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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:	The Digital way of working

Moderator:	QUARK::LIONELON

Created:	Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5321
Total number of notes:	139771

1504.0. "Roberta Fox's memo on Chelmsford "downsizing"" by DR::BLINN (What is the meaning of lif?) Thu Jun 20 1991 07:14

        This memo is posted with the implicit permission of the author, to
        whom a copy of this note has been sent.  Posting was requested by
        a conference participant, who wished to remain anonymous.  If you
        circulate it further, please honor the author's wishes and do not
        remove the initial message header.  An earlier posting without the
        original author's original headers has been deleted, since taking
        off the headers against the author's wishes violates corporate
        Personnel Policies & Procedures section 6.54 (VTX ORANGEBOOK).
        
        Tom
        Digital co-moderator
        
From:	CADSE::CADSE::FOX "Roberta L. Fox, CTC1-2/K4 DTN 287-3397"
Sent:	18-Jun-1991 1011 	Received: 18-JUN-1991 10:16:43.28
To:	@USER$LIST:3MA
CC:	
Subj:	One person's perspective

Folks,

I wrote the following as a stress-reduction exercise.  I used to write
for a newspaper, and am used to that style.

Permission to forward internally within DIGITAL for non-commercial use 
is hereby granted, provided that this header, the security classification, 
and the copyright notice remain attached.

		***** DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY *****

		CTC EMPLOYEES MEET THE 'NEW DIGITAL'

	One hundred Digital Employees lose their jobs -- they think.

			) 1991  Roberta L. Fox


	It was 9:27 on June 13th, and Mike Taylor, Manager of  the CE/CALS
Organization at Digital Equipment Corp., was about to wrap up his one hour
presentation to one hundred new reports, when a senior member of the technical
staff asked one last question.
	"I'm very impressed with your cogent discussion of your technical and
business plans.  I'm even more impressed," she continued, "that, in the 55
minutes of your presentation, not once did you mention our 100 "unfunded"
colleagues who were pointedly not invited to this meeting, and who
don't know what will happen to them on June 28th."
	Originally scheduled to leave at 9:30, Mr. Taylor remained for more
than an hour to listen as, one by one, members of the "funded" CAD/CAM
Technology Center (CTC) voiced their pain and outrage at the fate that had
befallen their co-workers, some of whom had worked with them for ten years or
more.
	Both Mr. Taylor, and Sunil Bhalla, new site manager for CTC, expressed
surprise at the depth of feeling on the part of employees whose jobs were
considered secure for the next fiscal year. The unusual display of emotion was
the culmination of employee dissatisfaction with CTC management that had been
building for several months.  But its immediate cause was the perception that
middle management at Digital was treating long-time, productive employees with
callous disregard during a 50% cutback in staffing at the Chelmsford,
Massachusetts facility.

                     CUTBACKS NO SURPRISE

	Everyone at the 200 person facility knew that their site was
vulnerable to staffing cutbacks, or, in Digital parlance, "downsizing."
Cutbacks were occurring throughout the company, as a series of successively
less generous "severance packages" were given to those who left, either
voluntarily or involuntarily.  The CTC site manager, Dick Anderson, had
decided not to participate in the most rewarding of these severance plans,
TFSO I and TFSO II, in the hope that he could keep the site together.  But in
January of 1991, "ownership" of CTC was assigned to David Stone, VP of The New
Software Group, who sternly reminded Mr. Anderson and the rest of CTC that
head count must be lowered.  Predictions were made that between 10 and 30 CTC
employees  would be sent packing.

		  ELEPHANT LABORS MIGHTILY; PRODUCES MOUSE

	The management team got to work, and, after approximately two months
of analysis, rendered its headcount verdict:  five people were given a few
hours to pack their personal belongings, and were whisked to the door without
a chance to say goodbye.  The rest were called into a meeting with Mr.
Anderson,  and led to believe that, at least for the rest of the quarter,
everyone else was safe.  "I couldn't understand it," said one young support
specialist, "how much savings could eliminating five people accomplish?"
	Several looked at what scant fiscal information had been shared with
non-management staff, and started to worry.  It was clear, given the numbers,
that CTC was still way over head count.  Many revised their resumes and cut
back on their personal expenditures; a few even put their houses on the market
with the intent of "buying down" to a lower priced home.

