Conference 7.286::digital

    yup, same down here - let go one salesrep who brought in more NEW
    business than TWO entire sales units - much of that in colleges and
    universities - its my understanding that 'personnell' picked the layoff
    candidates this time, and that noone (the managers responsible for
    'tapping the shoulders' were allowed to question this - what if someone
    made a data entry error???) - sheer madness - if proves that if you
    work hard and exceed your goals, you can still be hosed....
    
    Its not digital anymore, its DEC now...

    Unless I missed something in the past two days, Has this great event
    graced the pages of the WSJ or any other publication of merit other
    that Digital Today?
    
    Second issuse with regards to body count, does anyone have a clue as to
    the overall numbers involved this week? My information is that our
    Accounts Group (aka District) was told to cut 10% - 12%, that would be
    about 10 people. I know of 4.
    
    It seems we are all be told only want we need to know about this event.
    
    FJK

    re -.1
    
    The Burlington Free Press (Vermont) had an article this morning that
    places the body count for the current "activities" at 800.  Note that 
    this number was provided by a Digital spokesperson, your mileage may
    vary.
    
    -Mike

A large organization in the Wash, DC area (DCC) that consisted of
approximately 180 reduced headcount close to 50-55 on Monday.

Additionally, numerous sales support and sales reps were let go
as well. Again, many of them who made 145% + of budget.

clc

re: .1

The selection process alluded to, if accurate, is nothing short of apalling.

-Jack

    
    It seems as long as you do absolutely nothing, you'll keep your job.
    
    /prc

    
    re: .6
    
    It's called the F.U.M.U. idiocy....(F*%#-Up, Move-Up).
    
    

    Over the last two days the Central States Chicago districts "packaged"
    40 sales and sales support employees. No managers to date. This is a
    district that was one of the tops in Sales and Services for the ending
    fiscal year. Again there were Sales Reps who were 140% of budget and
    at least one Unix sales support employee...but no managers to date!

    re -1
    
    BINGO!  NOW we're talking.
    
    Mark

But maybe these folks who made 145% of budget were guilty of other heinous
crimes...like refusing to Double Up on hotel rooms or abusing Post-Its...

:^(

BTW, Live Wire for a couple of minutes this morning had a dummy article
about Downsizing in US Field (had no pages when you chose it) but then that
went away.  I hope the trainers at Heald Pond administer a crash course on
the importance of good communication this year!
								paul

    re .5 ..... how in the world can you describe this fiasco as a
    "process"?  It's ORGANIZED CHAOS, MINUS ONLY DIGNITY, as was so
    aptly stated by a correspondent in another notesfile.
    
    I guess the silver lining is that if so many of these sales folk
    are really that good, they should have no problem getting work with
    the competition.  I hope somebody is cringing at the possibilities.
    
    ........and the death spiral continues.

    Actually, the way in which this fiasco is being administered reminds
    me of an old Army "joke".
    
    Seems a platoon sergeant was notified during the night that the mother
    of one of his men, Johnson, had died.
    
    At morning formation the sergeant call his men to attention and barked:
    
        "EVERYONE WHO HAS A MOTHER TAKE ONE STEP FORWARD.......JOHNSON,
         STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!!!"

Tuesday's NY Times had a small article stating that 800 were layed off on
Monday, and stock went up over $3.00 

I wonder how much the stock would go up if everybody was layed off. :-(

    re: .-1
    
    The reason for the increase in the stock price was one of the major
    brokerage houses issued a recommendation to sell IBM and buy DEC.
    
    Dan

    RE .10:
    
    I heard a rumor that it only displayed to those who were "chosen",
    and simply said "CONGRATULATIONS! You've been downsized.".
    
    	:-)

                      <<< Note 1526.14 by EMASS::MURPHY >>>
    >>                     -< not because of the layoff >-

    >>The reason for the increase in the stock price was one of the major
    >>brokerage houses issued a recommendation to sell IBM and buy DEC.
    
         ...and possibly, one of the reasons why that brokerage house
    issued that recommendation was the layoff?
    
                                      Greg
    

    	I am afraid that the last reply is quite accurate. Several
    brokerage houses that were initially recommending to stay away from
    DIGITAL, before the announced "10,000 person layoff", are now
    recommending to buy. The more employees you have the higher your G&A
    and Overhead rates are and the lower your earning/employee ratio, which
    in turn lowers your earnings/share for the stock. One way for a company
    to increase its earnings/share when times are hard is to cut OH (that 
    means getting rid of you and me.)
    
    Brian

I believe one of the Boston Globe articles also indicated that the stock rose
because some of the brokerage houses were now expecting fourth quarter
earnings to be higher than previously expected.  If those new expectations
prove correct, it will a) be very good news; and b) having nothing to do
with layoffs in the new fiscal year.

