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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:	The Digital way of working

Moderator:	QUARK::LIONELON

Created:	Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5321
Total number of notes:	139771

570.0. "DEC Facts and Fantasies" by DR::BLINN (I'm pink, therefore I'm Spam) Thu Jul 14 1988 21:36

From:	DSSDEV::EPPES "An opera is a song of bigly size.  14-Jul-1988 1554" 14-JUL-1988 16:07
Subj:	Just gimme the facts

[forwarding removed]

From:	COGMK::RUDNICK "This note's for you.  13-Jul-1988 1345" 13-JUL-1988 13:47
Subj:	fun digital facts...

                            DEC FACTS

o  10% of DEC's people are in engineering
o  26% of DEC's people are in manufacturing - this number is declining
   by 5% every 3 years
o  Sales, service and marketing = most of corporation
o  38% of people are outside USA
o  123,762 people
o  50% of our revenue comes from outside of the USA
o  We are #38 in FORTUNE "500" Co.
o  DEC is based in 80 or 90 countries
o  1/2 of all of DEC has been in the company under 5 yrs
o  Average age of DEC employees is 37
o  In U.S., 1 out of every 4 DEC employees is in their 30's
o  7% of U.S. has 1 husband, non-working wife and 2 children
o  College grads are not in 20's but 30's, many are women 
o  33,00 people in Massachusetts work for DEC; DEC is largest employer in 
   Mass.  
o  12,000 people in N.H. work for DEC
o  50,000 in New England work for DEC
o  70,000 in the U.S.A. work for DEC
o  Some California employees want phones in their cars and would
   like to work from their homes because the average speed on highways,
   to and from work, is only 33 mph because of excessive traffic;
   therefore, much valuable time is lost in the comute 

From:	STAR::OBERLIN      14-JUL-1988 13:33
To:	DSSDEV::EPPES
Subj:	Now these are the REAL DECfacts...courtesy of Pete McVay.   -Barbara 

From:	BYU::MCVAY "Pete McVay, VRO5-2/Y3 273-5339  14-Jul-1988 1314" 14-JUL-1988 13:20:08.17
To:	STAR::OBERLIN,MCVAY       
Subj:	The inevitable reply

Some more DEC statistics, based on SWAG information:

	o 95% of all DEC engineers work in areas designed to get them
	  out of the way of the general public.

	o 15% of all DEC products work by magic.

	o 1 out of every 5 employees applies for a project deadline
	  extension weekly.

	o 5 out of every 7 projects is cancelled.

	o 18 employees have the full-time job of dreaming up code names like
	  ARGUS, RAINBOW, and HYDRA.

	o Approximately 285 people in the Mill have been lost for over 4
	  years.

