Having been in this industry almost as long as Gordon Moore and Jerry Sanders I have gotten to know a lot of people in it. And having known Nvidia since before it was Nvidia, I have gotten to know every single employee in the company and all who once worked for the company. In fact, other than Jen Hsun Huang, I’m the only one who sends them all a Christmas AND birthday card every single year for the last fourteen years – do you have any idea what that costs me in postage?
And I get thank you notes back from almost all of them (you out there reading this know who you are who don’t send the thank you cards.)
I also have all their phone numbers, office, mobile, home, and favorite bar or hockey park.
So, yesterday, at great expense I called everyone one of them, using the excuse (for the US members) to encourage them to be sure to vote, and taking the opportunity to ask them how they were enjoying their job. And, most important, everyone one of them either answered my call or called me back immediately. (There were three exceptions — one birth and two dental surgeries — but they had someone else call me back.)
All of them, every last one of them told me they were pretty happy, even Derek Perez said he felt good now that scars from the whipping have pretty much healed over. In fact they said they were as happy as tree frogs, and then inexplicably began to whistle and sing.
But what about the layoffs, I persisted. I read somewhere that there is a new wave of layoffs. Surely those reporters can’t be wrong? Surely those reports must have worried you? No one knew what I was talking about. Layoffs? We’ve had a couple of sabbaticals, and a few have quit to go back to the farm and a simpler life, one left on a religious mission, and one left to pursue a political career, but there haven’t been any layoffs other than the few that were made redundant a few months ago.
So each and every 5,500 of you are safe, happy (as tree frogs) and not anticipating or worried about a layoff?
Not only were they not worried about layoffs but 16 of the managers (my best drinking buddies, but that’s just a coincidence) asked me if I could help them find some more people – seems Nvidia may be getting ready to ramp up.
I wished them all to have a great weekend, reminded a couple of their up-coming anniversary, and hung up the phone, it was pretty warm by now.
Maybe I’ll call AMD and hear what the barking moles have to say.