AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT HITACHI VANTARA (04/23/21)

APRIL 23, 2021 — 65 LAYOFFS IN SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA

The company plans to lay off 65 sales and engineering employees, including 12 on-site employees and 53 remote workers, all based in the Santa Clara, California office commencing May 31, 2021.

According to a company spokesperson, “We are aligning the company to its new strategic ambition, which requires us to redesign certain organizational structures to help us be more client-centric, and to build new ways to augment our core business.”

These layoffs follow the December 31, 2020 layoffs of 148 Santa Clara employees.

NOVEMBER 18, 2020 — EMPLOYEES WORRIED AFTER 1,000 EMPLOYEES LAID-OFF COMPANY-WIDE

Employees are bracing themselves for another round of layoffs in early-2021 following the layoff of 1,000 employees in October, the second in 2020 when 1,500 employees were laid off in January 2020.

According to a company spokesperson, “Of course, no matter how many were impacted, these were difficult decisions for the company, and we are doing everything we can to make the transition as easy as possible for the affected employees and teams.”

MARCH 27, 2020 — Original post…

Santa Clara, California-based Hitachi Vantara, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tokyo, Japan-based Hitachi, has announced the layoffs of at least 151 employees at its Santa Clara headquarters, with rumors of more to come. The layoffs include a number of high-level and support positions including nine vice presidents, and others in sales, business development, finance, human resources, marketing, product, and supply chain management. According to published reports, “Managers were asked to cut 15% from their budgets, including headcount, several weeks ago and submit their plans for approval.” It appears that the decision was driven by the difficulties in the enterprise storage marketplace.

According to a company spokesperson, “As you will have noted from our recent integration with Hitachi Consulting and the acquisition of Waterline Data, Hitachi Vantara is transforming into a new kind of digital infrastructure and solutions company. We are now simultaneously operating in the fast growth data management and analytics market and the mature global data storage market. The global storage market is currently delivering only modest growth – a trend many of our competitors have also noted. Like many of our industry peers, we have had to make some tough decisions to simplify and streamline our operations, improve our financial performance and position ourselves for long-term success – this includes headcount reductions to optimize our organization. We do not make decisions that affect our people and teams lightly, but we believe these moves are important to accelerate our transformation and growth and we thank the employees who are leaving us for their valuable contributions to the growth and evolution of our business. We remain optimistic that we can take share from our storage competitors with the recent introduction of the Hitachi VSP 5000 – the world’s fastest and most reliable data storage array. Initial customer response to the VSP 5000 has already surpassed expectations and we have other exciting innovations in the pipeline for 2020.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT LIFESPAN

Providence, Rhode Island-based Lifespan, a comprehensive operator of hospitals, medical clinics, laboratories, and other facilities has announced that its restructuring activities are proceeding according to plan to address a loss of $35 million in fiscal year 2019. Following 216 employees who have opted to accept early retirement, the company has decided to eliminate an additional 87 positions.

According to a company spokesperson, “Lifespan is “evaluating all aspects of our organization, identifying opportunities to become more efficient while continuing to prioritize our focus on patient care. Initial staff reduction efforts began at Lifespan corporate services this past week with the elimination of 87 positions. Fifty-five of those positions were filled, 24 were vacant and 8 corporate positions were eliminated as part of the early retirement. This represents approximately 5% of our corporate workforce. The early retirements are effective March 28. These restructuring efforts will continue systemwide throughout 2020 as we seek to find efficiencies and economies of scale while ensuring that care is protected at the bedside. We greatly value the contributions of all our staff and deeply regret the need for any job loss. We’re confident we have the right restructuring plan in place, and that by streamlining our operations, focusing on our core mission and our values, we’ll emerge strong and successful. The people of Lifespan do meaningful, life-changing work every day, and Rhode Island depends on us to continue to provide high quality, high-value health care. While our financial challenges began well before the COVID-19 virus outbreak, we are reminded by recent events of the unique, essential, and lifesaving role our doctors, nurses and all our health care providers play in caring for our community. Lifespan’s viability as an essential community asset requires financial stability to ensure we can continue as the state’s largest and most important health care system.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? WHY ARE YOU APPLAUDING THE CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS?

I am seeing numerous employers and employees cheering the proposed coronavirus stimulus legislation that appears to pay furloughed employees their entire salaries for a period of up to four months, and with a maximum proposed limit of $1,100 per week. Other provisions apply to the unemployed and those independent contractors engaged in the “gig” economy.

The idea is to help businesses to survive closures and the loss of revenue — and the continuing personnel costs. Unfortunately, many things in life have unintended consequences.

Think about it. Employers are being incentivized to furlough employees with all of the employment costs borne by the taxpayer. It sounds like a win-win for both employers and employees. Especially the larger corporations with large cash reserves.

What happened to the contract between the employer and the state in paying for state unemployment and disability premiums?

The problem is that many of those employees furloughed are not guaranteed a job when they return in four months or if the returning employee will receive the same position, salary, and benefits.

Bottom line…

Be careful what you wish! However, it might be a great opportunity to explore employment alternatives to create multiple independent revenue streams from a part-time business that can be run from your home.

THIS BILL IS NOT AGREED TO BY BOTH THE HOUSE AND SENATE AND SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT.