Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Blog's Labours Lost

I was writing a long post about managers admitting mistakes. I had it 90% done but did something stupid and lost it. I am apparently destined to re-learn the lesson about saving drafts of my work many times. I'll get it rewritten in a day or two, and for now will share a few other items.

There was an interesting article about Intel culture in the Oregonian a couple of weeks ago. It's a good article, but I don't agree with all of it. It's a short read.

Traffic to this site is fairly low. But I'm still surprised to be getting any traffic at all. The visitors I am getting can probably be attributed to the generosity of Josh and PentrinoVI IV. I thanked them both privately for mentioning this blog on theirs, but wanted to do so publicly as well. Thanks guys! I recommend checking both their blogs if you haven't yet (they have permanent links in my Other Interesting Blogs section).

Things are starting to heat up as we approach the next round of cuts. I've had several conversations lately with people from one sub-group that is going to get hit hard. (I'm choosing not to say which group out of respect for them.) They've all be told that about 75% of their ~100 person group is going to get laid off, and they don't know yet who will be keeping their jobs. These guys know their chances are not good, and are scrambling to line up temporary assignments or find something outside of Intel. Most impressive is that the people I've spoken to are philosophical about it. They all want to find something else, but none of them are angry or bitter. Real pros, these guys.

We'll see more and more of this over the next couple of weeks. Some people will take it in stride, some won't. No one way of reacting or handling this situation is better than another. Those who are laid off need to get through it the best way they can. Most people just want to work and go home to their families. I don't have any sage advice to offer. As I said in a comment to a previous post, this is hard on everyone at Intel, and doubly so when you start seeing people you know and like being impacted.

I appreciate you reading, and especially appreciate the comments I've gotten. I had originally posted a longer version the "Don't Speak" post which read much better and had more impact, but I thought it was too long and whittled it down. Someone had read the original before I edited it, and commented that they were unimpressed with shorter version. So going forward I'll worry more about content than length. Let me know what you think and I'll consider making adjustments.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Inquirer: "Intel stealth hiring spree outed"

Amazing to me that these guys misread the market or misjudged the hiring so badly.

Check this out:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34455

Anonymous said...

I agree about how hard it is to see people impacted. I've been here 17 years and my manager is the poster child for modelling Intel values. He's been here over 25 years. I've been a manager for 10 years myself (he made me a manager back then). Now I'm hearing rumors they will let him go and keep me. What a joke. He taught me everything I know. There is no rational to this process. Maybe they know if they release him, that I will leave too. I'd trade spots with him in a heartbeat. I'd rather see them clear out the top 3 levels of IT. That would lead to changes. All we're going to get is more of the same.

Josh Bancroft said...

I learn next week what my fate will be. I still go back and forth from being anxious about what will happen, and calm and self-possessed about it.

I guess it will depend which of those states I'm in when I go into the ominous meeting with my manager. :-)

Anonymous said...

Josh - that would be stupid to let Intel's most recognizable blogging entity go - hopefully they are smarter than that. we find out this week or next as well in my group what the news and plan will be - I am ready for the news to be here - bad or good - let's just start dealing with reality rather than rumors.

Anonymous said...

The culture article, I think was the same blah blah blah I've heard at Intel for 7 years. Get over it, cultures change, culture adapts. People who celebrate the 'good old days' only do so because they were comfortable in that particular style of work. There are many ways to meet and end result. The reality is that Intel had really good and really bad times in the 'old culture' and the 'new culture.' So to point the finger at culture as the cause is just bs. It is a way for people to dodge the bad busines decisions that were made, or even the good ones that were made but just didn't work out.