GM CIO Says HP Hiring Probe "Not the Best Use Our Legal System"

dcblogs writes "General Motors CIO Randy Mott Thursday said the automaker plans to have the 'best jobs in the IT industry' at its four 'IT Innovation Centers' in the U.S., as it announced its third one in Roswell, Ga., near Atlanta... As part of its effort to insource its IT work, GM recently hired 18 HP employees from its IT organization, who left 'en masse,' prompting HP to go to court to seek depositions from two former IT managers who left for GM. Mott, the CIO at HP before moving to GM last year, said HP's move is 'not the best use our legal system.' Mott called HP's court filing a 'fishing expedition' that 'feels very retaliatory and harassing to the individuals. I think talent will go where talent sees opportunity.' GM is building a tech staff of about 10,000. As part of it, HP is transferring over about 3,000 employees. HP is a longtime services provider for the automaker via its services unit, the former EDS."

Comments

HP continues its long slow auger into the ground

[rubycodez]

overpriced products lagging behind and becoming less robust, workers leaving in droves, talent being driven off......only a matter of time. HP the has-been is circling the drain

Re:and ive gone and given there lawyers....

[Anonymous Coward]

In all fairness, I don't think anybody has any clue what he's talking about.

What is this, "skip the little words" day?

[wonkey_monkey]

GM CIO Says HP Hiring Probe "Not the Best Use Of Our Legal System"

I was going to check the summary for mistakes but it seems to have been written by M. C. Esher. Goin' up the sideways stairs!

Ha

[Anonymous Coward]

These companies that don't value talent should not whine and cry foul when said talent leaves for greener pastures.

Heads up, companies. You want talent to stay? Then stop resisting reasonable raises, deserved promotions, and piling on extra work for no reason other than you feel you can get away with it because the "economy is bad and you should feel grateful you even have a job, prole!"

Greed is doing this to itself and I have ZERO sympathy.

Re:Ha

[rhsanborn]

It's not the numbers, it's the specific employees. These were key employees in leadership positions. These are the kind of employees HP doesn't want to leave. Further, HP is afraid these employees will siphon away more of the good staff still at HP. It turns out downsizing often works this way. You tend to lose the good people and get left with the chaff.

If GM was using EDS...

[The Archon V2.0]

... then I think that they deserve to do a little bit of poaching, seeing as EDS's motto while I was there was "How can we screw you while staying within the bounds of our contract today?"

On the positive side of this . . .

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Each company seems to be valuing employees as assets . . . instead of liabilities.

Usually companies only sue each other over patents, not over people.

Re:On the positive side of this . . .

[roc97007]

At first I was inclined to agree, but it's also possible that this is more like a divorce, where HP wants the employees back only because GM wants them.

Re:On the positive side of this . . .

[lightknight]

I favor it being company paranoia. See, from HP's view, they've been hemorrhaging money for a long period of time; they seem to be getting the worst of every deal, and all of their ventures seem to be ending in failure; after a while of this, the mind enters a dark phase, when it begins entertaining unnatural thoughts; Why? Because it's trying to learn, adapt, cope, understand why it is continually failing; and one of the things you learn from school, is that sometimes there are people, acting in unison, against you; doing so quietly, and you are the last to know; as such, minor things become 'hints' of bigger things lurking under the surface; so, HP thinks that GM has actually been working to steal HP's employees for months, possibly years; and perhaps that is why HP hasn't been able to negotiate as much from GM as it could have (it had been working to undermine HP); again, this is money potentially lost, and in HP's mind, it's a clear case that GM has been thieving its goods (remember how paranoid HP is about money right now).

Think of it being like a police department that is particularly bad at its job; so when they finally catch someone in the act of a crime, they punish them brutally, thinking that it will serve as a deterrent to others; in reality, it just shows them losing their grip.

If HP wants to save itself, it needs to find the willpower to do a powerful sanity check, and oust the people who have been ailing it (from the inside). Anyone who isn't focused on creating new products, or keeping track of the accounts, or helping HP keep itself out of hot water (legally or from a business standpoint), and doing so with some level of aggression, needs to go. HP needs to R&D itself out of this hole, and that won't happen if R&D isn't being run by technology people; HP does not need flash in the pan, this is the current trend but won't be in six months technology; it needs something stable, something that it can build future products on, something that isn't an also-ran product that has to compete purely on price with the competition. That means features that can't be easily copied. And those take engineers, scientists, and so on to build; they also take time. HP should trim its sails, and prepare to re-enter the market in five years.

Outsourcing

[Loopy]

Considering how HP has been shedding business groups and teams to China, India and Dell after upper management screwed with their unit managers, I can't believe anyone thinks these people are surprised the rats are fleeing the ship. If HP wants outsourced, bottom-dollar employee costs, they're gonna end up with outsourced, bottom-dollar employees. And when you fuck over people who were saving the company millions of dollars per year and were almost universally respected by colleagues and appreciated by their direct reports, it's no wonder those teams feel marginalized and like they're next of the potential chopping block. 12 straight years of layoffs/outsourcing takes a toll on the best of us.

