I'm there now in HP and they are looking to chop heads again.
They are not looking at skill level or knowledge, strictly the bottom line. You work so many hours to make nonsensical decisions a reality and they change again when they realize that is not the correct path and we go back on the hamster wheel to march to the next poor decision.
Then, thanks for all your work but you are laid off.
Spoken like a soon to be WFR'd manager
Stop whining! If u hate hp so much then leave!
Please stop whining and move on, seriously. It's not like we here at HP and HPE are a premium super cool employer nowdays, you come here if you have no other options - so, if you do not like it, move on, you'll be able to find something relatively good fairly quickly...
IT is not going anywhere, the skills may change, the technology may change, but you will need IT folks forever, as everything is technology driven. Today, even more so...
Some folks had it really good so far as they were able to command high wages for relatively straightforward skills and effort, if you are configuring a web server there should be no reason for you to be paid 5 times more than a store workers, you don't need a degree for that, you are doing a commodity work and if a monkey somewhere offshore can do it for a fistful of banana chips, why would I pay you a six figure salary here.
But, if you are doing cutting edge digital stuff, or if you are doing some sophisticated stuff, OK, we have work for you, you will be busy and you will be paid.