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Most decisions at Intel are not business driven. They are more about who likes/dislikes who and visibility.
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Intel has no more than 2 years of cash. Usually after layoffs this big, companies redefine themselves targeting new or existing profitable businesses. Intel is still x86 centric with no other alternative.
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VPs and Fellows Do Not have real power. No one stood up for their own business group and people. They were told to cut with no hesitation. VP and Fellow are overrated political titles. Long term, they will suffer and they are seen as irrelevant by their own actions. One guy from the outside has more power even with all their decades at Intel.
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Benefits are a liability. Take bonding leave or sabbatical and you are out.
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Zero chance of career path at Intel for RCGs.
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Intel knows it's place, PC and servers, but doesn't know where to go, IoT, drones, mobile, etc.
21 replies (most recent on top)
@1par +1 putting yourself in mute. Not just that, but they nowhere to be found that week. Very cowardly behavior.
OP, you nailed it bro. Couldn't have put it in better words.
When the monopoly and virtuous cycle was working with Moore 10 years ago it should have been obvious that no exponential nor monopoly lasts forever. But nobody crying wolf was heard, it was beaten out of them or they left. Now playing it is a bunch of mindless yes men, those who can think creatively have had it beaten out of them. The ship will sink most certainly, not a will bit only at 10 or 7 is the question.
It isn't because Moore's Law is dead that Intel's goose is cooked. No, it is because the current management simply not the right one that can fix it. Sad as so many good engineers still there that will see their lives ruined by bad management. Wrong time and place and no amount of hardworking can save it.
LOL @1mcp & Seagull management
Most of the manager/VP levels willing to speak up against the top down group think have been purged in the past few years. I cant blame the ones that remain for putting themselves on mute. If you dont fall in line you are in a precarious position.
Top heavy Intel management is infested with cowards. Those groveling to maintain their own wasted lives of not contributing anything to the value of the company. They hide under their carpet dwelling desks to try and ride out the storm. Hopefully, ACT3 will root put these worthless, pathetic excuses for managers.
I read a new definition yesterday:
Seagull Management: they only show up when there's a problem, sh*t over the whole team, then fly away.
Good ones 😁😉😊
Hahahhaha I laughed hard at this, very spot on :) Intel management is infested with that kind of mentality. This part is priceless 😅
"I got some kind of condescending answer from one boss, defensiveness from another, some gobbledy-gook acronym / process answer from another and (at our next 1:1) sharply questioned by my manager about whether I was properly aligned with the groups MBOs (whatever the F those are, I remember asking myself)."
A properly executed circle jerk is fun for all.
@cif - I agree: Wasting time in endless meetings (in support of projects that are doomed from the start) isn't a bottom-up phenomenon. It's top down and ingrained in the culture.
I remember asking (early on) something like, "So when do we get to provide input toward WHAT we should be working on vs. continuing down paths that (being polite because I was brand new) probably aren't as relevant as they were when they were initiated some months ago?"
Considering that I came from an important Intel customer, you'd think that I might actually have some insight that would be useful or appreciated.
I got some kind of condescending answer from one boss, defensiveness from another, some gobbledy-gook acronym / process answer from another and (at our next 1:1) sharply questioned by my manager about whether I was properly aligned with the groups MBOs (whatever the F those are, I remember asking myself).
So for the next meeting, I put the slides together to tell the story that they all wanted to hear (i.e. everything's on track, this will have hockey-stick growth for Intel - per the made up numbers we bought from Gartner, er...our "market model," etc.) Six iterations later, they were sufficiently prepared for internal consumption.
In other words, I joined the circle jerk.
My old group was decimated by 2015 and 2016 reductions in force. Only worker bees got it. All the managers were left intact. To the point where some of them now only have 1 or 2 reports. That's the same kind of manager bloat we had heading into SET. Before my last group, I worked for one perennial survivor in another group--she is a wonderment of working through others and master of endless PowerPoints. I once happened to see her MSR sitting at the printer, and she took credit for the work of her worker bees shamelessly--"I did this, then I did that" etc. No she didn't. Her team did it.
@lut You can't blame the workers. We're just following the orders to keep our job.
The only JERKERS at INTEL are the Managers/Directors who create, assign waste of time work just to make themselves feel important. Most were not eliminated. To hide them in the organization and smaller, some directors have been moved under other directors.
