Cut a long story short. I left last year during the whole split shenanigans. All my colleagues that were based in Germany and USA were already told which company they'd be working for once the split, when I asked my manager (I'm based in UK) I was simply told to "keep your head down. Keep working and we'll let you know". days turned to months and we never received any word. Meanwhile, my manager was temporarily relocated to Czech to start up and train new employees there. You seeing the bigger picture now? I was just told to work work work and there I was panicking if I'll even have a job tomorrow. My request to move department? denied. My request to relocate to another office abroad? denied. My request for training and try something different? also denied. "Just focus on your work" I was told. So I left and took up another job. Fun fact: I still remember the change in tone from my manager when I handed in my leaving notice after asking one last time to relocate. It was almost like like flipped a switch and his usual high-pitched motivational bull**** tone turned into a monotone dull robotic one when he said "Oh, that's a shame". Not even a retention salary offer, position or even exit interview was given. Didn't matter anyway, I never looked back at that hellhole.
So here's what I realised about HPE since I left now that I can look at it form the outside.
1.) Work colleagues were selfish, arrogant, rude and difficult people to work with. Of course there were a few exceptions but since I left to a job where people respected each other, I only discovered how nasty some of the people were in HP. People talking behind other people's backs, people refusing to work and travel other people and getting away with it too because they were drinking buddies with the manager, shouting, bullying, casual use of racist/sexist and homophobic jokes, constantly playing the blame game (once spent 1 hour in a meeting where people were blaming each other instead of actually finding a solution to the problem), wreckless use of company expenses (excessive alcohol, food consumption) because the manager was best buds, nepotism, I could go on and on. Just lifers who are stuck in their jobs hoping not to get redundant so they play tough and be a **** to everyone else. I noticed that working people outside of HP were always responsible for their actions; in HP?? haha, no chance. Place was just shambolic. One of the constantly terrible things I had to encounter endlessly was being put on a project without a spec and being labelled as "incompetent" by a clique of stubborn people even though they refuse to hand over any document and/or knowledge. Horrible. Now at my current job? I work with fascinating, interesting people who share knowledge, help out during difficult times and are all motivated to work on projects that they're passionate about. I doubt there was anyone in HP was ultra passionate about lining up Meg's pockets.
2.) Meg and her henchmen are absolutely delusional. Their monthly emails, webcasts and statements of "Things are turning round. Just keep working. Together we can raise the stock price. We can do it!" is just nonsense. The way the company is structured, your role is not going to make any difference whatsoever. Doesn't even matter if you were giving your all-best. During my time at HP, projects were always delayed and cancelled. Hardly anyone met deadlines and hardly anyone...cared really. Currently in my role, I feel like I have responsibility to make things better and help out. I can easily speak to the director and my opinion will be taken into consideration. Through various company incentives (team bonding events, celebration night outs after projects are completed or milestone reached, expos, trips abroad, free drinks/food at office, casual wear everyday, same annual bonus percentage for all employees (no favouritism thank goodness), TRAINING) I feel the company also cares about my development and through that they're investing in their employees' future. I'm getting involved and training in something I've always wanted to learn (mobile app development) and my new company is helping me with that. Did HP ever provide decent training or incentives? Goodness me, they didn't. I still remember the horrific time I was told to work 5pm to midnight in order to attend a US-based "virtual classroom" training session about some nonsensical useless HP software that was thrown away the following year. Conclusion, HP didn't give a flying **** about you or your career development.
3.) I'm a lot healthier now. During my last 2 years in HP, I was beyond stressed, depressed, my partner would say I look exhausted and lifeless, I felt anxious, lifeless and everyday after work I needed at least 1 hour to disconnect from my worries and at least try to enjoy my evenings....if I'm not told to stay in late for no overtime pay. Now? I leave work at a normal hour, I took up sports with my work colleagues, I get home happy and I've never felt any better.
4.) There will always be something better outside HP. When I was in HP, I felt incredibly trapped because I assumed that looking for another job would be difficult. That there was nothing better elsewhere and that I should learn to put up with my job. "Maybe I'll get better" I'd always say...hoping that I'd get put in a better position or my salary would suddenly increase. Well, I have now learned that there's always a better place outside of that hellhole. Not only am I getting paid a lot more now then a I was when I was there but I'm being appreciated, I got a promotion after my probationary period, I've already learned more useful, widely used technical skills in 1 year then I did during my entire time in HP (because of their old-fashioned, backwards, "Its the HP Way" methods). It also dawned to me that had I was offered a retention salary increase at HP it probably wouldn't help much anyway. I learned that the importance of being happy at the workplace.
5.) I'm never going back to working for HP or any other corporation ever. There was literally nothing glamorous and prestigious about working for a renowned "tech corporation" like HP. HP is a failing company that's slowly crawling towards bankruptcy and it's blatantly obvious that Meg is gearing up the company to sell it to another corporation so she can get her leaving bonus and walk away from it all. From my time since I started, I have barely seen any innovation or amazing HP products that captured people's attention, the "valuable" HP Brand is associated with mediocrity (My HP printer sucks. My HP laptop broke after a year. My company's contract with HP is not getting renewed next year. They're terrible). HP as a tech company is a dinosaur compared to the new tech companies around. They're not adapting to any IT or computing trends and even if they are they're always a million years behind (Cloud anyone?). If you have a valuable current technical skill then it's almost wasted in HP because they'd rather outsource it to Asia for a lot cheaper.
So there you go. That's my experience. If you're looking for a way out. Pursue it. Take a chance and look for work elsewhere and see how much you're REALLY worth. If you're a current HP worker and you don't agree with what I've stated above then you're probably either lucky you're in a decent position/office or you're drowning in the kool-aid. Whichever it is, I hope you're happy.