EDS boss Rittenmeyer 'retires' from HP reorg
As rogue HPer slams The Butcher's 'Selfish Capitalism'
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EDS president and chief exec Ronald Rittenmeyer will retire from HP at the end of the year, as HP steps up efforts to fully digest the massive IT services company it acquired this fall.
As HP announced with a press release this afternoon, Rittenmeyer will be replaced by EDS senior VP Joe Eazor, and EDS will be transformed into a business unit within HP's Technology Services Group (TSG).
Eazor will report to HP's Ann Livermore, the executive VP who heads TSG.
The new TSG accounted for roughly $14.6bn - or 43 per cent - of HP's total revenues in its fiscal fourth quarter and more than half of the company's operating profit. But that hasn't stopped CEO Mark "The Butcher" Hurd from putting the financial squeeze on both the HP and the EDS sides of this fledgling tech services amalgamation.
Last week, in confidential memos leaked to The Reg, Rittenmeyer and Livermore cut back on employee reward programs, eliminated previously scheduled EDS salary increases, limited hiring to revenue-generating positions, reduced agency and contractor spending, and shaved company travel.
Livermore's email included this header:
HP Letterhead
Her grin - and her words - didn't go over well with at least one longtime TSG employee. In an email to Mark Hurd - also leaked to The Reg - this rogue employee accused the CEO of "demoralising" his workforce with shortsighted greed.
"I’m sorry but I really feel the need to speak out after yet another demoralising message from HP [the email from Livermore], made even worse by the smiling face attached to it!" the message begins. "This comes hard on the heels of a message from Steve Gill about cancelling Christmas events...the name Scrooge springs to mind.
"In the scheme of things how much money will that save, compared to the effect of demoralising the work force even further? It’s very short sighted in my opinion."
Founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the employee goes on to say, would not approve of what he sees as HP's recent history of heartless belt tightening:
Our commitment and support as employees (of this once proud people company) would be a lot greater if HP stopped reducing our benefits year on year and gave us a pay rise now and then to reflect the good work done by its employees, rather than the ‘thanks for your efforts and continued support’ we get, when helping make this company millions of dollars in profits, which we see none of these days!
Working as one motivated team pushing the company forward, when all we get is continual demoralising news week on week is very difficult, especially when it is not reflected in the company’s year on year performance. Receiving continuous messages telling us how well the company are doing and the profits being made, I, and others, find it extremely insulting to then be told the sort of information contained in Ann and Steve’s emails.
HP is continually chipping away at all the employee benefits built up over the years by Bill and Dave and for what?
More market share!
Another cent on the share price!
Quite frankly when will we have enough market share? Is there an optimum number that will suffice or will HP not be satisfied until it has 100%? How many more companies does HP have to take over making thousands of hard working employees redundant in the pursuit of market share? Not to mention outsourcing to third world countries on the pretence it’s all in a good cause and not merely for monetary gain!
Bill & Dave would be mortified to know that HP has finally become ‘A Selfish Capitalist’
It so happens this is an echo of words Mark Hurd delivered to the US Congress when he testified about HP's infamous 2006 leak investigation, when it targeted the phone records of dozens in an effort stop leaks to the press. In apologizing to HP employees and others who were targeted, he said: "If Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were alive today, they'd be appalled. They'd be embarrassed."
Two years on, it would appear that HP has relaxed efforts to prevent press leaks. But if one voice is worth listening to, Bill and Dave continue to endure a less-than-pleasant afterlife. ®
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COMMENTS
what makes you think it is different elsewhere?
Whilst not disputing how Mark Hurd's actions make you feel , have you worked anywhere else ? I've worked for several technology-based companies over the last 20 years, and I've seen what you are describing everywhere. I don't have a final salary pension anymore, I've not had a company paid for training course in five years, and pay rises are rarer than hens teeth - the best way to get those is to move job. I'd say (based on my experience) that corporates stopped being nice places to work in 2000 just after Y2K and all the accountants realised that you didn't have to pamper the propeller heads anymore. And they don't treat the rest of their staff any better either. But if you want a good combination of benefits versus job security corporates are the best employers in town. It just requires you to take more of a responsibility for your own training etc.
Now just because this is happening does it make it right ? I think the lack of investment in employees - in their pay and benefits, in their morale, and especially in their training is storing up trouble for the future.
But that's the future. For now the Chief Execs have to deliver profits to their shareholders right now. And right now we are looking at a downturn that pretty much every economist is scared witless about so you certainly are going to find your boss does stuff you don't like. If you don't like how your employer treats you , certainly email the boss to complain, but don't expect it to get you anywhere.
You still have it in your power to up sticks and move on. You could set up your own company, retrain as something else or find an employer more in tune with your own beliefs. Or stay where you are, get some hobbies and take what enjoyment you can from your life and job. Take some positive steps for yourself.
It's a Corporate Feeding Orgy!
I too am an anonymous coward who has worked for EDS for over 20 years and have had just about enough of the rampant hypocrisy and corporate greed. Having been fed the "great news" about exceeding our Financial Targets for FY08 and the exciting news that the Corporate Bonus scheme will be initiated (in an internal email from Mark Hurd). All this while we - the poor suckers who delivered the financial performance - will have no salary increase, no bonus, no training and no internal travel. The Corporate Leaders made an absolute killing on the acquisition through their generous stock options and now the trough that's been prepared for the Corporate bonus scheme will be distributed among our well-respected and illustrious leaders. To add insult to injury, those same Corporate Leaders in EDS & HP are now expecting us to achieve our "Performance Targets" for FY09 - the usual crap - about how we must sell more and increase "wallet share" so that they have enough money to boot out a few more of us unfortunate and stupid suckers. My suspicion is that our pension fund is next in line for tipping into their trough.
Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for having a job at all and can thank my stars for that, particularly at my age. What I do hate more than anything else is dishonesty, hypocrisy and double-standards that goes unchallenged in the big greedy corporations. It's my belief that there is a feeding frenzy going on and no-one can stop it. Corporate Leaders are now busy grabbing whatever they can from their employees (by sacking them, cutting their salaries, whatever it takes) in order to provide themselves with a thick layer of fat for when the crunch comes.
This is actually part of the same trend: consider those other well-respected institutions, namely our Banks and Financial Institutions who have been bailed out by the tax payer to the tune of several Trillions of dollars. Those same Corporate greedies immediately trousered the funds for their own bulging pockets - there's a saying "a leopard never changes its spots".
Doom and Gloom? - well not for me!!
is there another EDS out there?
I dont think the majority of EDSers recognise what you are describing and they are working just as hard as you sunshine.
Dont tar everyone with the same brush - you obviously work somewhere where your efforts are recognised. That isnt the case for the majority and it isnt their fault is it?
Maybe you are one of the bean counters or managers whose success is measured by how much you screw those below you?
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