Pieces Don't Fit Anymore

I've been having conversations with people recently about whether or not IT staff actually wants people to leave, and if their actions are encouraging them to do so. As I mentioned previously, attrition seems to be high. We're hearing that IT wants their employees to work at "hub" sites, and will be getting more restrictive about allowing people to work from home. Nobody really knows what this means yet. The impression by IT employees is that these changes will have some impact on convenience, flexibility and work/like balance. Are we being told that we need to work elsewhere if we want these perks?

Intel is unique for many reasons, and one of most unique features has been they way that many, if not most, employees approach their jobs. Intel instills sense of ownership for solving issues that most other companies do not. If there's a problem that is being caused elsewhere, you are expected to address it and to help resolve it. Everyone is expected to understand the strategic goals of their group and to help move toward them. This sense of ownership for items you don't directly control leads to a far better and more efficient solutions.

IT seems to be challenging some of these differences relative to other companies, primarily cost. Money is always and issue, and some IT managers are saying that the cost of IT at Intel is 5x that of other companies, such as Dell. It's possible that Intel spends more in IT than do other companies, but 5x is a ridiculous number. I haven't seen any evidence that shows this is an apples-to-apples comparison. This claim seems so outrageous that I've completely discounted it as propaganda. I discussed some of the pitfalls of comparing our IT spending to other IT shops here.

I have a friend who left Intel a couple of weeks ago to go work for Nike. In this short time he's already seen a dramatic difference in attitudes between the two. Practically no IT people at Nike have laptops. When he asked about it the answer was "why would you want a laptop?" The idea of working from home, or being able to connect and work flexible hours, or longer hours, is foreign to them. I'm not saying that IT people at Nike don't work hard, just that their mind-set isn't to be able to work from anywhere, anytime like it is at Intel. I believe Intel gets a large benefit by allowing people to work remotely: they will often work an extra hour in the morning or evening because they can, and because it's beneficial for their job schedule or that of others. It's a lot easier to call into a 7:00am meeting from home than from the office.

Another difference my Nike friend pointed out was that IT folks at Nike seem to be less invested. Nike appears to be more of a classic IT shop than Intel, where people tend to work with business groups in a more segregated manner. This isn't bad, it's just different, and it isn't Intel. And if you look at costs, it might even be cheaper. But it requires a service attitude rather than one of ownership. It allows people to say "not my problem" when something isn't in fact their specific problem. It allows people to literally work 8-5 and not worry about whether or not their work is helping to drive strategic goals, or if IT is going to hit their quarterly indicators.

My concern is that by moving to a more traditional, less flexible working environment, we're going to retain only the more traditional, less flexible people in IT. Do we want a group populated by people who don't take their work home with them, who don't drive as hard to solve problems, and who don't reach across other groups to solve problems? I would encourage IT staff to think hard about what the long term outcome of these changes could be.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

If life seems jolly rotten,
There's something you've forgotten,
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.

I'm working on about 5 other posts for this blog. When I took a step back and looked at them, they all seem to be critical and negative. This is probably what you expect to read in an anonymous employee blog about a large company, which is unfortunate. I don't want to post only negative items, and I don't feel only negatively about Intel. If I did I wouldn't be working there.

So why so many negative thoughts? I think it's because they're kind of backed up. We don't get to vent at Intel the way we used to. At least I don't. As I mentioned in my last post, at some point it became unacceptable and potentially career limiting, so I stopped doing it.

I generally like working at Intel. I have liked it more than I do now, and I've liked it less. But after more than a few years I still find it a good (if not great) company to work for. I get to work with a lot of smart people, and a few brilliant ones. I get to learn a lot. I get exposed to a lot of cool technology. I have some good friends here. And overall most people work hard and try to do the right thing. To have a company this large that has this many bright, hard working people is surprising, and one of the things that keeps me here. And my fondness for the company and the people is one of the reasons I fell compelled to write about it, especially now.

And Intel's processors are back on top! (I wish I could say that I helped this happen, but I didn't.) Core 2 Duo rocks! I'll admit to having a huge bias toward Intel processors, but from what I'm reading the Core 2 Duo processors are fantastic. I don't have one yet, but I did order my 6600 yesterday. They appear to run great out of the box, and people are overclocking the crap out of these things. There are some availability issues, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing if it gets solved before the holiday buying season. This is a great example of what Intel is good at.

The core of the company is solid, even though the stock price sucks. For those of us with older Intel options, it really sucks. But if you look at the financials, Intel is still doing well. Most companies can only dream about making the money that Intel does.

So overall I feel lucky to be working here, and I like the company. I may not be the most gruntled (go ahead and look it up if you don't believe me) guy at Intel, but I'm far from the most disgruntled. Thanks for letting me indulge in a little positive balance before some other critical posts.