		ANOTHER SHOE DROPS

	On May 29, 1991, Mr. Anderson circulated a memo with startling news:
as of July 1st, the CTC organization was to report to Mike Taylor, who, like
Mr. Anderson, reports directly to David Stone.  Until then, Mr. Anderson
stated, he would be continuing to work on getting FY 92 funding, but, he
added, "I will not be transferring with the group."
	Many regarded the wholesale transfer as a puzzle.  The CALS/CE
Program Office has its major focus on external business and new software
product development; more than half the CTC employees are assigned to
providing software services to meet Digital's internal hardware development
and manufacturing needs.  The managers of these services continued working to
get  FY 92 funding under the New Management System, which mandated a contract
in hand by June 29, rather than allowing for the "gentleman's handshake" of
previous years.
	"It's been very hard to secure funding from other internal
organizations," explained one such manager, "they themselves don't know what
their funding will be on June 29th, so they can't, in turn, make commitments
to us.  Some of our customers are waiting to see what other of our customers
are going to do; if we don't have 'critical mass', they don't want to be left
holding the bag."

		"AN INVITATION TO A MEETING"

	Late in the afternoon, on Tuesday, June 4th, about one hundred CTC
employees, half the facility's  population, received a message in their
electronic mail:  they were invited to a meeting scheduled for 4 p.m.   There
they were told that their job positions were currently "unfunded", and that,
while there was still hope that additional funding would be found, there were
no guarantees.  Thus, they were being given three and a half weeks to look for
another job, either by internal transfer or outside the company.  A resume
writing and interviewing technique session would be offered, and a job fair
organized.  The question of what would happen to those employees unable to
find a job in that limited time, and whether they, too, would be given the
current severance package, went unanswered.
	News of the meeting swept through the facility, and, by Wednesday
morning, those who were not "on the list" [told to find a new job], were busy
helping those who were.  "I'm devoting almost all my time at work helping my
co-workers revise their resumes, writing letters of recommendation, and
calling contacts at other sites for job leads for them," said one software
engineer whose position was still funded.  "I went to the job fair on Tuesday
to look around for myself, but ended up mostly trying to find matches
between my "unfunded" co-workers and the job recruiters."
	Many of the "funded" employees decided to go looking, too. "No funding
is yet set in concrete, including mine," explained one senior software
engineer, "I want to be ready, in case they tell me on June 28th to pack up my
office and go. "

			THE UNANSWERED QUESTION

	What will happen to those unlucky enough not to have found a job by
June 28th remained unclear.  Repeated attempts to get personnel
representatives or CTC's management team to explain the process failed.  At
first, the explanation that the decision to call the meeting had
occurred too swiftly for Personnel to catch up was reluctantly accepted, but
as the days wore on, CTC employees, both "funded" and "unfunded", became
increasingly anxious.  "I just want to know what is going to happen to me if I
can't find a job," bemoaned one "unfunded" employee, "am I going to be given
the same severance package as everyone else has gotten this quarter, or
am I just going to be given two weeks in lieu of notice?"  Some feared that
the severance would occur on July 1st, in the new Fiscal Year, when, it was
predicted, the severance package would be even less generous.

			"WRITING THEM OFF"

	In the midst of the confusion, it was announced that Sunil Bhalla
would be taking over as site manager for CTC.  His first public communication,
to start the process of realigning the facility's organization within the
CE/CALS structure, alienated many "funded" employees by his limited
distribution of the memo: "This note is going out to all those people who are
currently assigned to funded projects, and all managers/supervisors."  Said
one supervisor, "the message I read here is that Sunil has written off the
employees who are 'on the list', as if they have nothing further to
contribute."  Consistent with this memo, only those employees identified as
funded were invited to the Thursday morning meeting, to meet their new boss,
Mr. Taylor.
	Mr. Taylor found he was meeting a severely demoralized workforce, which
was skeptical of him, Mr. Bhalla, and Digital Personnel.  "It's been eight
days since CTC announced the funding situation, and still management says it
doesn't know what is going to happen to our fellow employees on July 28th,"
stated one engineer. "This leads me to wonder: do you _really_ not know, in
which case, why should we trust you to lead us in the future, or do you know
and aren't telling us, in which case, why should we trust you at all?"
Meeting participants relentlessly pursued the issue, trying to get Mr. Taylor,
Mr. Bhalla, or the two Personnel representatives to address the question, to
no avail.
	"You know, Mike", said a very senior engineer, "I came to this meeting
with the attitude that I was going to use it like an interview, to determine
whether _I_ want to work for _you_.  So far, I am not impressed."
	Mr. Taylor claimed he was uninformed on the issue, as he had just
taken over the group, but that he would meet immediately with Mr. Bhalla and
Personnel representatives.  Mr. Bhalla committed to conducting another
meeting, to which all CTC employees would be invited, the next day.  At that
meeting, he promised, "more information would be available."

