Thread regarding Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) layoffs

I can only reply.... The Irony is screaming at us.... Can you not see it? For the love of God.

Get certified in software. Forget the hardware. open Source and the Cloud, it is screaming your name. Get prepared! Wait for it.... Wait for it.....

Nuff said.

The OP sums up what is wrong @ HPQ/HPE. There was a strategy started a few years back to only hire graduates (incl. mature graduates) and has been a complete failure. Those few experienced people who do the work are now not only still doing more and more work but also tasked to mentor (spoon feed) graduate hires. Apart from the very odd exception most grads in my opinion have not shown the work ethic needed to succeed and are thrown into roles they are unsuitable for then whine about not having any work to do yet when they are tasked with some work are mostly incapable of doing it and/or won't even try as they know they can get away with doing crap as the OP put it. HP has allowed this behaviour to fester as mgmt are largely clueless to what is going on and what skills are required.

To 3zoy:

My experience at HP was the opposite of what you recommend in your first 2 points:

1. I was recognized and rewarded when I asked for more work. Ranked a P+ that year. I can't understand why a manager would axe an an employee because they ask to take on more work. I suppose if the manager is insecure and vindictive that might be the case.

2. During the 2008 slowdown many of the engineers on my team took additional training - we were all reprimanded as that negatively skewed our productivity stats.

OP, you're getting paid to do nothing. What on earth are you complaining about?

Here's some random advice:

1) NEVER EVER EVER ask your boss for more work to do. If he had work to give to you, he would. I have personally managed employees when business was slow, and when I had employees that asked me for more work, it made me feel terrible. I've never laid anyone off, but you know how the saying goes, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." IE, if you keep asking for work, and there's no work to give, he might just send you packing

2) Fifteen years ago I had a job where work was very slow. There were ten of us on the team. Most of them played videogames all day, but a few of us spent our time studying and getting ready for the next gig. Those four dudes have helped me out immeasurably in my career, and I think it's largely because they saw that I used my time productively. (Over the years, they helped me get two job offers.)

3) If you REALLY have a lot of time to kill, you might consider talking to your boss and exploring whether you're allowed to work on the side. I've met a lot of people at HPE who have their own consulting businesses.

To be honest: don't wait for someone to tell you how to improve/what to learn.

Just go ahead and look for something you are interested in. Take the time for this. Work gets more enjoyable ;-). And this is not HPE specific. Even though I'm really busy usually, I take at least 3-4 hours a week for learning something I'm interested in.

Start looking for other positions. If you really dislike your job at HPE, apply for internal postings/ask for raises/make it clear you demand some sort of career growth and odds are you'll end up on the WFR list because you no longer fit the "passive, doesn't rock the boat" type of employee they like.

Less HPE specific advice - some managers ease newer employees into projects too slowly and have this expectation that you're constantly learning even if you don't have the responsibility. Most of my jobs have been like this, followed eventually by "hey you're not doing enough around here/you're not performing". After that it's sort of a sink or swim type situation, but if you end up swimming then all of a sudden you end up with all the responsibility you originally wanted.

Otherwise just start applying externally.

@KQbS7x8-zvz you're spot on career development. HPE talks a big game regarding your career but that's as far as it goes. I've actually been told by management that seeking a promotion would be a detriment because our customers wouldn't want to pay the higher rate commensurate with the higher job title.

We are all essentially independent contractors under the HPE umbrella. They want you to learn new technologies and get certified on your own dime so you look more attractive to customers, but they don't want to reward you for the effort and initiative. HPE is not the place to be if you want a gradual progression throughout your career.

Spend your free time studying for certification exams.

I've been there 9 years. It's normal. Huge emphasis on "career development" from management, but nowhere to go.

Yeah,,, did it for the better part of 6 years... the problem for me was that I could finish everything I had to do in 2 hours .. effectively I could work 1 day a week to do what I had to do but being on mindless calls 3, 4, 5 a day... craving to do something productive I started doing consulting... I have a friend who was in the same situation as you described and he moved to california and lived there for 4 years before his manager even knew he had moved... want to talk about disconnects? ... yeah if you're there a year and you don't feel productive start looking for something else because you'll just get depressed waiting to be appreciated... my management treated me as a task agent... just give me a task and forget about me for 6 months... then another task... and so on... never consulted for ideas or my experience... if its unfulfilling now it won't get any better... good luck to you... I got WFR'd and I am truly happy about it.

"Must be a FW engineer, The queue is at 83 today and usually is in the 30's. Call your boss. I do have down time during the day as well but more than made up for it on nights and weekends. Good luck."

Agreed. Don't get any downtime in the trenches. I would welcome some downtime to do a bit of study. All that is left to personal time. Can you honestly say everything runs smoothly in your area? Everything is documented in the global/team tools not in a personal workbook. DR scenarios tested/running optimal? I have yet to find a team that hasn't got its problems to fix.

I've been spending my downtime getting certifications and learning new technologies. I've also volunteered to work on some internal projects in order to get my name recognized within my organization and show that I'm willing to go the extra mile to help. These activities are intended to A) reduce my chance of being WFR'd, and B) prepare me for job interviews, of which I've had several over the past couple months.

OP here.

I've had numerous conversations with my manager asking for more projects. It's always the same story - yes yes yes and nothing happens or yes, here you go and I finish in a couple hours or couple days.

I work on other projects on the side but they aren't related to the job. They are for prepping for an interview in case I get WFR.

Meeting meetings meetings meetings to lay more folks off. Does anyone really accomplish anything in a meeting except to pawn off work to others or blame folks who are trying to do the job. People whose calendars are booked with meetings are like people who work in government. No one really would care if they would be gone.

Must be a FW engineer, The queue is at 83 today and usually is in the 30's. Call your boss. I do have down time during the day as well but more than made up for it on nights and weekends. Good luck.

I enjoy what I do at HPE. I really learned to enjoy it when I started "missing" meetings and instead was one of the ones actually doing something. It's amazing how many meetings you can miss that way (and how much more you can learn by doing). If you are just surfing while in meetings find a way to setup a server somewhere (under your desk with a Z series workstation, or a VM on your laptop) and learn instead of surfing.

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