As a very recently made former employee of Spansion, I find the lack of coverage of this layoff in the media very surprising.  Particularly given the parallels to the bank bailouts and bonuses scandal.

Here's the story.  Spansion put a lot of its employees on unpaid furlough, telling us on Friday, January 2nd, with no warning, that we were out until the end of January.  Then at the end of January, they told us the furlough had been extended two weeks.  Mid-February, our return to work date was given as March 2nd.  Yes, things are dire, but no need to come in and take care of your personal effects or check email, because you have a return to work date.

Of course, on the 23rd of this month, they laid off 3000 people without any severance package.  Unlike certain higher ups in the company, such as former CEO Betrand Cambou and his nearly $1 million golden handshake.  But it wasn't that clean (if clean could be applied to such an act).  They deposited accrued vacation in our bank accounts after 5pm on the 20th.  Some banks showed those deposits immediately, tipping people off who started calling around.  Sadly, this is the typical mismanagement of a layoff we've seen time and again when Spansion (and before that, AMD) laid off employees.  We were also told we'd only get 80% of our accrued vacation because the company had switched to a 32 hour week starting in January.  And then they backtracked on that.  When they paged me to call in and get my layoff notice (I suppose it could have been worse - they could have texted me), I was told the first four months of COBRA would be paid by Spansion.  I found out later that night from my former boss that Spansion management had changed their mind on that, but not communicated this to all the managers handling the layoffs.  Instead they are covering a portion of the cost of COBRA, leaving us and the Federal government to pick up the rest.  And when I received my separation papers, the envelope I am supposed to put my badge, pager, and other company property in did not have an address or postage on it.  Checking with other former colleagues, I learned this was not an isolated mistake.

For those of us laid off, already short two months pay, this seemingly callous disregard for our loyalty and service hurt.  I had nearly 14 years with the company, but that was atypical.  Most others had well over 20 years of service.  None of us got any severance.  But even worse, and I truly cannot understand why the media hasn't jumped on this, on the very day we were being laid off, the Board of Directors for Spansion voted to remove the 10% pay cut for top executives, justifying it as being needed for 'employee retention'.  Well, in my book, you retain employees by NOT laying them off.  But that aside, where exactly would the employees you're trying to retain go?  There are no jobs right now!  Leaving in most cases would result in no paycheck or health insurance, something I, as a soon-to-be father of twins, painfully recognize.  It looks to me like top management are lining their pockets before the company goes bankrupt, watching out for themselves with no regard for the talented, dedicated employees who made Spansion, and their management jobs, no matter how incompetently performed, possible.

Just like the investment bankers and their bonuses before the bailout money was given to them.

So news media, will you cover this, or is high tech mismanagement just not sexy enough, the human cost not high enough?

Ian Dudley

PS Don't believe me about the 10% pay raise?  At least one news journal mentioned that: http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/02/25/0225spansion.html