Spectating the layoffs at Intel

Dear Bob …

Did you catch this news over at Intel yet (link below)? It’s about Intel’s internal layoff process (called by Intel, ‘redeployment’). The blogger I’ve linked to seems to be a manager that has to use certain criteria to keep or lay off employees and the struggles he/she has to go through to do so. The blogger is unhappy with the process:

http://intelperspective.blogspot.com/2007/09/izit4vsp.html

Here’s the original story from InfoWorld’s sister pub ComputerWorld:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9038359&intsrc=hm_list

I thought you might find these scenarios familiar in the sense of how companies make decisions and whether or not the mechanism will do what the company intends. And of course there’s the legal aspect.

In any case, the blog seems to be one process laid clear for all to see (Or to let Intel employees that might gripe know what’s involved? The blog appears honest enough, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see a company soft pedal it’s layoffs via a ‘candid’ blog describing the ‘pains’ a manager must go through to cut employees).

– Spectator

Dear Spectator …

I haven’t been following the story. If you’re looking for my take on it, recognizing that I don’t know a thing about the specifics beyond what I just read … well, what the heck – here goes:

Skills-based assessments, assuming Intel means what it says in using the term, ignore performance. It’s the exact same mistake many companies make when recruiting – they look at skills before they look at a track record of succeeding at assignments.

When recruiting, one of my guidelines is to avoid hiring anyone who has all of the skills needed for a position. Any applicant who has them all is probably coasting instead of pushing the envelope. I want people who want to push hard, not coast.

Here, the situation is a bit different, but not all that different. Employees who push hard and succeed might be earlier in the skills curve than more senior employees who have more skills but less motivation.

Which isn’t to criticize Intel too hard. Quite a few commenters lamented the lack of a voluntary separation package. My opinion, for whatever it’s worth, is that any attempt at meritocracy is better than none. If Intel is making a concerted effort to keep its best people, more power to it.

Nothing about massive layoffs is easy. Often, they could have been prevented through more disciplined management earlier on. There are also times when layoffs are nothing more than showboating for Wall Street.

This doesn’t appear to be a case of catering to the analysts, and while it’s easy to second-guess what Intel should have been doing for the past five years, it now appears to be facing a tough situation in a forthright way.

In the absence of any better ideas, I figure I should give them the benefit of the doubt.

– Bob

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