Comments on: HP better not together?

By: James

James — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 22:29:07 +0000

At EDS we used to make a great play out the fact we were manufacturer independent. So many times I led or attended sales meetings with potential clients where we stressed this. Now we are expected to do an about turn and look like hypocrites. The trouble with HP EDS is that Morale is so low among the workers, so many are just marking time, doing just enough to avoid the axe, who badmouth the company outside the office, who wouldnt recomend the company to a friend, who attend interviews for other companies and having nothing good to say about the company. HP EDS is becoming a bad smell in the I T sector. Having HP EDS on the C V isnt a plus point anymore. To many lies about raises, bonuses etc. to many senior executives, starting from Hurd on down who abuse the company (every senior manager should have his expenses audited by an outside company, the results would be astounding), This company has far more issues than how it is organized, in fact, I would argue that a company can succeed if it not organized particularly well, as long as the employees are 100 per cent committed, which they are definitely not.

By: Hp/Compaq

Hp/Compaq — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:17:30 +0000

Same thing they do whenever they buy a company.

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:13:28 +0000

I too am a former HP/EDS systems engineer, joining EDS in 1984 and work force reduced from HP in 2010. You are 100% correct and hit the proverbial nail on the head. HP proceeded to demoralize and gut EDS, losing many knowledgeable and great employees in the process…and then they say their enterprise business is failing! Duh…I knew it was going to fail before I was even let go in 2010…it was obvious that HP had no idea how to run a service company and made no effort to keep the employees that could make it work. They did everything they could do to destroy EDS, and I’d say they were mighty successful. They did it!

By: Current employee

Current employee — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:58:47 +0000

Hi Adam,

agree to your concern, but I would like to see it less from your point. Everybody is redundant, regardless what you currently do, it’s as simple as this. See it from the employee view and nobody is bound to one employer due to the fat the he only knows howto run a business/department, so he can freely watch the market and look for new challenges. And for the employer it’s similar.

I definitely like the thought of being mentally “free” when making decisions, the one way or the other. I quitted with one employer because he couldn’t assign me a manager that fits my needs, I loved my job, but hated my manager at the same rate, so what?

It’s all about take it, change it or leave it, everyone can and has to live with it.

Cheers

By: Adam Garlepp

Adam Garlepp — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 03:57:16 +0000

Oh PALEASE .. this company is run by a group of sociopaths ….. There are more management layers and committees for approvals than there are people who actually earn money for the company so that the sociopaths can cover there BEEHINDS.
When you actually can see what they do to long term employees, especially those of us from EDS, it is no wonder they are going broke. Every quarter there is a mad rush to cut costs, by reducing valuable staff. Next month when the ES customer asks “where is Bill? He is my right hand guy and the only one from your company I trust” we have to tell him that Bill is redundant and has left the company…….. great way to treat your customers ey?

By: HP Well Wisher

HP Well Wisher — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 09:41:42 +0000

The Analyst may not be exposed to what are the thoughts & future plans of the CEO. Things are moving in a positive direction. Post Mortem of every decision, after a few months period will have different opinions. People can very easily say – - See i told them to spin it off and it should have been the way…then there can be the other argument, see i told it keep it and it has worked in favor. Life is always about 0 or 1. It will be true in HP’s Case too. Let us allow the CEO to settle down and allow her to go in her path. Every time a new CEO comes in, they can have their own approach. So lets give Meg some more time. To steer a ship of this size, she needs immense support. Let us not see another LEO’s story here. The decisions she takes can be hard for lot of people, her efforts may not even pay off, but then lets not arrive at a conclusion, with in a short span of time. Again for a company like HP, you need more time.

By: Former HP/EDS Employee

Former HP/EDS Employee — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 14:41:44 +0000

As a former HP/EDS systems engineer the message was clear right from the beginning when EDS was acquired by HP, i.e., you aren’t worth as much as EDS paid you so we’re cutting your compensation and eliminating pension contributions. In effect, they devalued the employees they had just acquired. They treated knowledge workers as if they were assembly line workers who could be easily replaced by other workers with no thought of how much of the knowledge they had acquired during the acquisition would be lost in the process. They never really understood that EDS employees often worked long hours to get the job done, and that extra effort when needed is what made their compensation what it was. The message to employees was clear and as a result, morale suffered and many were no longer willing to put in the extra effort for a company that didn’t appreciate the effort. Concentrating most of the financial rewards just at the top never really works in the long run to build a business.

By: Barb Darrow

Barb Darrow — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:44:06 +0000

Thanks for your comment HP guy. I would love to know — do you think the Agilent spinoff worked out or not. I have no idea….bear looking into.

By: HP Guy

HP Guy — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:35:44 +0000

This is similar to to the analyst comments that led to HP spinning-off Agilent Technologies 12 years ago. “The analysts don’t understand what we do.” It sounds like we need to finder smarter analysts, not part-out Hewlett-Packard.

The analysts function is to provide short-term gains with no consideration for the long-term health of any company. Do we really want to take business advice from analysts employed by banks that survice only due to taxpayer funded bailouts?

By: Analyst

Analyst — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 06:03:18 +0000

Interesting thoughts on the worlds #1 IT company. Now lets hear something from the less successful – what about UBS itself, Mr. Milunovich?