HP Invent...: HP laying off in Corvallis

August 19, 2008

HP laying off in Corvallis

Portland Business Journal :

Eugene television station KVAL reports that employees at HP’s Corvallis plant began receiving layoff notices Monday. In a statement, the company said its imaging and printing group announced in June its plans to “realign and streamline” by reducing its business units from five to three. Some parts of the imaging and printing group “will experience reductions while investments will be made in high growth segments of the business,” the company said.

HP is reported to employ about 2,500 people in Corvallis, and 1,000 in Vancouver, Wash. The company declined to confirm these numbers. These two locations, along with a site in Boise, Idaho, are part of HP’s imaging and printing group.

Recent reports in The Oregonian and The Columbian have said HP plans to lay off as many as 300 people in Corvallis, and that some engineers and marketing employees in Vancouver could be told to find work with other HP divisions. HP is also reported to have put its 174-acre Vancouver campus up for sale, with plans to lease it back. HP declined to comment the matter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Corvallis HP layoffs start
Corvallis Gazette-Times (Ore.), 8/20, Matt Neznanski

Layoffs at Hewlett-Packard's Corvallis site started this week, sources told the Gazette-Times on Tuesday, in line with cuts in the company's inkjet printing division that the company calls its "Print 2.0 transformation," with more change in store for next year.

HP would not confirm reports of job reductions in Corvallis, but company spokesman Dave Berman released a statement that did support news that some cuts were coming in its imaging and printing group (IPG), which has a strong presence and history here.

"The realignment of IPG's business entails shifting resources from slower growing businesses to new business opportunities," according to the statement. "In some cases, parts of IPG's business will experience reductions while investments will be made in high growth segments of the business."

The company's inkjet printing technology was developed by Corvallis engineers in the mid-1980s.

Sources told the Gazette-Times months ago that HP managers planned to shut down one of three silicon wafer fabrication facilities at the Corvallis site and that 35 percent to 45 percent of the 850 employees who work in the fabs were to be laid off.

Those figures indicate as many as 300 jobs in jeopardy. HP has never officially confirmed any news of job cuts here, although sources say more changes are on the horizon.

Employees in the Corvallis and Vancouver, Wash., information technology departments have been warned that the company plans to consolidate its IT workers in Austin, Texas, by the end of next summer.

That move will affect a total of 115 engineers who will be asked to relocate to central Texas starting in March.

...

The Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition geared up assistance programs for displaced workers when rumors began flying in May that some job cuts were imminent.

Local chamber organizers said they have not received word from the company about this round of layoffs, as they had during earlier reductions here.

"We're always looking for people who are coming out," said Mysty Rusk, Chamber president. "We think we can place any qualified technical person who comes out."

The disconnect between HP and the Chamber comes after Corvallis site managers dropped membership in the group this spring as part of a plan the company said was meant to focus on broader business alliances.

The decision resulted in a loss of an anticipated $16,000 per year the chamber had received from HP in support of city economic development programs and chamber dues, just more than 3 percent of the chamber's total membership dues.

Hewlett-Packard employed about 6,000 people in Corvallis as recently as 1996, mainly in its inkjet printer division. That number dropped to about 2,500 in 2007 as the company continued to move production overseas and reduce employee costs through buyouts and early retirement.

Current employee numbers remain guesses, however, as HP has declined to discuss those figures here or at any other site for years.

HP Corvallis layoffs - "Print 2.0 transformation" - begins
Corvallis (Ore.) Gazette-Times' Between the Lines Blog, 8/19, Matt Neznanski

Eugene's KVAL TV station reports and the Oregonian confirms that layoffs are underway at HP Corvallis, part of what the company is now calling a "transformation" they've named "print 2.0."

This is in line with what we've known was bound to happen sometime, and it's likely linked to the company's quarterly report to investors due out today.

The timing is a bit unfortunate with the company picnic on Sunday and all...

As per usual, employees are scared to talk. Want to break the mold? Give me a call at 758-9518 and we'll chat. I promise to keep your name out of the paper.; 8:40 AM, August 20, 2008
Anonymous said...: anyone hear if SEH in vancouver was looking to buy/lease the HP campus?; 9:25 AM, September 30, 2008

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I leave you now HP

They say the "lights will still go on at HP" without me here. I wonder who will miss the love I have given this company, I wonder who will miss how much I cared about The HP Way. I often chose to come in early, work through lunch and stay late. I thought what I was doing was so important. Especially when it was for customers or when it was something so new, What we were doing would change the world. But the times I was the most selfless, was for my co-workers who needed me. Maybe it was to review a document, give feedback, change the code, whatever... This is what I will miss most, knowing that I was important to my co-workers. I will miss the lifelong friends I have made We had so many days of meaningful work together. We made a difference and we knew it. We understood the power of a team. I will miss that where ever I went in the world, I always found great HP people. People who cared as much as I did. People who loved our HP culture enough to keep it precious. These are the great HP people who shared in success And when times were tough were the first to say, "We'll get through it together". I will miss the picnics and the beer busts. But mostly I will miss the managers who believed in me, who challenged me, who told me that I was a leader and important to the business. I will miss the profit sharing checks. Not for the money but because I knew I was a part of something so much greater than myself. I will always remember the handshake and the "Thank you" of the general manager. Those were some of my favorite times. I will miss the laughter and excitement of creating new businesses and improving processes. I will miss the serious times when customers' needs were on the line. We were all engaged for one purpose. It was our finest hour. I will miss saying I helped create a great HP product. And now will relish in how it changed the world. I wouldn't have missed that for anything. How proud I am to have been an HP employee. I would have worked for free for you HP. I loved you that much. You should know that I cried when Bill and Dave died. I had finally figured out what values really mean to a company's culture. My only regret is I didn't have a chance to say thank you. I'll take that learning with me as a final gift of all the years, of the great company Bill & Dave built. I leave you now HP.