		"KUMBAYA, MY LORD"

	But any hopes that more information on the status of the "unfunded"
employees would be forthcoming were dashed. Mr. Bhalla and Mr. Taylor listed
the projects that were funded, were non-committal on the new organizational
structure, and spent some time trying to assure employees that they,
personally, cared about them. And they had no news about employee status.
	Paul Saschuk of Personnel informed the group that he had made copies
of the current "transition [severance] package, which they could look at.  "We
know what is in the package," countered one employee, "but what we don't know
is whether we will be given it.  Can we assume that we will be given it if we
haven't found new jobs by June 28th?"
	"I don't know, I can't tell you, the decision hasn't been made yet,"
returned Mr. Saschuk.
	"Who is making the decision?" he was asked.  The question was
repeated, without an answer, several times before Mr. Taylor stood up to
explain that the decision was being made by a team composed of CTC management,
people from David Stone's organization, and the Corporate Transition
organization.  But he refused to divulge the names of the individuals
involved, despite repeated requests to do so.
	After the meeting, some participants expressed disgust.  "I guess they
[management] hoped for the meeting that we would get in a circle, hold hands,
and sing, 'Kumbaya, My Lord'," an "unfunded" employee said, "there certainly
wasn't anything new to tell us."  "I don't understand it," a supervisor added,
"they probably know, but have been told not to tell us.  But I never heard of
an employee forbidden to say that he knows, but can't tell us."
	Employee morale continues to be low, with many more people --
including several deemed critical to the long-term success of CE/CALS --
planning to look elsewhere for employment.  "I don't want to work for these
guys," said a long-time employee.  "I predict that, within six months, at least
half of the 'funded' employees will have chosen to go elsewhere," opined
another.  And still others wonder whether any statements from Mr. Taylor and
his staff can be believed, no matter how reassuring.
	"Funded" and "unfunded" employees alike are awaiting further
developments.   But they know that they don't have long to wait -- June 28th
is less than two weeks away.


