Another Round of HP Layoffs

geekroot's dad writes "AP News is reporting that Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard is 'fighting to stay competitive with formidable rivals like IBM and Dell' and is announcing 5,900 European job cuts "to safeguard the future" of the company. From the article: 'Michel Destot, the Socialist deputy mayor of the southern France city of Grenoble - where HP has one of its French plants - said the layoffs were "unacceptable" and demanded that HP managers also meet local politicians to discuss scaling back the job cuts.'" This round following the first cut back in July.

Comments

Re:Ten percent unemployment?

[EnderWiggnz]

The other bit about EU unemployment rates, is thta they measure UE differently than the US. We generally report the U3 numbers, while they report the equivalent of our U6 numbers.

Currently, the US U6 numbers are 8.9%

Suddenly, we look a lot more like Europe.

Re:French labor laws...

[Usquebaugh]

They were.

Having worked both in Europe, not France, and the US for many years I know I was more productive under a system that allowed me time to re-charge.

The US may have me in the office longer but I feel I actually do less work. I cannot even take time unpaid time off, which I would gladly do.

In Europe I felt everybody was on the same page. We go to work to provide ourselves with quality leisure time and a nice life style.

In the US it would seem you go to work because nothing else matters. Marriage, health, sanity etc etc are all less important than having a job.

Of course, if you look at the widening gap between the rich and everybody else in the US it would seem that no matter how hard you work you're financial status in life was set when you were born.

So why don't they sell a few GulfStreams?

[plopez]

Face it, most US corporations treat employees and stockholders like serfs. Everything for upper management and to hell with everyone else. The sale of a couple of GulfStreams could keep thousands on the payroll.

see
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11542

And before people start yelling about Europe's high unemployment I would like to point out:

1) US unemployment rates only count actively registered unemployed. Once the unemployment runs out most people don't bother showing up to register anymore. In Europe they have 'the dole' for which you get paid to show up and so they record larger numbers of unemployed. In the US the official numbers are skewed.

2) Oh, and while on the dole you still get some minimum of health care.

3) Oh, and there are 1.9 million US citizens in prison in the US who are not counted as unemployed. Contrast that to China with about 1.4 million in prison (see this pdf for an eye opener http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r188.pdf a report developed by the UK government no less!). Did I mention China has about 3 times the US populations AND is a Communist regiem?

What they need to do is get rid of some overpriced C*Os and sell a couple of airplanes.

I hope the French stick it to them.

(no, no rant here, move along, nothing to see... )

Re:HP: The downward spiral

[anthony_dipierro]

When we were small and insignificant and had to hire the best people we could find, we had to train them and then hope they would work out. We wanted our people to share our goals of making a profit and a contribution. We in turn felt a responsibility to provide them with opportunity and job security to the best of our ability. Thus, we made an early and important decision: We did not want to be a "hire and fire"--a company that would seek large, short-term contracts, employ a great many people for the duration of the contract, and at its completion let those people go. This type of operation is often the quickest and most efficient way to get a big job accomplished. But Bill and I didn't want to operate that way. We wanted to be in business for the long haul, to have a company built around a stable and dedicated workforce.

That's a quote from The HP Way by David Packard, a book given to every single employee of Hewlett-Packard, at least it was when I joined in '98. I wonder if the current CEO even read it.

Since the merger it's like HP sucked all the Suck out of Compaq's sucky products and injected it into HP products.

And it's not like it wasn't foreseeable. It's the reason that the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the William R. Hewlett Revocable Trust voted against the merger. It's the reason I voted against the merger.