HP boss places bets on 1,000 staff at UK race track

glue factory

well, it would appear that only the southerners get to go on these shindigs....

here's hoping that they do actually slip in their P45 with their betting slips...

I know it is childish but.....

I can see quite a few employees of Evil Data Systems and HP swapping out the H for a T in Mark's surname and we all know that you can't polish a Mark Hurd.....

re: Hurd

I can assure you that 90% of EDS are not needed, having worked with their "engineers" before.

Bit brainless?

I've got to wonder what the 'eck the PR people were thinking about this. Everyone's tightening their belts and they're letting (good?) folks go - and yet apparently it's okay to have these beer and champagne junkets?

@glue factory: you just know he's using that widely available US guide to the UK - you know, the one that has a fuzzy grey area on everything north of Watford. And you can absolutely guarantee that the 1000 will be managers and sales folks - not anyone that's useful! (lol)

@re: Hurd - nice comment ... NOT, hopefully you work for one of the banks that's rapidly heading for the toilets, in which case I see a p45 in _your_ future! :P

I may not have a perfect memory...

...but you know I don't seem to recall such a fuss being made on the reg when Sun announced 2500 job losses earlier this year (a similar percentage of the comapny to those in HP).

Oh wait - I forgot... Despite hardly ever making any money Sun can do no wrong (unless you're on Wall Street) and HP are evil...

They Shoot Horses Don't They?

I can imagine the story told by Mr Hurd - HP spent $14bn buying EDS - they now realize they have bought a "pup" from captain Ron (strange that none of the EDS alliance partners were interested in buying EDS).

As a result, HP now needs to make big savings and (as usual) staff is the major cost. EMEA is a large part of the problem but the bad news is that France, Germany, Italy and Netherlands have strong works councils and employment laws, so the 3000 job cull will (yet again) have to be mainly in the UK.

I assume that the 1000 "hand-picked employees" invited to Ascot were all "managers" (the EDS term where "to manage" means "to just about cope").

Either that or they were the first tranche to be given their marching orders (was there a link between Ascot and "shooting horses"?).

engineers

I can rest assure that my little minions won't have a job for long anyway...

but I'll be alreet... :D

@anonymous coward re:Hurd

'I can assure you that 90% of EDS are not needed, having worked with their "engineers" before.'

Can you? Can you really? Well that would probably include myself and most of my collegues then that you have never met, know nothing about, and whom stand to lose EVERYTHING if made redundant. Thankyou so kindly for hitting me with your 60ft tar bedecked brush, I was just getting up on my feet after the last lot of redudancies, safer on the ground in the gutter obviously.

f:(cktarding clueless glue sniffer!

Mine'll be the one with the P45 in the pocket then :(

I would have to agree

I would have to agree withmost of the comments but...... Most of the engineers / technical staff are pretty good. The commercial side (because no one at EDS will admit to being a sales person) are arrogant to say the least.

I also agree about the junkets especially coming up to year end.

Looking forward to my P45 following being acquired.

no hope?

yeah, the thing is tho - the people at the top don't know what's it's like on the ground (i.e. technical support etc) as most of the team leader / middle management are useless...

there's talk of getting rid of 1800 ITO staff - surely this is what hp bought EDS for..? their expertise..? or was it at a higher level (project management etc?)

they're already got rid of staff (VR) then having to replace them once they've left...

morale amongst most of the uk staff is absolutely rock bottom now and the threat of VR has been going on for over a year due to best shoring etc...and people wonder why sensitive data goes missing - the reality is that the staff don't care...

HP is perfect

You're all wrong! HP is perfect. They can do no wrong. What, you think they're Sun? Sunshiners!