		***** DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY *****



------- End of Forwarded Message

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1504.1		ASICS::LESLIE	Andy Leslie	`Thu Jun 20 1991 04:21`	13
	Despite the bottom line of DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY, I predict this gets out to the press. I've now seen it in several mail messages and the distribution must by now be to over 25% of the corporation. Anyhow.... Folks, you have our sympathies. This is neither the first, nor the last, time that such incidents will occur. I'd be using the Open Door Policy - and looking hard for a new job. - andy
1504.2	Another wonderful day in the neighborhood	SHRCAL::MORRILL		`Thu Jun 20 1991 08:22`	10
	With things like this going on, it's no wonder morale is at an all time low. From what I have heard from friends in CTC, management failed to go after funding until the last minute...AFTER all budgeting was over... IMHO sounds like the modern "DEC LEADERSHIP" at it's finest. Because of a few details...a lot of people suffer. dlm
1504.3	I wondered about those resumes'	TPS::BUTCHART	TP Systems Performance	`Thu Jun 20 1991 08:53`	8
	re .1 I wondered why I had a large bunch of Chelmsford-based resumes' in my mail from the past 2-3 days. Now that I've seen this, I understand. I also think we have an excellent opportunity to lighten ship by a number of obviously overpaid upper managers here... /Dave
1504.4	and the innocent shall suffer...	VSSCAD::MARCOTTE	DOES ANYONE REALLY CARE....�	`Thu Jun 20 1991 09:33`	17
	>================================================================================ >Note 1504.2 Roberta Fox's memo on Chelmsford "downsizing" 2 of 3 >SHRCAL::MORRILL 10 lines 20-JUN-1991 07:22 >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > -< Another wonderful day in the neighborhood >- > > With things like this going on, it's no wonder morale is at an all >time low. > > From what I have heard from friends in CTC, management failed to >go after funding until the last minute...AFTER all budgeting was over... > > IMHO sounds like the modern "DEC LEADERSHIP" at it's finest. Because >of a few details...a lot of people suffer. > > dlm >
1504.5	How to dismantle a billion dollar corporation	DIEHRD::PASQUALE		`Thu Jun 20 1991 10:00`	4
	this sickens me. I certainly hope that this gets some well needed visibility at Ken's level. Then again it's not clear that anything would happen anyway. Yet another clear example of why we're in the mess that we're in.
1504.6	Where's Anderson?	GLDOA::ESLINGER	Never Say Never	`Thu Jun 20 1991 15:08`	1
	So what happened to Dick Anderson?
1504.7	They also serve who stand and WRITE!!	ABACUS::CLOUD		`Fri Jun 21 1991 09:58`	2
	Define Roberta_Fox CTC::GUTS !!!
1504.8	UPI: DEC Imploded yesterday........	COOKIE::LENNARD	Rush Limbaugh, I Luv Ya Guy	`Fri Jun 21 1991 13:30`	8
	David Stone...our newest White Knight, ought to be personally dealing with this situation, and management heads should be rolling all the way to the unemployment office. This is truly disgusting! Only DEC (and perhaps a USSR government ministry) could screw things up this bad. Senior "management", and I do mean SENIOR!!! had better wake up very, very quickly. See where the Apple President took a 15% pay cut. Interesting.
1504.9		VCSESU::MOSHER::COOK	Stormtrooper of Death	`Fri Jun 21 1991 16:54`	5
	I don't know about Stone handling it. If they don't play Chess, they're doomed. /prc
1504.10		GIAMEM::ROSE		`Sat Jun 22 1991 10:07`	8
	re: .0 Thank you for entering this note - I don't know when I've read one that influenced me more. It was like looking at what I still thought was "Digital," only to find it gone. Virginia
1504.11		CADSE::WONG	The wong one	`Sun Jun 23 1991 01:41`	34
	RE: from before... One of the problems that CTC suffers from is the fact that it is highly dependent upon funding from other organizations. Until they commit to fund various projects, the people at CTC cannot finalize their budget because they won't know where they're money is coming from until everyone else is done. By that time (particularly in this case), it's too late. CTC in its present form provides a service and is of value to the corporation as a whole. It deals with outside and inside customers. Unfortunately, the New Managment System forces the individual groups to fund the work at CTC; different groups will want different things and will fund only the things their group will need. In some cases, that need is narrowly focused. CTC needs corporate recognition of what it provides to the company and figure out how to fund the work done there and leave out the politics involved with dealing with other organizations. CTC as a whole transferred to Mike Taylor (under David Stone somewhere). Dick Anderson sent out a note saying that he wouldn't be transferring with the group, but he didn't inform us of his fate so everyone is just speculating as to what he's going to do. Alot of people are scrambling to find jobs...alot of good people who've been around serving their customers for years. Even the funded people are looking to get out because they feel they were shafted. I just finished the first version of a tool that has one of the highest funding priorities in CTC but there's no one to test it. The entire CTC QA group and pretty much all of the CTC Support is gone. No one has time to test my stuff because they're all looking for jobs (which is now their highest priority) before the end of June. Benson (who sits beside Roberta)