	o 78% of the customers in any Chinese Restaurant in Eastern
	  Massachusetts work for Digital.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
570.1		BINKLY::WINSTON	Jeff Winston (Hudson, MA)	`Thu Jul 14 1988 21:41`	10
	> College grads are not in 20's but 30's, many are women don't understand, all the college grads we hire are in their 20's. Many are women. >o 33,00 people in Massachusetts work for DEC; DEC is largest employer in > Mass. typo, 33,000?
570.2		INFACT::NORTHERN	Filling the unforgiving minute	`Fri Jul 15 1988 04:14`	6
	I don't understand about having 1 husband and a non-working wife... But then, it is 11 O'clock... - Lou
570.3	???	SHAPES::KERRELLD	It's got to be nerfect	`Fri Jul 15 1988 07:57`	15
	re .0: >o 33,00 people in Massachusetts work for DEC; DEC is largest employer in > Mass. >o 12,000 people in N.H. work for DEC >o 50,000 in New England work for DEC >o 70,000 in the U.S.A. work for DEC ------- 135,300 Which is more than; >o 123,762 people Dave.
570.4		BUNYIP::QUODLING	It's my foot! I'll Shoot it!	`Fri Jul 15 1988 10:07`	7
	re .-1 Mass and N.H. (33,000 and 12,000) are both part of New England (50,000). New England is of course part of the total U.S.A. (although there are those that would question that...) q
570.5		QBUS::MITCHAM	Andy in Atlanta	`Fri Jul 15 1988 11:54`	5
	> o DEC is based in 80 or 90 countries Which is it, 80 or 90? -Andy
570.6	Confusing language, eh?	TWEED::D_MONTGOMERY	doo doo doo doo doo	`Fri Jul 15 1988 12:13`	16
	: :> College grads are not in 20's but 30's, many are women : :don't understand, all the college grads we hire are in their 20's. :Many are women. What - DEC won't hire a person who gets a degree after the age of 30 ? The "figure" (as I understand it) means that DEC hires a lot of older college graduates. Of course, it could also mean that most of DEC's degreed employees are in their 30's -- even if they got their degrees 10 years ago in their 20's. I like the "Chinese Restaurant" statistic. 8-] -Don-
570.7	Who counted all those people?	MEMV01::TROY		`Fri Jul 15 1988 19:03`	4
	Maybe we can send out the 123,763rd employee to count the number of countries DEC's in... Karen
570.8	43% of all statistics invented while-you-wait	SMURF::REEVES	Jon Reeves, ULTRIX compiler group	`Fri Jul 15 1988 21:34`	11
	>o 38% of people are outside USA >o 123,762 people Gives 76,732 or so inside the USA, which is close enough to >o 70,000 in the U.S.A. work for DEC As for the other numbers, I though Raytheon was the largest employer in Mass. and DEC was number 2, or did that really change? Incidentally, I only count 71 countries in the latest phone book, 31 of which have only "distributor" or "reseller" listings. Whether this counts as "based in" I leave to the reader's judgement...
570.9		BUNYIP::QUODLING	It's my foot! I'll Shoot it!	`Sat Jul 16 1988 01:56`	14
	re .-1 > Incidentally, I only count 71 countries in the latest phone book, > 31 of which have only "distributor" or "reseller" listings. Whether > this counts as "based in" I leave to the reader's judgement... This would nopt include a number of countries that we dont bother listing in the phone book. i.e. We have an engineer in Papua New Guinea, and in Fiji there is a office with 4 people. q
570.10	disclaimer	BINKLY::WINSTON	Jeff Winston (Hudson, MA)	`Sat Jul 16 1988 02:18`	13
	>: >:> College grads are not in 20's but 30's, many are women >: >:don't understand, all the college grads we hire are in their 20's. >:Many are women. > > > What - DEC won't hire a person who gets a degree after the age > of 30 ? sorry - should have said "most" - we certainly have no rule against and no problem with hiring college grads in their 30s - was just commenting that ALMOST all I HAD SEEN were in their 20s, this disagreed with the original statement "not in 20s but in 30s"
570.11	It's not easy to count the countries	HGOVC::YCPOON	Y.C. Poon from Hong Kong	`Mon Jul 18 1988 05:35`	4
	We have offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China Mainland (PRC). Do you count them as one country? ;-) Hope this is not too political for this conference.
570.12	Not fresh out of college	REGENT::BROOMHEAD	Don't panic -- yet.	`Mon Jul 18 1988 16:17`	6
	.10, etc. It just means that most of the people, who have college degrees, are in their thirties now. Ann B.
570.13	Revenue per employee...	TILTS::CZARNECKI	Eschew obfuscation.	`Tue Jul 19 1988 18:33`	4
	In Q3 of FY88 each of the 123,762 employees produced $22,817.84 of our total operating revenues.
570.14		BUNYIP::QUODLING	Anything! Just play it loud!	`Wed Jul 20 1988 06:44`	7
	I beg to differ... I produced much more than that. Rather a small amount isn't it? q
570.15	DEC is poor on that measure	REGENT::POWERS		`Wed Jul 20 1988 12:45`	9
	.13 reports a QUARTERLY figure The Datamation 100 reports that DEC's computer and information systems revenue per employee was $89K for 1987, about 4 times the quarterly figure in .13. Ans yes, it IS a small number. DEC's revenue per employee is the lowest in the top ten of the Datamation 100 and 16th out of the top 20. IBM is $139.2K, HP is $98.7K, and Apple is $383.7K!
570.16	RE: .8, I think you are right	MEMORY::CASSIDY	Do, or do not. There is no try.	`Wed Jul 20 1988 12:46`	11