Anytime, I contradict or tell my director otherwise - he has to remind me that he is a DIRECTOR .. maybe his way of suggesting I should be docile and servient as good Intel employees are supposed to be.
Yeah, how can you be a Director in IT and not know how to find defined agenda in a calendar meeting of Outlook !! Such dumba$$e$ 😂😄 have survived greater-than-25 years at Intel.
I spent 50% of my time at Intel in internal meetings to track the status of projects that make no sense.
And the other 50% endlessly revising Powerpoints to present at the pointless internal meetings.
This, of course, took priority over meeting with customers and partners, market research, professional development / learning new skills, actually working on new ideas or projects...or really anything else.
I wasn't at Intel long but I just kept asking myself, "Am I crazy or is Intel a 100,000 person circle jerk?!" (now with ~12,000 fewer jerkers).
Un-necessary meetings and bull$hit reports/powerpoint presentations - are killing Intel.
Such as unreasonable demands from manager/director for SEVERAL VERSIONS of SAME REPORT to be regularly created for them - just in case they can't read or understand one.
Why not, because they only have to request it - they don't know how much time and stress is wasted in completing it.
In any other company - a manager/director can identify what they want to see in a report and even by themselves are able to find it by accessing a file or a system. At Intel, the manager/director have to be spoon fed but ask them a question for which they should have an understanding or information about - they will angrily bark back "IT IS NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY TO SPOON FEED YOU". Then WTF are you leading us for ?
No understanding of work or role assignments. Delegating and involving the wrong people.. Duplicating work through out the team, creating nonsense extra work just for sake of creating it. Instead of being efficient, let's create more wasteful work. Getting the admin to send out emails of agenda, in addition to her including agenda in the calendar meeting invite. Why ? Because Director is too stupid and complains that he can not find what the agenda is. Just go look in your calendar meeting, !diot !!! Old time directors/managers are the dumbest idiots at Intel.
Because Management do NO WORK themselves and would not even know here to start - don't understand what any task entails and how much work pressure it adds to their team.
Everyone is a beast of burden and your value is fleeting in the current situation.
I agree with the poster that at senior level this past layoff was just done and everyone complied. The algorithm was so stupid not sure how any logical person would do this.
I am a case study, 20 years and first level 4 walked with 5' to pack my cube. Oh got fee promos, have five offers and starting in a month says I wasn't dead wood... Sad to watch the titanic continue to take water.
To me this is a symptom as to how mindless and illogical the guy at the top is, as long as he is there expect more stupidity!
Agree @ufv - too many meetings without reason and inefficient.
Management do no work.
Meetings make management feel like they are doing something.
60% of Management should be rid off - not through package, but termination for cost saving - because their failure to perform with minimal resources.
Capable Manager/Directors should be able to take up the work load created by layoffs. There is no excuse for Manager/Directors to not take up tasks or responsibilities which relate to their team. Intel makes poor choices in who their manager/directors should be - they have no clue what is involved in workload, steps or tasks of their subordinates.
As well...
Intel culture of forced weekly 1:1 with the manager are a total waste of time, only serve to permit the manager to take their frustrations out on you. In private, without any witnesses. Weekly staff meetings are to get updates of all team members in an open forum, with transparency.
Anywhere else, in any other company - you have a 1:1 with a person with a goal or purpose, on a need basis. Having a forced 1:1 with your boss is if you are in trouble or struggling with work.
More H1Bs should have been laidoff.
I really believe that internally there's too many people talking and too few doing the work. Most colleagues have 50% or more of their time in meetings after meetings, even night meetings and early morning meetings. This have been going on for years. One simple change require meetings after meetings to get buy off from every possible colleague and groups. Everyone in high level decision making is just trying to cover their own behind instead of making the right decision! it's all about guarding their own turf!
"survival of the fittest"
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How visible you are in the org. chart.
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How will and how important you are helping your lead or manager requirements ( it might be technical or non technical or parties or any time work or slavery whatever )
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Its expected ... The performance bar will be raised every year. whoever is not able to keep them up to the mark will be laid off based on performance
:-) Restless life but no other go :-)
Growth may not be as fast as expected. Lot of middle level changes or newbies will occupy based on company growth If so further head count will be reduced.
Run Run till you can.
Finally most of my colleagues are working under pressure just the same work round the clock ... No space or time to think and work. off-course all the companies are the same.