1504.12	Opportunity for a Hero??	GLDOA::MORRISON	Dave	`Sun Jun 23 1991 02:13`	13
	In no way am I being glib, but....This situation has the potential for an INTELLIGENT, SENIOR manager to really become a hero and sieze the opportunity to show TRUE LEADERSHIP by using it as a springboard make real short work of this and other situations like it. I must be dreaming, maybe it's too late at night to be thinking this up. Afterall, if we have folks around with the insight & authority to do this, would'nt they already have done so? Or are we so hopelessly entangled in beauracracy that we are powerless to deal with this stuff even when we see it so clearly? I find it hard to believe that someone whith the authority to tackle this has'nt done so if not for their own personal career, much less for the sake of the people whose lives are turned upside down by this stupidity! Sorry, I got more PO'ed the more I thought of it.
1504.13	brutal reality can be brutal.....	AQOPAS::ADRIFT::BURKE	Andy �	`Sun Jun 23 1991 14:51`	14
	> re: .11 > >Unfortunately, the New Managment System forces the individual groups >to fund the work at CTC; different groups will want different things >and will fund only the things their group will need. In some cases, OH NO !! .....you mean that NMS is forcing groups to contribute something of value to the corporation or move on.....you mean that groups will actually have to provide something that others (customers?, internal groups?) actually value..... OH NO !!....what's the company coming to ? Andy B
1504.14	Stupidity can be brutal too, but no realistic.	TPS::BUTCHART	TP Systems Performance	`Sun Jun 23 1991 16:34`	9
	re .13 There is a considerable difference between brutality and good management. Requiring a service group to go to committed funding in advance at the same time that you put most of the potential client groups funding into limbo is a form of Catch-22. And a Catch-22 situation is a sign of stupidity, not realism. /Dave
1504.15	...4th and 10.....ball's on our 2 yd line...	AQOPAS::ADRIFT::BURKE	Andy �	`Sun Jun 23 1991 19:55`	14
	> re .14 > groups funding into limbo is a form of Catch-22. And a Catch-22 > situation is a sign of stupidity, not realism. I'm sorry.....where's this 'catch-22' ?? ....or are you assuming that Digital has the responsibility to always provide everyone that ever works for the company multiple opportunities to contribute.... ...times have changed ...I think it's only reasonable to expect the gnashing of teeth....who's going to say "thank-you for laying me off"? Andy B
1504.16		CADSE::WONG	The wong one	`Mon Jun 24 1991 01:01`	19
	RE: .15 >> > re .14 >> > groups funding into limbo is a form of Catch-22. And a Catch-22 >> > situation is a sign of stupidity, not realism. >> >> I'm sorry.....where's this 'catch-22' ?? The author of .14 meant that CTC can't finalize their budget until its customers finalize their budgets. The customers don't finalize their budgets until the end of their fiscal year. CTC can't know its final funding until then, but then it's too late. But then, CTC has to make sure that it knows where all of its funding is coming from so it can plan for the right amount of resources; it has to know ahead of time if it has to look elsewhere for funding in case it has a shortfall. But no one can really commit to funding until the last moment....and so on... This resulted in the current situation... know that their funding is not guaranteed
1504.17	there's no such thing as job security....	AQOPAS::ADRIFT::BURKE	Andy �	`Mon Jun 24 1991 02:06`	18
	>re .16 >The author of .14 meant that CTC can't finalize their budget >until its customers finalize their budgets. The customers Sounds like normal EIS/PSS resource scheduling problems...what's different with the CTC ??......services are a perishable commodity; they cannot be stored, they cannot be provided retroactively...these kinds of issues are addressed everyday in the field.... >This resulted in the current situation... >know that their funding is not guaranteed ...what is `guaranteed' ?? ....even owning the means of production is not enough.....the market demands that you produce something of value...or move on. Andy B
1504.18	And EIS gets to use a different model.	TPS::BUTCHART	TP Systems Performance	`Mon Jun 24 1991 08:58`	25
	re .17: >Sounds like normal EIS/PSS resource scheduling problems...what's >different with the CTC ??......services are a perishable commodity; >they cannot be stored, they cannot be provided retroactively...these What is different about the CTC is that it sounds like they are NOT being allowed to use an EIS/PSS model for setting their budget. That is you predict, based on past demand and future expectations, what your staffing should be. If EIS used the funding model CTC is being forced to use, it would have to forgo a significant amount of business. As you point out, services can't be stored, which means you have to have the PEOPLE available. If you don't have the people on hand and trained to provide the service, a lot of customers will simply walk over to somebody who does - and you just lost their business, possibly forever. (Or in the case of internal service organizations, the customer does without, possibly to the detriment of product quality or productivity.) Of course, this assumes that the CTC did/does provide a valuable service. The description of the way the down-sizing is being carried out does not sound like management implementing a well planned decision to downsize a function - more like general confusion, incompetence, and lack of planning. /Dave
