MathWorks – “not happy with the company's handling of layoffs”

Hi anonymous,

I agree with you, but I think the problem is more fundamental. In good times, anyone can manage, and it's easy to assume that good results are due to brilliant management/wonderful company culture. In bad times, these assumptions are questioned. Management is so poor at the MathWorks they can't face telling employees the truth. When times get better, it's going to be very hard to start talking about openness and accountability.

What really disgusts me is the comments some managers have made about those laid off. It's bad enough to sneakily lay people off, but disparaging the people who've been laid off is terrible.

Poor management has permanently damaged the company culture.

HR monitors this website. HR people - for once in your life do something to add value and get Jack Little to wake up.

Unfortunately, there's no good way to handle layoffs. Most places are worse. Most common is the "big bang" approach, where the 10% being laid off are gathered, given the "it's nothing personal, it's a business decision" speech and then given 1 hour to clear out, while the other 90% are gathered and told "there's been a 'resource action', you're not affected, now get back to work and don't let it bother you". And the 2 groups cross paths on their way out of their meetings, one tearful and the other awkward and not sure how to show sympathy. Is this better than the MW approach? At least MW handles it discreetly and individually. I do agree the execs could be a little more forthcoming when asked directly about layoffs in a company meeting, but ... does that really matter so much? If Jack had say "yeah, we're laying people off", what would you do - hide under your desk? :-)

To anonymous coward: There is no culture. Previously when people talk about Mathworks, they usually would add that it never laid off anyone. How about now? I mean by all means a corporate should downsize itself if its finance becomes progressively worse. But is the finance of Mathworks really this bad?

To Mathworks Apologist: I know I wouldn't need to hide under my desk, for I know Jack will never say that, he is too proud to admit that.

As far as I have seen, most of the people who were let go were dead wood. They were not adding much value in the first place. A good crisis is a terrible thing to waste and I think Jack is using it to clean house as much as he can. Despite these trickling cuts, we are far from being lean and efficient. In my estimation, there is at least 10-15% of the work force who have zero impact on our revenues and they could be let go. Unfortunately, most of these hide behind abstract notions of value which is hard to measure and they get away with banker's hours.

To MathWorks Apologist:
Just a couple of comments:

1. "there's no good way, etc" -- typical MathWorks speak. What's my takeaway here- that there's no good way, so mine is just as good as yours?

2. What would I do if Jack admitted that layoffs were taking place? I'd have more respect for him and the culture he's created. Honesty and straight talk matter..

3. I'll take the 10% speech any day over the trashing of laid off employees. You imply that the discreet way is classier, yet you ignore the comments about how ex-employees are openly disparaged. So much for the "MathWorks is classier, more sensitive" argument.

layoff = "termination without regards to performance"

Have you seen any high performers being "laid off" ?

In reply to Anonymous #2: The takeaway is simply this: I've seen layoffs at a few companies. No matter how it is handled, there is always some anger. Glassdoor reviews posted while in that state of anger need to taken with a grain of salt. Like a character reference from an ex-wife the day after the divorce.

To point #3, I agree that trash-talking is never classy, whether it's disparaging laid-off employees or disparaging current employees. I don't think trash-talking is part of the MW culture, but in any organization of 2500 people there are bound to be a few jerks. Ignore them. They're jerks.

Look, I don't think MW is heaven on earth. It has its problems. For example, the need to review everything to death. Arghh! Just let me implement something, for f***'s sake! But it's a job in a bad economy, and in fairness, MW treats me decently compared to other companies I've worked at. So I put up with the frustrating parts and thank G*d or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or whoever is up there that I have a job with a company that is making money and is not Evil.

Jack, you should know your MATLAB syntax:

  >> layoff = "termination without regards to performance"
  ??? layoff = "termination without regards to perforance"
                        |
  Error: The input character is not valid in MATLAB statements or expressions.

:-)

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Hey Jack if that is you--
layoff can also mean "termination of an inordinate number of employees" which is going on at TMW. No one anywhere lays off their top performers if at all possible, so "layoff" doesn't mean "termination without regards to performance" to a lot of people. By your definition, layoffs almost never happen. Of course people lay off their lower performers. It's still a layoff.

So, by *YOUR* definition, yeah, there aren't any lay offs going on. So, that's not lying. But is it shading the truth. Yes, IMO.

Again, if this really is you, can so many people have it competely wrong? Hard to believe that.

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What's telling is that this 'debate' is going on here, but not within the company. There's too much fear for honest and open discussion. This would be as expected if it weren't for the company's moralistic stance. A big deal is made of the company culture and the company's core values. The core values include honesty, openness, and a 'rational workplace'. The way the layoffs have been handled render the core values meaningless.

