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From: Zen Cycle <funkmaster@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: Cycling editorial
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 14:33:24 -0400
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On 4/21/2024 5:35 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Apr 2024 20:30:34 GMT, Tom Kunich <cyclintom@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> When you told us that you worked for HP I saw right through you. NO ONE "worked for" HP. That company is so high class the NO ONE leaves it. The ONLY way that you could have "worked for" HP is if they fired you.
> 
> [Insults deleted]
> 
> Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both quit HP in order to start Apple.
> More generally, much of the Silicon Valley was built by startups who's
> founders came from HP.
> 
> List of companies that were founded by former HP employees:
> "HP Alumni Founded Companies"
> <https://www.crunchbase.com/hub/hp-alumni-founded-companies>
> 
> I don't know where you obtained your illusions about HP, but things
> are nothing near your claim that HP is a employee paradise.  For
> example:
> 
> "HP Sues Employees for Leaving"
> <https://blogs.cisco.com/news/hp-sues-employees-for-leaving>
> "It’s a sad day when great companies think they need to sue their own
> employees over and over again to stop them from bettering themselves
> in their chosen profession."

I loved working for HP, right up until Carly Fiorina was made CEO. From 
there it was a slow downward spiral culminating in the Agilent split 
followed by the massive layoffs at the end of the tech boom.

Bear in mind your link was from the post agilent split (2011). The HP of 
that(and this) era are a hollow shell of what HP was when I was there 
from '92 to 2002. As your link states, "Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard 
didn’t see a need to build a company based on suing people who might 
want to leave." Bill and Dave were long since dead by the time that 
article was written, and the BoD had been savaged by Carly and her band 
of greedy pricks (who stabbed her in the back in the end).

https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=gfsb 


"she was abruptly fired in 2005. Both the CEO and members of the HP 
board failed as moral persons and as moral managers, leading to 
Fiorina's ouster and the subsequent HP spying scandal. HP went from one 
of the world's most admired companies to the target of criminal 
investigations and public criticism."

"Employees celebrated her departure. At HP's Boise facility, employees 
distributed Hostess Ding Dongs to announce, "'The witch is
dead"

The facility I worked at was in Westford Massachusetts. Even though our 
division headquarters was in Queensferry Scotland, all non technical 
issues (payroll, HR, Benefits) were administered through the Andover MA 
Medical Products group because Queensferry wasn't able to process 
American payroll and benefits. Andover was a campus with 7 buildings, 
5000 employees, three subsidized restaurants (one with outdoor seating - 
brick walkways lined with flowering plants), A company store that sold 
toiletries, magazines, books, gift cards, snacks, and a wide range of HP 
branded clothing.

There was a fully equipped gym with free weights, weight machines, 
aerobics machines, a sauna, and company sponsored pilates and yoga classes.

There was on site credit union and a dry cleaning service. We used to 
joke that all you needed was a cot and you could live there.

On the campus grounds they had a walking trail along the Merrimac river 
that abutted conservation land, tennis courts, volley ball, basketball, 
and a 1 mile running loop that circumnavigated the campus.

UMass Lowell had a satellite building on campus offered courses paid for 
by HP.

When we were absorbed into the MPG business unit, we were given access 
to their social service intranet which offered employee hosted webpages 
for social organizations including various sports clubs, I remember an 
RC model airplane club, a chess club, and a bridge club, there were many 
more. Even though we were in a different facility, as HP employees we 
had full access to the Andover campus and all of it's benefits.

All sales employees in Andover were given a company car - even if they 
were inside sales. These cars were turned over every year and sold as an 
auction to the employees. I picked up a one-year-old 2001 Ford Taurus 
station wagon with just over 10,000 miles, driven by an inside sales 
employee who used it for his daily 10 mile commute. He had it garaged at 
home, No one had ever sat in the back seat. I got it for about 1/2 the 
blue book value. I put ~150K miles on it until I wrecked it in a 
snowstorm in the winter of 2009.

Generally speaking, most employees of HP did in fact consider it to be 
an "employee paradise". My visits to the Scottish HQ showed them to be 
just as loyal and dedicated employees as was the norm at the Andover 
facility, if not more so. The big bonus: In Scotland, they had beer taps 
in the company cafeteria.

In 2001, the entire Agilent Medical Products business was sold to 
Philips corporation. Since we were still Agilent, we were shut out.

When we given the layoff notice, they gave us two months warning. We 
were told to cease all new work and clean up any documentation. From 
then on we were told to use company resources to find another job. Yes, 
come to work, and get paid to look for another job.

WE found out that they put off the actual separation date for two months 
because that put us into the first week of January, and they (Agilent) 
didn't want the employees to get hit with the severance package taxes 
for previous tax year. There was a good reason for this, the severance 
package was _very_ generous.
-  We were given one months pay for each full year of service. I was one 
month shy of ten years at the termination date.
- We were given a "home office stipend" to assist with purchasing home 
office equipment along with an offer to purchase HP printers and PCs at 
cost.
- Lastly, we were given a 'hold harmless' bonus - another lump of cash 
if we would sign a document promising not to sue.

I ended up with ten months pay. And because I had been searching for 
jobs those previous months (which included Agilent-sponsored job fairs 
and employment workshops) I had a job three weeks after my termination date.

Yes, HP _used_ to be something of an employee paradise, and IMHO 
deservedly so. Those days are long-since gone.

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