1504.19		SDSVAX::SWEENEY	Patrick Sweeney in New York	`Mon Jun 24 1991 09:29`	18
	Not specific to the .0 of which I know no details, but to the general discussion: In the field we feel "pain and outrage" at losing a sale to the competition. In fact, as we continue to lose sales we're going to see further layoffs in all parts of Digital. Rather than complaining that proper process wasn't followed, or that "you gotta finish your budget before I finish mine", we ought to all have a clear idea of exactly what are we doing in this company that the customer (that is the real, external customer) wants to buy. I've done my share of criticism that employee communication is poor and that published policies are applied inconsistently, but excellent employee communication, and the consistent application of policies are "process". The customer is buying "results" from us.
1504.21	...but it's not freshman year....	AQOPAS::ADRIFT::BURKE	Andy �	`Mon Jun 24 1991 12:31`	112
	� re .18 � � What is different about the CTC is that it sounds like they are NOT � being allowed to use an EIS/PSS model for setting their budget. That � is you predict, based on past demand and future expectations, what your � staffing should be. If EIS used the funding model CTC is being forced � to use, it would have to forgo a significant amount of business. As � you point out, services can't be stored, which means you have to have � the PEOPLE available. If you don't have the people on hand and trained � to provide the service, a lot of customers will simply walk over to � somebody who does - and you just lost their business, possibly forever. Aye...this stands in marked contrast to the warehouses full of EIS folks just sitting waiting for customers to come running.... � service. The description of the way the down-sizing is being carried � out does not sound like management implementing a well planned decision � to downsize a function - more like general confusion, incompetence, and � lack of planning. I'm sorry.....what's the basis for this conclusion ??.....couldn't it just as easily be that management has carried non-productive folks for as long as they could....and that the system has finally forced someone to pay the piper.... re .19 Rather than complaining that proper process wasn't followed, or that "you gotta finish your budget before I finish mine", we ought to all have a clear idea of exactly what are we doing in this company that the customer (that is the real, external customer) wants to buy. ...hear, hear.....but also internal `customers'...each group must add value or get out of the way..not just those dealing with cash-paying customers...and yes there will be business lost until we start getting it right. re .20 I don't see where you form the basis for your conclusions....I clearly don't have enough information to draw such dogmatic conclusions as you espouse....noone here has even thought of addressing management's side of the issue. This stream of notes (and much of this conference) is riddled with freshman-year/business 101 management-bashing such as...."management is totally incompetant"...."fire all contractors"....give 'em all a raise and they'll work harder, and all will be well"..... IE: � To me, this smacks of blatant incompetence. � Is it only obvious to me? � There(sic) should show respect for all who are contributing and � trying to make Digital successful. FOLKS.....IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE.....there's going to be pain involved here....there is NOT going to be any hero on a white steed....and please don't confuse my honesty with a lack of compassion any more than you attribute compassion to those who tell you everything will be all right.... Here's more......from mail I received over the weekend (posted with permission and attribution......) From: AQOPAS::HOTAIR::VIVERITO Andy, The st has hit the fan. It has been coming for a long time. Most folks try to believe that it won't happen to them or that DEC will be fair to them since they worked for DEC for X years. All this is a crock when it comes down to 4th and 10. Do not think that upper management will make all of the the right decisions and treat everybody fairly.....it won't happen. It is painful to look someone in the eye and tell them that they don't have a job anymore, pack up and leave. Most people can't do it. Put yourself in the manager's shoes. Do you thing the employee will sit there and say "Thank you for laying me off" ? No f*g way. There will be screaming from here to hell and back. This has never happened in DEC before. How can you expect management to handle it correctly? What is correctly? When SWE was written off, there was a manager who worked for DEC for 20 years....It didn't matter. There were two engineers that just came off of GEEP (DEC paid about 100k for each of them to get their MS degrees)...it didn't matter. There will be lots of comments to the effect "DEC F**D me bad" but only because a person's comfortable existence has been taken away from them AND they thought it could never happen to them. I've been through this messa and was lucky enough to get a job here. I feel for the folks who got (and will get) the axe but there is a lesson here that should not go unnoticed..... You are responsible for your own existance and job. You need to insure yourself of that. DEC is not your mother or father. When things go badly for the corporation sending you away to foster parents IS an option. set/language=nosalty set/flame=off set/day=weekend Angelo
