Hewlett-Packard – “Still Enjoy it but not sure how stable it is”

I agree with some of your statements - good engineers - but the management and projects in IPG are really bad and mismanaged. Where I work, it really doesn't depend if you work your butt off or not - it's whose but you kiss is all that matters.

I really can't understand your scoring or how you can possibly approve of Mark Hurd. Hurd is a non thinking bot who's only out to fill his pockets from the blood of the employees. He has no original thought - he's only a "cut" guy and his lack of business sense will come back to really damage the company. The morale where I work is a 1, people hate senior management (and management in general), there are no opportunities, the work/life balance sucks and .... Basically, HP is a terrible place to work. Over 80% of the people in my area are looking for other jobs.

I really don't agree with your scoring. I can 'understand' you comments, but HP is a much worse place to work for than what you wrote.

Where do you work and what do you do? How long have you been with the company? Please reply and thanks.

I understand your comments and I have heard the same comments from many others. I really think a person's experience is a product of the managers that surround them. I just have not had bad managers. Maybe I have been lucky.
As far as Mark Hurd is concerned - I really have a hard time passing judgment on the people that are so many levels above me. I don't know what they face day to day, I have no idea what it takes to do that job, because I have never done it. Quite often I compare bashing the CEOs in the same light as when I hear people bashing a pro football coach the day after the a big loss. Everyone wants to talk about what the coach should be doing in order to win. And I think, how can they think they have a clue on coaching a football team. Do they really think they have more experience and knowledge than this coach - if they know so much, why are they not coaching somewhere.
I am not a CEO, because I have no idea what that takes. I have a hard time questioning their decisions as I know I am not exposed to the data they are when they make particular decisions. Mark Hurd might be exactly what you say he is, my take is – I just have no idea. I think it is obvious that one of Mark Hurd’s goals is to keep the stock price up and although we may not agree with his methods, he has a boss too - that would be the stock holders. Wouldn’t it be the stock holders we want to hold accountable for the “keep the stock rising at all cost” attitude. Mark continues to get bonuses and rewards so the powers that be must be telling him to keep going on the path he is on.
I think the bottom line is, in our industry, life has become tougher. There are an army of people overseas willing to do our jobs for much much much cheaper. And each day I feel like I am trying to prove my worth so they will keep me, which adds stress. But this seems like it is just something I have to deal with (or I can walk away - it's my choice). If HP has become a bad place to work for many, nothing speaks louder than walking away. If there are better places to work, I’m sure people will find them.

Thanks for the thoughtful comments.

I appreciate your thoughts on not judging Mark Hurd too harshly, but I will stand by my initial thoughts - he is not a nice guy. I worked under a number of previous CEO's (John Younge and Lou Platt) and both of these guys were of a totally different caliber of person than Mark Hurd. The employees used to be very happy to work at HP, now over 80% of the people in my area want to leave. The employees used to be empowered to make decisions, now we need to get management approval for every mundane decision and we don't have enough money to have a descent supply of pencils and paper.

I truly don't believe that Mark Hurd is accountable to anyone - that is the problem. If the "stock holders" could see how he is destroying the companies ability to do *any* research and development, they would (or should) be upset - for the life blood of HP is innovation. Right now - Mark Hurds lack of leadership and "stupid" fixation on cost cutting has meant that HP is "eating it's seed crop" - that is - we will be dependent upon the innovation of the engineer working for the ODM manufacturer in China. The USA will be nothing but a bunch of bureacratic excel jockeys who do nothing but have red/yellow/green boxes on some fictatious metric sheet that looks good to mindless managers - but there will be NO meaningful innovation. This is the environment that Mark Hurd is fostering in HP today.

Yes, people will have to leave in mass numbers before management will change. But...I think that it will be too late. HP will only be the shell of its once great self - nothing more than a name. HP used to attract the best engineers. I recently talked to a new hire and he told me that HP was his 4th choice for a company, and now he's looking to leave. This place will implode like a house of cards. My only concern is that I own way too much stock and I'm trying to figure out how to sell the stuff.

I'm sure that there are better places to work - I have had numerous friends leave and I've never had one want to come back. My HP location is a real caustic sweat shop...