Re:Outsourcing

[Stirling Newberry]

Ships are fleeing a sinking rat in this case.

"non compete"

[mbaGeek]

Mr. Mott doesn't make a very convincing defense. Sounds like "Yeah, we did what we are accused of - but so what"

this is probably a very simple case - assuming HP made their employees sign some form of "non compete" or other employment agreement/contract, but proving collusion or conspiracy and getting damages is going to be hard for HP. Sure, the employees in question were free to "'resign en masse and without notice' but were probably contractually limited from going to work directly with GM - (which is why HP wants to talk to the people involved).

my IANAL opinion is that no matter how this plays out, HP looks bad and "loses."

Re:"non compete"

[SQLGuru]

Honestly, Randy Mott could have had a personal relationship with all of these people. His CIO stints went include Walmart, Dell, HP, and now GM. He took people with him from Walmart to Dell. He took people with him from Dell to HP. Why wouldn't he take people with him from HP to GM?

Besides, GM is actually offering really nice packages (including a free car and gas paid for) to those in Austin working for GM.

[Disclaimer: I was at Dell when Mott came from Walmart and when he left for HP. I have friends at all four companies. I no longer work for Dell.]

Re:HP continues its long slow auger into the groun

[Lord Ender]

It's like they're trying to shoot themselves in the foot. They are having trouble attracting and retaining talent? So they sue their former employees? Who would want to work for a company that does that? Do they think they can keep their current employees from leaving using fear? Disgusting.

Workers leaving in droves

[mrheckman]

HP layoffs (not all layoffs, really, but also including early retirement offers accepted and attrition without replacement) total over 120,000 for the past decade (includes the 29,000 in the latest round announced last Spring and increased by 2,000 in September, but not all yet realized). The issue with the workers jumping to GM is simply whether GM violated the contract. If those employees had gone, en masse, someplace else, HP would not have grounds to question it. From my point of view, the employees in question helped HP get closer to reaching the downsizing goal.

Re:Workers leaving in droves

[WaywardGeek]

I worked for HP for a year. I found out that David Packard was the soul of HP. He retired before I hired on, which explains why things sucked more each day. I was at the Cupertino site in the quake of 89, and shortly after I quit, David came back for a while, and things got good again, or so I hear. Then he retired for the last time, and we've had stupid people running HP ever since.

So, the current stupid people running the previously great HP feel like violating California law once again and suing a company that hires HP's suffering workers away. One of the reasons Silicon Valley did so well is due to the wisdom of the California law makers. Now I have to go throw up. "wisdom of the California law makers"... that's sure to result in barf everywhere. However, it's true in this case. They made it illegal to restrict a person from freely seeking employment. Restrictions that a-holes nation wide have passed as law allow companies to restrict a person's future employment without compensation. That's where California law differs. If your old boss wants a non-compete, the company actually has to pay you for it. If they simply say "all our employees have non-competes", then it doesn't hold up.

One result of this was people left stupid jobs in droves and formed new companies. It was not only good, but totally awesome for everyone. I haven't read TFA, but I assume it's some non-California office suing in a typical screw-you state where workers right to work is trampled on. If it's filed in California, it will go nowhere.

Re:and ive gone and given there lawyers....

[paiute]

Now who can argue with that? I think we're all indebted to Anonymous Coward for clearly stating what needed to be said. I'm particulary glad that these lovely children were reading Slashdot today to read that speech. Not only was it authentic Internet gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.

HP Hiring Probe?

[PPH]

Look, I'll put up with interviews and coding tests. But if the nurse from HR comes at me with a probe, I'm leaving.

HP believes in capitalism, right?

[sootman]

All day long, HP tries to make cheaper computers than Dell and GM tries to make cheaper cars than Ford, because that's what they exist for -- to make as much money as they can. But when GM offers some HP employees (I presume) more pay, all of a sudden they want to make a federal* fucking case out of it? Fuck them.

They've been laying off literally thousands of employees -- what the fuck is this "NO! You can't leave! Stay here until we fire you!" shit?!?!? WHO IN THEIR RIGHT GODDAMN MIND would wait around to be treated like that? If you can get a good job, go get it, because HP sure as shit doesn't have any loyalty to you. Who knows when their CEO-of-the-week is going to wake up one morning and decide to shitcan your whole division? Again I say: Fuck them.

* OK, Texas, but still... "state case" isn't a catchy impression.

Re:HP continues its long slow auger into the groun

[tlhIngan]

Interestingly prior to his death Steve Jobs fought to have Mark Hurd reinstated after his ouster, arguing that a strong HP was fundamental to Silicon Valley and that without Hurd, HP would face a death spiral.

Alas, the board didn't agree (despite Jobs) and Jobs got to see his prediction come true.

Re:No, GM doesn't exist to make cars

[Anonymous Coward]

cool

I guess someone should tell this guy:

Akerson's GM outlook cautiously bullish

"General Motors Co. is poised to post 12 consecutive quarters of profits and shed remaining government ownership, but Dan Akerson sounds like a CEO who needs more."

ooops what were you saying again? get some new talking points.