1504.22	It's been ugly for awhile, and still a while to go	NAC::SCHUCHARD	Al Bundy for Gov'	`Mon Jun 24 1991 12:40`	25
	re .20 - doing the "right thing" died in this company some 5-8 years ago. It was replaced with "doing what the boss wants to hear", with any other message barers shot on sight or put in your local version of lubianka prison. What you have now is a lot of panic at all levels, with managers fighting for survival. This has been on going since NMS was first announced. It has or will happen just about everywhere. Senior Mgmt is fighting for their dominions just like lower mgmt. Many instances of the "wrong thing" are bound to occur, and coupled with the companys poor cost structure and layoff requirements being hurt means real hurt. As a company we have become very political. At the moment, there really isn't a notion of "Truth, Justice, and the Digital Way". Maybe once the turmoil subsides, things will get better. I would think our customers would surely hope so. One would think that our customers wants would be the priority message we listen to, but there seems to be abundant evidence that this is not always the case. I think the NMS will eventually flush all that out. Meantime, stay alert and recognize that how your manager cares for you may be lower on the priority list than you realize. Oh, and it's not neccesarily due to any evil/incompetent design - just dealing with the bag handed to him. bob
1504.23	There is a message....	FSDEV2::MGILBERT	Kids are our Future-Teach 'em Well	`Mon Jun 24 1991 13:00`	18
	There is a simple underlying question being asked in Roberta's article. That question is "have we lost sight of the premises under which this company was built (one of which was always to do the right thing - especially by our employees)". The answer is, for the moment, yes. Someone mentioned panic. That's what's happening now because both managers and employees have, for the most part, never had to deal with this atmosphere before. Yes we need leadership to bring us back to those long standing statements in the front of the personnel manual that were espoused by this company so many years ago. But we must also temper those statements with the times we work in. When things were great we tended to deal with these premises in the background. Today many cling to them for dear life. Yes, this incident was handled badly. There have been others in the past and I'm sure there will be more in the future. After all, we are all human beings with faults. While I regret the incident I regret even more the number of people who will take it as a signal of the demise of the "company environment" and will attempt to bail out when we most need them.
1504.24		AQOPAS::ADRIFT::BURKE	Andy �	`Mon Jun 24 1991 13:02`	20
	� re .22 � � What you have now is a lot of panic at all levels, with managers fighting � for survival. This has been on going since NMS was first announced. It has � or will happen just about everywhere. Senior Mgmt is fighting for their � dominions just like lower mgmt. Ahhh...but surely this is a whole separate topic....NMS....we seem to be claiming Keynesian efficiencies while implementing a state economy. ...have you seen the price list from the central committee (BUPS).....where else are you going to go to get a VAX to sell?......where's the competitive pressure in that? ....next we'll see a five-year plan.....we're already seeing the `purges'. � I think the NMS will eventually flush all that out. you've more faith than I...... Andy �
1504.25	...	TPS::BUTCHART	TP Systems Performance	`Mon Jun 24 1991 13:50`	22
	re .21: >Aye...this stands in marked contrast to the warehouses full of EIS folks just >sitting waiting for customers to come running.... Yup, that'll happen if you overestimate demand in a service organization. >I'm sorry.....what's the basis for this conclusion ??.....couldn't it just as >easily be that management has carried non-productive folks for as long as they >could....and that the system has finally forced someone to pay the piper.... Simple. I read .0. If you consider the actions described to be representative of well planned management action, then we have very different standards. There are ways to downsize a group that don't create nearly as much anger and distrust, needlessly destroying the productivity of the remaining people for a long time to come. Even if it is a case of management getting rid of non-productive people, it could have been handled considerably better. Of course, if half the group was non-productive, that's a sign of serious management incompetence. /Dave
1504.26		CADSE::WONG	The wong one	`Mon Jun 24 1991 15:09`	4
	Just out of curiosity, was there some sort of training for management before NMS was implemented? B.
1504.27		CADSE::WONG	The wong one	`Mon Jun 24 1991 15:44`	8
	It is interesting that we here in CTC are seeing alot of people out there who are calling to give CTC people interviews. People are forwarding names of their favorite headhunters and people all the way from Atlanta are calling to help people find jobs. Has this been happening in other groups that were affected by TSOF3? B.
1504.29		WHOS01::BOWERS	Dave Bowers @WHO	`Mon Jun 24 1991 16:46`	17