   Gary

I read the story about the stock recommendation in USA Today.  The reason
given was that Digital's NAS products and ALL-IN-ONE products were
establishing themselves as leaders over the equivalent IBM offerings....

No mention of lay-offs...

I'd like to use it in VNS. Mike tells me it was a short article from July 9th
or 10th. It can be mailed to:
			Tracy Talcott
			ZKO2-3/R56

I'll pull this note as soon as I hear one is on the way.

						Trace

> ALL-IN-ONE products were

Just to be picky... our trademark/copyright requires that we use the
correct name;  ALL-IN-1  (all caps, numeral "1").

BTW, could it be possible that someone "leaked" rumors of higher earnings 
at the same time as the "downsizing" to help mask the real reason for the 
stock rise (the layoffs) ???

    I'd still like to see "how many and where" info posted here
    
    thankx,
    
    don

    North Central end-user, about 90 people, tk 20-25.  Number was
    probably inflated cuz the DM was one of those snookered by the
    "CODs will be free for 2 years" bait and switch.  Turned out to be
    more like "free for 3 months."  The CODs were hit hard, as were
    young salesreps, and the old guys hired from the outside into Sales
    Support to be industry specialists during Chick Shue's heyday.
    
    Unsubstantiated word is that 120 fell out of Chicago, and a similar
    number from Atlanta sales.  Still wondering what happened in New
    York City, but with the economy there it had to be significant...
    Supposedly San Francisco got whomped.
    
    MrT

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Paul


    
    Hello:

    Here in our office, in the "old district",  2 Sales Support people 
    were layed-off, three of us were "transitioned with one set of accounts
    to a different account group.

    One of the two Sales Support managers was given a position as 
    a "consultant" reporting to the other Sales Support manager.  
    That other manager was on vacation so the manager, who became a 
    consultant did the down-sizing of 2 people.

    Five Sales people were "down-sized" out the door.

    Interesting enough, I don't believe any Sales Support people that were
    COD's were let go, they all stayed.

    Also a meeting was held late Tuesday PM to discuss the events and even
    included the local EAP rep and personnel.

    At the end, the personnel person asked how people felt, one person
    said angry.

    The encouragement to continue talking came on.  The individual spoke of
    how one person cut had been sent out of town for two weeks.  That
    person worked 10 hours a day 6 days a week and did a good job, came
    back and was told the day after their return that they were gone.

    This person had worked for DEC for 8 years.

    Personnel then said how the cuts had nothing to do with performance
    but were "business decisions", and mentioned a little about the
    selection process.

Word has it that 22 Sales & Sales Support people were downsized in our
District, which is roughly 20%.

    Is anyone else getting the feeling that the "800" number of people
    laid off this week is a wee bit on the low side of reality?  From
    what I've been reading here and elsewhere, it sure looks like more
    than 800 to me.
    
    Also, if we've lost 10,000 people over the last year or so due to
    the various packages, and we started at around 124,900, then why
    do we still have 121,900?
    
    What's going on here?
    
    But then, I've been asking that question in a wide variety of
    specific contexts in the last few years.  I'm so appalled at
    what's been going on in the company (and particularly in my
    "alma mater" CTC) that I haven't even been able to gag up
    a reasonably articulate and coherent response.
    
    Chris

    Re: .28 I think that when DEC bought out that German Company this
    spring that those "headcount's" are now included in the total DEC
    population... maybe someone can verify this .......    <DICK>
    

    
    Also, (correct if wrong) there isn't a hiring freeze so there are new
    hires.
    
    Nick
    

    re: .30 (Hiring freeze)
    
    From Digital Today:
---------
    
Q: Will you selectively hire if someone special comes along?  Are we still
hiring?

A: At the present time, we are under a hiring freeze.
    
---------
    
    -- Russ

    I suspect Ayr may be hiring externally shortly to replace some of the
    people who walked (or have yet to do so) as part of a voluntary
    severance.  Daft?  Crazy?  Mismanaged?
    
    Ian.

    I read that as kind of a trick answer.  We have been under a hiring
    freeze for, what, two or three years now?  Just because we have a
    hiring freeze does not mean we're not hiring.  Also, I think it's
    pretty normal to have to rehire after laying off.  This isn't unique to
    Digital at all.  Over the short term it looks good.
    
    Steve

    ...speaking of that silly question-and-answer thing in Digital Today,
    I liked the way they avoided answering the question about why there
    were no voluntary separations.  Did we hire someone from the State
    Department or something??

    
    Maybe the Q/A was made up by the same person who selected the picture
    of the "Navy A-6A" fighter to accompany the "Intruder Training" article
    in the 15-July issue...
    

    Yeh, I noticed that too.  Wanted to bug the editor about it, but then
    remembered that they're probably all Massachusetts liberal-nicks, and
    couldn't be expected to know the difference.  Or, maybe they just
    think we're all that stupid.