	> < Note 570.8 by SMURF::REEVES "Jon Reeves, ULTRIX compiler group" > > -< 43% of all statistics invented while-you-wait >- > > As for the other numbers, I though Raytheon was the largest employer > in Mass. and DEC was number 2, or did that really change? As far as I remember, Raytheon has more than 33K employees in Mass. so is still number one. I remember the number being up in the 40K range, with ~70K employees world-wide. Charlie
570.17	Needs slight upward adjustment	TLE::SAVAGE	Neil, @Spit Brook	`Wed Jul 20 1988 12:57`	8
	Re: .13: That figure is obtained by taking the revenue total for the three months ended March, 26, 1988 from the Q3 Report FY88 and dividing it by the current number of employees. Obviously, all 123,762 haven't worked for us for three months starting back in late December 1987, so the figures must be adjusted upward somewhat.
570.18	$22k/quarter=$88k/year	TILTS::CZARNECKI	Eschew obfuscation.	`Thu Jul 21 1988 00:03`	3
	$22K (per quarter)X4=$88K/employee....pretty close.
570.19		BOSHOG::TAM	Life's a b*tch, but you keep living !!!	`Fri Jul 22 1988 13:22`	7
	I think we have sites in 91 countries. I can't confirm it as I misplaced my notes to a recent meeting that produced this statistic. Yes, I frequent Chinese restaurants, esp. in chinatown peter
570.20	Internal Guide to Org's Wrong?	NAAD::BATES	The Right Stuff	`Sat Jul 23 1988 01:30`	11
	from: Internal Guide to Digital Organizations revised 30-Jun-88 Chapter 1, Page 1 Digital has about 1000 sales, service, manufacturing, administrative and engineering sites in 64 countries and employs more than 119,000 people worldwide. -Joe
570.21	more info about those 'Californians'	SRFSUP::GOETZE	Picture this: an artist working for a computer company	`Wed Jul 27 1988 00:22`	23
	re: the original statement about Californians wanting carphones... I'd say that this is something most of the people in this office want, and the statistic about 33mph is not particularly useful in describing the commute down the San Diego freeway to DEC's Los Angeles office (LAO). A more illuminating piece of data is that this freeway has two of the worlds three most busy intersections in the world on it. That is, the intersection of the San Diego and Santa Monica freeways is the busiest, and then the intersection of the San Diego and the Ventura freeways is the next or possibly third busiest, in the world. What this means to the many DEC employees travelling to work on the 405 or San Diego freeway is, that there are not one but several zones approaches these intersections where traffic appears to average 0 to 5mph, and if you are lucky there are zones where you can get up to 33mph. Carphones would allow sales reps and similarly busy folks to make some use of all those hours spent inhaling that fifteen year old Pinto's plume of carbon monoxide ahead of your car. Its even worse going downtown, where we are reportedly opening a new office. The freeways going downtown seem to have more 20 year old trucks with giant clouds of noxious gases settling in the hot air. The big question is, are we going to die first from diesel asphyxiation, or stress overload from the crazy actions car drivers here are resorting to?
570.22	Fat dumb and happy in Idaho	EDFVZ0::B_WOOD	Brian [>*<] Wood	`Tue Aug 23 1988 17:49`	6
	I wonder if everyone in L.A. had a car phone, how many area codes would have to be added. At last count, there are only 2 unassigned numbers. It would probably be better if Digital allowed you to work out of your home if you lived in L.A. Of course, those of us in the less populated western states question if there is intelligent life in Southern California.
570.23		EAGLE1::EGGERS	Tom, 293-5358, VAX Architecture	`Tue Aug 23 1988 20:14`	4
	Are you questioning: 1. The intelligence, 2. The existence of life, or 3. The existence of Southern California?
570.24	Good questions.....	SCOMAN::BOURGAULT	I have a story to tell.....	`Wed Aug 24 1988 07:29`	3
	Re: .23 Yes. - Ed - :-)
570.25	too much smog?	PH4VAX::MCBRIDE	the syntax is 6% in this state	`Fri Aug 26 1988 20:40`	4
	My brother, who lives(?) in San Diego, believes that a true "Southern Californian" is only concerned about damage to his genes if he is forced to sit on a known carcinogen. Not knowing any of that breed myself I'm forced to accept his opinion.
570.26	Don't take an Angeleno's reply seriously	SRFSUP::GOETZE	The Ultimate Artistic Mac Resource	`Wed Aug 31 1988 00:34`	26
	re.22 on running out of area codes... Actually PacBell Cellular is a DEC customer, so if we all got car phones, Digital would see some of that money back. But there is a more scarce resource that would run out before area codes... airwaves! There is only so many frequencies allocated for cellular conversations, and when those run out, tough luck. Further more, there are something like 3 million cars in LA area, but how many of those could afford carphones at $0.45 per minute? Not that many, I'm sure. And there's four area codes to choose from, I believe they ask you what area code you want when you sign up for a C.P. Intel-ligent life? they're up in Santa Clara, I think. Working on the 486. You're right, there's very little intelligent life here in LA or SoCal. Its really come down to just a few unlucky folks who didn't party hard enough during the seventies and as a result still have their brains intact. Imagine the pain of trying to communicate with all those human water buffaloes out there. It's really ghastly. If you could convince all those New Yorkers and Jerseyites to go home, we could get back to being laid-back. Tired of cliches yet? Its so easy to knock LA, but its been done before...