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Etiido Uko Social Links Navigation News Contributor Etiido Uko is a news contributor for Tom's Hardware covering the latest updates in big tech and the PC industry. He is a mechanical engineer and senior technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things engineering and technology, and is an expert in gadgets, manufacturing, robotics, automotive, and aerospace.
bit_user I wonder if this is going to affect any of their Windows-on-ARM products. If so, that would come at a pretty bad time when Nvidia/MediaTek are starting to bring the heat and we might finally be seeing that market come to life! Reply
bill001g I wonder if this is actually something new or it just made the news. For a very long time microsoft has had almost yearly layoffs. They cut the lowest performing employees and rather than fire them they call it a layoff. The employee goes along with it because they get a severance package and it looks better to the next employer. The employees generally know its coming because they were warned a number of time in their performance reviews. A number of other large companies have a very similar policy and I would suspect qualcomm plays this game too. Reply
bit_user bill001g said: I wonder if this is actually something new or it just made the news. For a very long time microsoft has had almost yearly layoffs. Well, the announcement indicates that it's more than Qualcomm's usual turnover. It's kinda weird how they characterize it as "performance-based", because that's how broad-based layoffs usually work. However, I guess it does suggest that the layoff is rather broad-based and not that their axing entire product teams. Some states have laws which require employers to inform them when a layoff above a certain size is about to occur. These were put in place for dealing with manufacturing plant closures and such, but they also apply to professional jobs. So, the reason for the messaging could be due to that or to tell investors what Qualcomm is doing to keep costs under control. I think General Electric was the one who popularized "stack rankings" and Amazon has long practiced a system of annually culling the lowest performers. I've also heard that Intel had an "up or out" culture, where you'd be let go if you went more than a couple years without getting a promotion, and we've seen how well that worked for them! I know someone who recently left a managerial role at Amazon and said he was forced to let go of one team member per year, no matter how strong his team was. He could have a team of star players and would still have to cut one of them. And he actually defended this practice to me! That's a very different proposition to just culling your low-performers, because it seems like it'd make everybody a bit paranoid and try to undermine or backstab each other, rather than helping and cooperating. Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/qualcomm-to-cut-jobs-globally-in-performance-based-layoffs-ceo-says-move-will-build-stronger-performance-culture-as-company-pivots-to-ai-data-center-and-edge-products#main
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