	Several replies here have compared the situation of internal service groups to that of EIS. While similarities do exist, I strongly suspect that internal service group managers are given the freedom that an EIS manager enjoys: 1) Staffing based on projected business, not committed funding. 2) Reasonable discretion in setting prices. 3) The ability to pursue new customers. 4) The ability to offer new "products". Internal service functions do have a tendency to mushroom unless put on a pay-for-service basis. However, expecting the manager of such a group to make the transition without giving him the flexibility needed to run his new "business" guarantees the sort of mess encountered at CTC. -dave
1504.30	Well	EVETPU::BISCARDI		`Fri Jun 28 1991 00:56`	3
	What happens to the CTC people who don't have a job by the end of the day Friday?
1504.31		CADSE::WONG	The wong one	`Fri Jun 28 1991 01:07`	18
	RE: .30... No one knows... Don't forget...it's also the last day for everyone over at Computer Images in Bedford...they had 11 weeks notice... I understand a fair number of people from CTC are getting jobs, they're also getting competition. I have a friend somewhere who just got an offer and will have one day to decide because the 2nd choice is a CTC person. We usually have a going-away lunch for anyone leaving my group. This time we're going to just have a group lunch or an ice cream run at Kimballs to say good bye to everyone who'll either have a new job or laid off. B.
1504.32		PSW::WINALSKI	Careful with that VAX, Eugene	`Fri Jun 28 1991 22:31`	10
	RE: .29 Your note doesn't make sense as written--it seems contradictory. Is there a "not" missing in this sentence, perhaps? > While similarities do exist, I strongly suspect > that internal service group managers are given the freedom that an EIS > manager enjoys: --PSW
1504.33	"Not" is missing	WHOS01::BOWERS	Dave Bowers @WHO	`Mon Jul 01 1991 12:35`	7
	Chalk it up to either a) Tanlged fingers or b) Substituting "suspect" for "doubt" and forgetting to put the "not" where it's needed. -dave
1504.34	Has anyone determined/heard/found out	STAR::PARKE	I'm a surgeon, NOT Jack the Ripper	`Tue Jul 02 1991 16:20`	14
	What happen(s/ed) last Friday, Tomorrow or July 8th (depending on who you talk to) if one does not find a job ? Those I have interviewed, in these situations, have no idea if it's "Out the door heretofore" Or A package Or a "transiton pool" (especially for engineering talent) Etc.
1504.35	what happens with METPAY, stock plan, contents of our desks?	FRYE::CASEY		`Wed Jul 03 1991 11:34`	14
	Near as I can tell, anyone in the "at-risk pool" who doesn't have a new Digital job offer by 5 p.m. on Monday, July 8th, will be given the package and pretty much "out the door..." This was the best clarification I could get from our personnel guy in Govt Systems. Afterward? Two managers from different geographies mentioned that DEC has some arrangement with an "outplacement service" (the manager in California said it's DBM, but maybe that's geography-specific). Also, near as I can tell, there'll be someplace in the Landover, MD area where former employees can go to "get help with resumes." Does that mean terminals? Printers? Typewriters? Upshot? Someone somewhere must have details, but they're not being passed on to us who will be out-the-door-on-Monday.
1504.36	Well, the shoe has fallen in CTC	SNOBRD::CONLIFFE	out-of-the-closet Thespian	`Wed Jul 10 1991 11:10`	24
	There was a meeting in CTC1 yesterday to discuss the actual impact of the downsizing. Dick Anderson announced that 6 (yes, six) people were 'given the opportunity to particpate in the involuntary severance program' (or whatever the NewSpeak is). the other 80-odd people who had been unfunded at the start of June had managed to find jobs elsewhere in Digital, either as individuals or by whole cost centres transferring to other organisations. While we all agree that losing even 6 people is no reason to celebrate, I think that the carnage would have been a lot greater had Dick not "gone public" early in June. Let's also remember that DEC's much-maligned upper management supported Dick in this, even up to the David Stone level, by encouraging managers to interview and hire CTC people and by 'speeding up' the somewhat rusty offer/hire process in DEC. Given the hysteria which surrounded this process here in CTC (including Roberta's much forwarded and very entertaining piece of creative writing), I would worry that another manager faced with the same decision might decide NOT to make any public announcement, but merely to quietly transition a large number of people. Nigel (ex CTC organisation, but still in the building)
1504.37		CADSE::WONG	The wong one	`Wed Jul 10 1991 15:52`	20
	Considering how many DEC careers were saved, 80+ out of 100+, I would imagine that the high-level management at CTC might be able to sleep a little better at night now, even though CTC still had to lay off 6 people. Dick Anderson did say that we were lucky that the company needed software engineers. >>, I >>would worry that another manager faced with the same decision might decide NOT >>to make any public announcement, but merely to quietly transition a large number >>of people. As I understand it, that is the way it's happening now. I have not heard of any other organization doing what CTC did with the early announcement. CTC gave us early warning so everyone had a chance to look for a job elsewhere. While there was alot of grief generated out of this mess, I hope that other managers in the corporation now see another possibility other than to lay off unfunded personnel. B.