What happened to the great company I joined a decade ago?
8 replies (most recent on top)
'great company'?
Peter Principal
I joined when Mike and Steve were still running the place. While there were judgment lapses, at least they were human beings, you could talk to them, and you felt like they at least pretended to value your opinion. So many changes need to be made on both Flash and HDD sides that the only way it will get rectified is a clean sweep of the Cisco Mafia. Both the first string and the second string.
I joined in 2008, even with HGST at the helm things were rough, but I felt they were more fair and business driven decisions. A couple things happened from the HDD side... we exchanged the asian dynasty with the Indian dynasty (In some cases 14 levels deep), the Cisco brats moved in, the previous engineering group went all in on MAMR meanwhile seagate chugged along with HAMR, executives wanted the Fremont site to get up to speed, but they performed like GO's step child that fell out of a tree on their head. The reason GO was successful was that it was always manufacturing at the helm making decisions, Fremont was engineer driven. They were also stubborn and did not adopt strategies properly. The executives like Fremonts location and newer buildings. WD bought HGST because their technology road map was not sufficient, but they were cash heavy. Looking at WD now, it's full of worthless middle management promoted way beyond their capabilities. Most managers couldn't even tell you what one of their mfg equipment actually does. The organizations became top heavy, engineering groups played the tribal knowledge game to protect their low skillsets, managers started hiring based on racial preferences and nepotistic values... The worst of it all, the seniors are heading out and little to no effort was emphasized on grooming the next generation. Good luck with future product and quality. Buying SanDisk probably wasn't the smartest idea, especially for the price. They neglected HDD which was financially floating the company until their distant rival Seagate became relevant. Their outsourcing strategy was the nail in the coffin for fab support... HDD wafers are some of the most complex wafers to make... some have ~2000 steps... the main reason the wafer fabs remained US based. They were unable to reliably reproduce in Mexico and Japan.
I joined WD in 2018. Since then culture is sh-t. There was lots of bulying and intimidation and abuse in my team
Workplace culture starts at the top. And thin times bring stress. Couple those together and you get this radioactive dump.
This company has always had its spots of toxicity, too many people not to. But damn, these past two years hit differently. And the ultimate blame really does rest with the executive leadership.
Their actions (or inaction(s)) have made this place historically unprofitable, driven away almost all remaining talent that can be driven away (just us masochists now), and honestly it isn’t clear to me how the business isn’t bankrupt in 18 mo or less.
WD has been good to me, even in slim times. It’s been really depressing watching a bunch of children break the shiny new toy the BoD gave them. I hope WD pulls through, but I also don’t care anymore. The place I knew is dead and I’m done mourning.
It was already sh-t before DG
Something called DG came in. That is what happened