Conference 7.286::digital

re basenote, I don't expect my opinions to be taken too seriously since I'm 
about to leave, but I'd suggest:

- stop laying off competent people, but find profitable positions for them to
  participate in; get people working, the opportunities are there!

- don't lock skilled people into dead-end jobs.

- solve the problem of `too many chiefs, not enough indians'

- expenses; pay up front where possible, and where not possible, reimburse the
  employee promptly.

- cash distribution; stop wasting money on pointless excercises such as the
  never ending reorganisations, and stop penny pinching in areas where people
  need equipment and other resources to do their job.

- stop the pay freezes and pay people what they're worth.

- scrap the bonus based `incentive schemes'; they don't pay out, and are
  consquently demoralising.

- concentrate on what the company can do, and stop trying to be `trendy'.

- don't patronise the employees.

- let people get on with their jobs!

Just my thoughts,

Chris.

Nah, it would never work!

//atp

    Eric,
    
    A leopard does not changed its spots. I don't buy that you are
    suddenly all nice and rather altruistic.

Starting a "make-nice, kissy-kissy topic" does not sound like Eric to me.

Jim

    re .0 "make-nice, kissy-kissy"
    
    I think you've just shown your contempt for anyone who tries to enter a
    serious reply to this string.
    
    Rob Wall
    

> Starting a "make-nice, kissy-kissy topic" does not sound like Eric to me.

  Quick, somebody check the PGP authentication!

                                   Atlant

    Sheesh - it seems like April Fool's Day is about a week long this year!
    
    -Mark
    

    Re .3:
    
    Who cares if I'm nice or not.  Now you've got a place to post good
    ideas to make Digital and employees into a team.  Take it as a
    challenge to the people who called my other topic divisive as a
    challenge to put their money where their mouth is.  If they were really
    against the testing idea because it was divisive, and not for other
    reason, then they will put as much energy into suggesting team-building
    ideas.  Let's see them.
    
    
    				-- edp
    
    
Public key fingerprint:  8e ad 63 61 ba 0c 26 86  32 0a 7d 28 db e7 6f 75
To find PGP, read note 2688.4 in Humane::IBMPC_Shareware.

    Ok, here's the first one:  free beer.

Grahame - ok if it's Budweiser? Or were you planning to supply us from your
own stock? :-)

				Steve

    would I be divisive I asked for coffee?
    
    Mark

    Beer = Budweisser  ???

I was yanking Grahame's chain - I know that he is a home-brewer.  (Also,
there's a Budweiser plant a few miles from ZKO.)

				Steve

    The suggestions in .1 are actually pretty good.  I'd like to see more
    along those lines.
    
    
    				-- edp
    
    
Public key fingerprint:  8e ad 63 61 ba 0c 26 86  32 0a 7d 28 db e7 6f 75
To find PGP, read note 2688.4 in Humane::IBMPC_Shareware.

BUD is out.  In a pinch it could suffice.  Prestone works in desperation.

If only there were a way to maintain or increase my current standard of living,
I would have no problem changing careers from software engineer to softdrink
engineer.  I would, of course, have to learn a new vernacular.  Let's see, is
that pass gas by value, reference or descriptor?

My job code changed recently from senior software engineer to engineering
supervisor.  You will all please excuse me whilst I duck out and take an IQ test.

Grahame

    actually, 'free beer' could be substantially modified into 'you won't
    be fired if you have a beer on premises in your office after 5pm friday
    afternoon, or at any other vaguely appropriate time, as determined by
    yourself, because we actually do trust you to behave appropriately.'
    
    Silicon Valley is a heckuva place to work for Digital.  One wishes 
    we could remove one more of what is reputed to be among our teetotaling
    founders' legacy policies, and throw a beer bust like any normal firm
    in the valley.
    
    DougO

    DougO, I'm surprised!  :-)  Isn't there a pub located real close to
    the DBTC in Palo Alto?
    
    Mark

at least 3, maybe 6 or more nearby depending on your definition of close.

    the problem, gentlebeings, is that you get sneered at if you sling open
    your laptop in said establishments.  On nights I'm working late, eating
    fast food, it'd sure be nice if enjoying my chosen libation at my desk 
    wasn't a firing offense.
    
    DougO

Is it still? It really *is* about time for a change, methinks.

Peet

    .16 hi dougo - how're you?
    
