Monday, December 04, 2006

Assorted things

I always have several posts partially written. Right now I've got about five going, and you should some some of them here soon. In the meantime, a few miscellaneous items.

My Focalization posts were referenced in the Mini-Microsoft blog. This guy (or gal) writes a nice blog with many topics that are familar to those of us at Intel. I've added this blog to my short list of links to the right not because he referenced my blog a couple of times, but because I think many of you will enjoy reading it.

Intel just created a bunch of new VPs - 13 to be exact. I don't know how many VPs Intel now has but it seems like the percentage of VPs is increasing. As far as I can tell, these people aren't changing jobs or getting more responsibility. I'm not sure what the VP title means at Intel now. Is it just a retention tool? There were some frustration expressed on the internal blogs about promoting people who were likely responsible for creating the mess to required us to fire people (downsize) this year. I don't know what adding additional VPs means, if anything.

I added a feed for comments over there on the right, just below the feed for posts. Not sure why I didn't do this earlier, but now those of you using a reader can get comments there as well.

Some questions from the mailbox:

Q: why do you think it's ok to use people's names in your blog. Isn't that an invasion of their privacy?
A: I try to only use names of people who are already known publically. When I discuss the Intel CIO or other execs, they are already known. I won't intentionally mention any one by name who isn't a public figure. I suppose this puts the new IT VP on notice that his name my be showing up here. (I've never seen any behavior from this guy that I would use as an example of bad behavior here, so he's probably safe.)

Q: Why do you think you have the right to write this blog.
A: That's a good question. Part of my answer is another question: why do you think I don't have the right to write this blog? My goal is not to harm Intel, but to talk about working there openly. I won't reveal any secrets, and my goal isn't to cause Intel harm. Given that, I think it's reasonable for me to blog on these topics.

Q: Why are you blogging anonymously? Wouldn't your blog have more impact if Intel knew who you were?
A: I don't know if it would have more impact. I'm choosing to blog anonymously for several reasons, some of which I've written about. The bottom line is that I know there would negative consequences for some of my writing. There not be any formal HR action, but there would be negative reaction that would impact my career. I also don't want to spend time talking to other employees about this blog at work, for their sake as well as for mine. And lastly, if people knew that I was blogging it would likely impact my ability do my job. My management and others may choose not to share information with me for fear that it would end up here, and my ability to influence could be diminished. The bottom line is that I can see some downside and not upside to disclosing my identity.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. I think adding more VP's is just the lazy way of keeping from cutting the fat. Those are some of the very people that should be going. Just how many VP's does a company need?

2. I post anonymously because my much better half still works for your company and I would like for that to continue to be so. I will do absolutely nothing to jeopardize his job. I respect the man and his accomplishments too much.

3. Everyone has a right to post a blog. What kind of person would even ask that question? Do you need special permission? This is a free country. Intel doesn't discourage blogging, does it?

I think that you have a good thing going. Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

I may understand if the VPs were created for retention purposes, but why the need to announce it? It's pretty safe to say that there are more negative perceptions as a result of the promotions versus just keeping it under wraps.

Intel IT Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Intel IT Guy said...

(same comment - just fixed some typos.)

I haven't seen any comments from Intel on external blogging, so they aren't discouraging it to my knowledge. I do know that management would not be happy with me making some of these comments internally, so I have to assume they are not happy with me making them publicaly.

I think the VP announcement is helpful, and it may be a corporate requirement. They also announced new fellows and corporate officers. I would expect that if they didn't announce these there would accusations that they were trying to keep it secret. And I think the new VPs are entitled to the recognition they get from an announcement.

I don't have any problem with the new VPs, and the one I sort-of know I consider deserving of the title. My point was that I'm not quite sure what the title means at Intel.