Whoever is posting as Jack: if this is you, your posts represent an appalling lack of judgement. If it isn't Jack, posting as the CEO isn't right, it might seem funny, but it's disrespectful.

The comment about headcount is misleading. Worldwide headcount has only increased as a result of the company going direct in Japan. This has resulted in an additional 200 or so staff members. In Q3 alone, staff turnover was around 6% of total headcount (6% in one quarter!). Staff reductions have occurred outside the US too.

There are fundamental and deep rooted people problems at the MathWorks. The real shame of it is that there's no forum where these issues can be safely raised. The debate here gives some indications of the problems. The management (apologists) don't want to hear negative things and have the firm belief that everything's great. Personally, I'm aware of several people who are writing their resumes over the vacation time.

Wouldn't it be a shame if turnover hit 10% in Q1? What will it take to get the company to listen to its employees?

Hello again Jack.

So, times are normal there? Tons of employees think layoffs are going on, and even by my definition, you say there aren't. Whatever, I don't want to split hairs. It does, seem, though, that you have a real communication problem at TMW. Either you're right, and youre message isn't getting through, or you're wrong. Either way, it's not good.

Thanks for listening. I won't comment further; we're both entitled to opinions. Happy New Year!

"Jack" is correct about the definition. Go to www.dictionary.com and type in "layoff" and look at the "Financial Dictionary" definition:

    Layoff
    1. When a company eliminates jobs regardless of how good the employees' performance. [...]

If you think about the original usage of the term, from the manufacturing industries, they would lay off people based on seniority. The tech industry has mis-appropriated the term to mean any purge of lower-performing employees. That's not its actual definition.

This kind of debate can only occur outside of the company's server, no doubt about that. Someone had the guts to complain about the cafe in 'hassle', and it was collided head on with a blizzard of rebuffs. I am not totally agree with the author of the original post, but he was struck with force of such magnitude? come on!

Speaking of TMW staff who work on the banker's hours, I know at least a few. But what are you going to do with it? Some QEs are paid at top rank (even by the Mathwork's standard) but are doing minimal work like labors all day long worrying more about how to save some money on their house mortgages rather than how to improve the software quality.

TMW is definitely downsizing now, admit it or not. When it comes my turn, I would lick my wound and move on, maybe there lies a better path ahead for me, who knows. But I still expect the company to be more honest, open and forthcoming. Core value? I know it's joke, just do the right thing!

The people at MathWorks can be broadly classified as follows:

1. Those who take more than they give and still complain:
They are overpaid for what they contribute to the bottom-line and yet they can suffer no small inconvenience. They have a sense of entitlement that is not backed by either skills or contribution. No bananas when they walk in to work at 10:30 AM? Post to hassles.

2. Those who take a lot more than they give and know it:
These people do not complain because they know that they cannot get away with it anywhere else. They form the "dark-matter" at MathWorks. You cannot see them or feel them and yet you know that MathWorks spends 60% of its revenues on salaries.

3. Those who give more than they take and silently soldier on. These are the voices that no one hears, because they are too busy bringing home the bacon. This group constitutes no more than 20% and yet does 80% of the work.

A lot of the complaints here are from the noisy first group. I am not worried about the first group. It is the second group that is really dangerous for the future of the company as they are too many and too entrenched.

Next time you feel like complaining, ask yourself this questions:

1. When was the last time you worked more than 8 hrs in a given day or on a weekend?
2. When was the last time you felt stressed that there was too much work ?
3. When was the last time you had to deliver anything by a deadline ?
4. When was the last time you did something that had a real impact on MathWorks revenue ?
5. When was the last time you produced something tangible other than attend meetings ?

I agree with Anonymous. There are a *lot* of people who add no value and do almost nothing. Unfortunately, these people drag everyone else down. Ultimately, this is all bad management, but while the company makes money, no-one cares. Hopefully there will be some much-needed turnover in senior management so we can clean out the deadwood. Better to make these kinds of changes while we are in a good financial position, than having to make them when we are in a poor financial position.

Re: Jan 3 Anonymous

I think you missed a group.

4. Those who desperately want to give more than they take, and have pushed and pushed to work hard and contribute something meaningful to the company, but have all but given up trying because management either won't make up its mind or makes up its mind too many times in opposite directions on the same topic. It gets really hard to *want* to spend more than 8 hours a day here, knowing full well that the very next day/week/month you're going to have to go back and undo whatever you've just accomplished. Call us the Sisyphean Dropouts if you will. Sometimes complaining about oil on the water is the only way to vent deeper frustrations with the system as a whole.

Last time I posted anything even remotely negative on the newsgroups, it showed up in my performance review. And objectives. 8 months later.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.