    	I agree, we  need a beer bust, which is rather civilly done
        in the valley anyway. So doesn't the group go to BlueChalk
        anymore?

    fine here, Ashikin, but they gave me a new hat to wear and its keeping
    me working nights ;-).  A person works up a thirst that way.  
    
    DougO

    Since Eric has reiterated his call for serious suggestions about team
    building, I for one will take it at face value and suggest a few:
    
    1) Keep the "incentive pay" idea, but make it an honest incentive. Too
    many managers in Digital are using it as a "bait-and-switch" tactic,
    where the target is abstract, or the employee is unable to see any
    feasible way of meeting the target. Or even worse, where the metrics
    and conditions are calculated to virtually exclude the possibility of
    actually getting paid the full amount of the incentive. I've heard it
    referred to as the "Carnival game" approach, you know, the ones where
    you're supposed to toss a 3-inch ring over a 4-inch pole to win the
    giant stuffed panda bear, and you always get the 5 cent prize instead ...
    
    2) Palmer said that Digital can't afford to pay people more, and then
    qualified it by saying that the company must sometimes pay more, when
    it must compete with other companies to retain certain skills. He did
    seem to recognize that he was losing some skilled people, but perhaps
    he and others at the SLT level don't realize what those losses are
    doing to the day-to-day operations of the company. Does he or anyone
    else have a strategic "map" of the required skillsets vs. positions
    in the company, and is it accurate? I don't believe he does. In the
    absence of this, it seems that every employee must do this for himself,
    and communicate this to his management. The people who have survived
    the layoffs the best are the ones who communicate,  making sure that the
    managers know what they do, and how well they do it. If you take for
    granted that your manager (or their manager) is aware of your overall
    performance and value to the company, then you are in trouble.
    
    3) Give away Alphas to anyone who will write a line of application
    code for it. Applications sell systems, and we are woefully short of
    applications that justify the higher price of an Alpha system. We have
    internal dogfights galore about the technical superiority of one chip
    over another, but the first question a *customer* asks is whether or
    not the software they want runs on it. I've had to answer that with a
    "NO" too many times. One potential developer I talked to said he'd
    rather try to get a rebate from the IRS than to try and get help from
    Digital to do a port of his code. At the same time, I saw piles of
    workstations sitting unused in other Digital facilities, locked up in
    cost center or cross-charge battles, or some such nonsense.
    
    4) Everybody else says it, and I'll say it, too: Digital is a difficult
    company to buy something from. We can't quote it right, we can't sell
    it through this channel, we can't deliver it on time, we can't send the
    right invoice to the right person, and we can't find the paperwork to
    honor the warranty or service contract after the fact. Change this, or
    the company will strangle in its own red tape. As long as we have 15
    different order numbers at 15 different prices that refer to the same
    physical part, we deserve to get kicked in the butt by HP, Compaq, etc.
    
    5) Remember one of the qualities that got us to the top: service. We
    still have something of a reputation left for service, but it may start
    fading fast, especially with the ongoing MCS layoffs and deconstruction
    of the SI organization. The one thing to our benefit is that all of our
    competitors are getting even worse press about service levels than we
    are. I see customers waking up to the true costs and benefits of full
    service at the desktop and department levels, and that buying cut-rate
    hardware with no service isn't such a great deal after all. We need to
    truly fulfill all of our existing committments to quality service, and
    develop some leading-edge marketing for new service offerings. But it
    will take a major blow to the heads of certain product groups to get
    them quit with the proprietary Digital-only approach. Our alliance with
    Microsoft is a good start, but we need similar alliances with network
    tool vendors, database vendors, and strategic applications vendors. Our
    people should walk into an account armed with the latest and jazziest
    tools, no matter who developed them. We should put as much effort into
    developing service processes as we do into engineering processes. And
    we should be able to go head-to-head with anyone (including the Big 6)
    in our target areas of expertise.
    
    We've always positioned ourselves as a "solutions" company, but that
    concept seems to be going out of vogue with many customers. To me, the
    main opportunity is to be the "execution" company, who can relied on to
    execute the solution right the first time. Andersen, EDS, D&T, et al.,
    are all considered solutions companies too, but all are starting to
    show weak spots when it comes to actually doing a quality job. I don't
    know if Digital has the management wherewithal to do a better job than
    the others, but it's the only window of opportunity I see ...
    
    Anyway, if you've read this far down the note, then I will reward you
    for your perserverance with this: That's all for now ...
    
    Geoff