Hewlett-Packard Reviews in Sacramento, CA Area

Pros

Some managers elsewhere in the organization lead and represent their employees in an ethical and honest manner.

Cons

Listening to the upper management spin and misinformation to bend the truth to satisfy the stock market. Being repeatedly "requested" to ignore not only company policy but US accounting and labor laws to be a "team player" under the management of a company acquired by HP, whose ethics are questionable at the very least.

Advice to Senior Management

You can only go in front of congress so many times and lie and spin your way out of accountability for you and your managers.

Pros

The main reasons are that the company still has some level of prestige on a resume and to potential employers, and most people are still trying to do a good job despite the continual threat of layoffs, constant reorganizations, and the continual benefits cuts.

Cons

We are continually working under the threat of layoffs. Cost cutting has gotten so ridiculous that you can't even get office supplies needed for your job. Everyday we get emails from our Director level management reminding how important it is to hit the numbers.....we understand that....we are professionals and don't need to be managed like school children.

Advice to Senior Management

Start managing the company for the long-term instead of just for the short-term quarterly results.

Pros

Great work life balance and a working atmosphere that promotes teamwork and colaboration. Still competitve compensation versus other similar companies in the greater Sacramento region though that is at risk if executive management continues down the recent path in regards to compensation.

Cons

It's become very stagnant in terms of career development and promotional opportunities with little room for growth, especially at the Roseville site as the trend has been to reduce the company precense. Also the compenstaion approach has swung almost completely to a variable pay method with virutally no raises for rank and file employees for the last 3-4 years. Virtually all the funding has been put into a variable perforamance fund.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a longer term view of compensation if they do not want to continue to put at risk losing the best employees

Pros

Hewlett Packard allows its employees alot of freedoms, and the work-life transistion is very easy.

Cons

There is not much diversity at Hewlett-Packard, although it does seem like they are making an attempt at making it better.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work, Hewlett Packard is thriving in almost all markets it is a part of.

Pros

Brand name only -- for however long that lasts.

Cons

Good times = 1% salary increase at best while other benefits are slashed to prop up earnings and Hurd's outrageouos compensation package.

Bad times = 5% salary reduciton coupled with elimination of 401k matching funds and ESPP

In terms of working environemnt, there is zero focus on strategy development, comprehensive action plans, and robust and repeatable processes. A job at HP is about what I would expect as working for the government of the United States -- entirely too political with meanless impact on the greater good.

Top management suffers from ADD, with practically a new strategy advanced every few months which causes massive amounts of thrash and productivity hits.

Advice to Senior Management

Hurd only cares about driving EPS growth short term without regard to long-term positioning and sustainability. This means he is pumping up his bonus by slashing employees beneifts. In fact, the more he cuts employee compensation and benefits, the more his bonus increases. The board of directors needs to step in and restrict Hurd's options to vest after 10 years to ensure HP is positioned for success in the long term and seal his commitment for long term success. Additionally, 50% of Hurds compensation need to be tied to employee job satisfaction as its people that make HP successful long-term and not Mark Hurd. The run is nearly over, so I would bet that Hurd is out in the next 18 months leaving the company in shambles as the best and brightest bolt for companies that support and care about their employees.

Pros

flexibility is wonderful
unless you are customer facing, there's no dress code
work your own hours
work wherever you want
pay is pretty good
all the flexibility makes it a family friendly place to work
There are lots of very bright, talented people surrounding you
there's a pretty solid can-do attitude through out the ranks
It's a BIG company and there are many different jobs/roles to explore

Cons

Sporadic layoffs keep everyone guessing
company doesnt value employees
promotional opportunities are limited, the right candidate works somewhere else
the company is squeezing benefits and compensation, even the severence packages have been cut.
The office environment is down-right weird
Shrinking cubes, literally

Advice to Senior Management

Value your people more - the bottom line isnt everything

Pros

Decent pay for what's available in the vicinity

Cons

certainly not what it used to be and trending negative in caring for the employees

Advice to Senior Management

Take the pulse of the rank and file, you are creating a vacuum for when the economy improves

Pros

Values the company hold and practice. Uncompromising Integrity which is expected from all - Top to bottom. Communication from top management is open and honest even if the news is bad. People are treated with lot of respect. You are surrounded by lot of good people at work.

Cons

Frequent lay offs is putting lot of uncertainty in the minds of people who don't know what to expect next. Career advancement is very limited and even if its there, its extremely slow. One needs to have right contacts to move up the ladder.

Advice to Senior Management

Value Knowledge in people. The managers need not always be right.

Pros

HP has excellent people, products and new technologies in the pipe. HP is an industry leader that knows how to reward employees and get results.

Cons

Individual performance feedback lags behind when working in crunch-mode.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work and focus on team success and reward team leaders. With 25 years at HP I've seen management and leadership changes that have caused lost productivity and busywork. I honestly believe that HP in back on the way to greatness!

Pros

Good work-life balance and skilled co-workers.

Cons

poor pay, declining benefits, doom-and-gloom attitude, continuous cost-cutting, HORRIBLE senior management

Advice to Senior Management

Hurd is good at improving efficiencies, but consider the cost on employee engagement. at some point, most of your talented people will leave and those with no choice will put in the least amount of effort.