing but take status reports and put them in a PPT. Or, Managers of 10 ICs who are managing the budget for a team of 40 while negotiating $1M transaction deals and reporting their team's work directly to the VP.

Neither is a great solution. Flat just means cheaper. Cheaper means more shareholder benefit. What benefits ICs is not a concern in BC.

There are enough complaints like this that show there is some BU in VMW that is in serious need of revamping. I hope BC gives it to them. But don't believe that such is the standard across VMW. Hoping that BC will fix a problem that only exists in a percentage of the company works for you, not others.

Director here, not in engineering. Stop generalizing. You can ask any of my directs and they would tell you the exact opposite. There is no toxicity at all and I deeply care about my team. It sücks to be so powerless, not being able to save them or at least prepare them since BC doesn’t tell us anything, not even our VP.

There is so much toxicity and nepotism between the ICs as well, in R%D definitely so. These need to be addressed at the highest priority as well

I'm not noticing around the toxicity you are referring to from middle managements but in general I agree with you, at our level (very indipendent technical guys with a lot of years of experience) we should directly report at least to a Senior Manager with high responsability or a Director.

Lower management usually can't / does't have the visibility, connections ecc ecc... to really help you with your career goals or even they often don't have the knowledge on what is happening upstairs.

Almost certainly they can't even help you with the technical issues you are having.

So most of the time lower management is simply useless/un-effecting.
It is basically a 1:1 every two weeks where the discussion is.
Hi! Hi! How are you? Pretty fine thanks! How's in going the job? Very well thanks. Is there anything I can do for you? Not really. Bye Bye! Take care!

It's also a way for Directors/Senior Managers to simply discharge the responsability they have on some people.