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SGI to layoff ~ 3000 employees, sees 2Q profit (UPDATED)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the double-what-they-thought dept.

A reader wrote to us with the news that SGI has doubled their original August estimates for # of layoffs, bringing the probable number to roughly 3000. However, SGI is seeing a return to profitability. The additional 1500 are not actually being laid-they are being offered new jobs with the new NT/Visual Workstations and Cray units, leading to the above erroneous information.

3 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Typical SGI ... narrow their product line maybe? by lil_billy · · Score: 3

    Four people that I went to college with began working at SGI after they graduated. I remember hearing from two of them of at least two instances where they were told to "take a week off" without pay. To me, this is crappy management at it's best.
    At least three of the people moved on two other companies within one year of starting there. That says a lot to me about SGI and their work environment.
    ...this from a company that used to have huge 'beer bashes' each Friday and kicked out more colorful free t-shirts for their employees than fruit of the loom. All of those perks went away when profitability started to fade. With those perks went morale as well, I suspect.
    One wonders whether the solution is much like Apple's or Tektronix's decision to cut the proverbial 'fat' and move back to their core business of profitability. Isn't this something SGI began a bit ago?
    Anyway, that's my $0.02. I'd love to hear what some insiders think.
    -lb

  2. Very bad for SGI by AaronW · · Score: 3

    Announcing layoffs has a much more widespread effect than many people realize. When I was at my last job, they had a 200 person layoff. As a consequence, morale went through the floor and many of those who were not layed off left for greener pastures. They lost a lot of intellectual knowlege and experience which cannot be easily recovered. Furthermore, here in California, if a company lays someone off they cannot hire someone else for the same job for at least 6 months. SGI is in for a very rough ride ahead. It will be very difficult for them to keep those who were not layed off.

    When layoffs occur, it is some ways harder on those who were not layed off. You then start wondering, "when is it my turn to be layed off?"

    Being layed off is not necessarily a bad thing around here in Silicon Valley. There are a lot of job openings elsewhere, and usually the company doing the layoff offers a good severense package. I know that when my division at my last company was dissolved, within a month everyone had found a better job than they had, and with the severense packages many people did quite well. Everyone from the admin to the managers found new jobs quickly. Most of the people are happier at their new job as well.

    It is sad to see a company like SGI have a layoff. I fear that SGI may not be able to recover from this.

    --
    This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
  3. I agree... by aheitner · · Score: 3

    SGI has to redefine who it is. Of course the logo thing was a mistake -- long live the old SGI logo!

    They have a serious problem: you don't need a crazy SGI station to do graphics anymore. You'll do decently well with a high-end PC, 3DSMax, and good consumer graphics hardware, and for a fraction of the price. There was a reason so many people fell in love with equipment like the original Indigo (mmmm....purple box): it got the job done in a much more primitive age. It was the only way.

    I recently heard a story about a little graphics design company a couple of years back (not all that many years, either, maybe 2 or 3). They didn't have money for SGIs, so they invested in PCs and MAX back when MAX was the first product for PC that didn't suck. They would get clients interested with samples, then give a tour of their office. When the clients saw they used PCs, they ran away. So then they got the clients interested, but made excuses why they couldn't visit the office ("We're painting...","We just moved...","There was a water leak, it's a mess..."). After that they started landing jobs and making money :)

    But nowadays you can equip a 3D artist with a $2k PC and a $2500 copy of MAX and be in good shape, rather than SGI equipment and software totaling 4x as much.

    So that's their problem. I don't know what the solution is. Linux is great, but it runs on cheap PCs too :)

    I guess if I knew what the solution was I'd go be the CEO of SGI ...