LayoffBlog.com

January 22, 2009

Leak: Texas Instruments to cut up to 30% of it’s workforce

According to leaks: “Things are really brewing here at Texas Instruments. We’re expecting a big layoff Jan 27 & 28. Internally we’re hearing as high as 30%  (including early retirement).” Also, according to rumors, Texas Instruments expects a second wave of layoffs at their Phillipines office.
EETimes also publishes rumors about layoffs at Texas Instruments.

1/26/2009 Update: TI cuts 3400 jobs: 1800 through layoffs and 1600 through voluntary retirements and departures. (Thanks, A)

News submitted by J

61 Comments »

  1. […] Texas Instruments to cut up to 30% of it’s workforce at the end of January, 2009, according to leaks Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The Technical TrackGo Back to School with Texas […]

    Pingback by Texas Instruments to cut 400 jobs « LayoffBlog.com — January 22, 2009 @ 10:28 am | Reply

  2. There are still a lot of dead wood in that company. Buddy system is still a major way of doing business in this company.More clean house needed. Not supprise if its stock down to $10/share.

    Comment by Tommy — January 22, 2009 @ 3:03 pm | Reply

  3. Yeh they need to be more streamlined.

    Comment by Wanderer — January 22, 2009 @ 7:06 pm | Reply

  4. TI is headed for a massive layoff. 20% white collar and 10% blue collar in the US. Over seas 40% layoff across the board. Lots of people just standing around at this company. This is just the beginning. Comment by Tommy is right on, Old Boy network and buddy system for the 70’s still run this company.

    Comment by bobo — January 22, 2009 @ 9:43 pm | Reply

  5. The problem with a layoff like that is there are still very high overhead costs to having fabs. If anything TI needs to close at least 1 if not 2 of its fabs in the US.

    Comment by Reality — January 23, 2009 @ 5:18 am | Reply

  6. “There are still a lot of dead wood in that company.”
    “Old Boy network and buddy system for the 70’s still run this company.”

    OMG, you’re both clueless. The company is not even a hint of what it was back in the 70/80s. Do your research before listening to imbeciles that make clueless comments like this.

    Must be trying to single handedly drive the stock price down to get an even bigger bargain.

    Comment by Bob — January 23, 2009 @ 2:10 pm | Reply

  7. I think we are under staffed, no people just standing around. TI need to keep the poeple doing the work and cut the gut less management that have no vision and inovation.

    Comment by MCU Daddy — January 23, 2009 @ 6:43 pm | Reply

  8. I fully agree with Bob and MCU Daddy.
    People at TI are a hard working crowd and they mostly work on projects, that really pay off.
    But management is traditionally cautious and conservative at TI and I am worried, that they might reduce the workforce in a very proactive way, that will be detrimental to TIs earnings and revenue.
    I would not understand, how a 30% layoff can strengthen TIs position in the analog/mixed-signal business.

    Comment by Jim — January 24, 2009 @ 5:44 am | Reply

  9. I agree.. there are no ‘idle’ people at TI. There is a lot of work to be done and we need more people. It is as aggressive as any other semiconductor company

    Comment by Smart — January 24, 2009 @ 7:35 am | Reply

  10. Yes we at T I are under staffed often doing the jobs of several people. The above post of people standing around doing nothing couldn’t be any farther from the truth.

    Comment by #1tier — January 24, 2009 @ 8:12 am | Reply

  11. I have heard from a credible source that they will happen this week. I couldn’t tell you how much or where but if your stuff is in a box when you get to work don’t be to shocked.

    Comment by John Doe — January 24, 2009 @ 8:16 am | Reply

  12. It will happen this week, but those impacted will be the ones putting their stuff in a box after the exit interview.

    Comment by RR — January 24, 2009 @ 10:46 am | Reply

  13. Not if you are a factory worker, they just walk you to the door.

    Comment by John Doe — January 24, 2009 @ 11:17 am | Reply

  14. Yes, layoffs are expected this week. Also shutdown is expected in march. from the 6th – 31st.

    Comment by John Brown — January 25, 2009 @ 7:37 am | Reply

  15. People on the floor work hard. Management goes to meetings to talk about what the people on the floor do. There are managers with only 2 engineers under them. They can afford to make some cuts in management. TI was at one time the second largest chip make in the world. They may not be in the top 5 anymore. They were the largest chip maker for cells phones they are now 2 or 3. They are losing ground like the US automakers. They cut the people who actually make products, and keep the same number in management. It is time to stream line US operations and close facilities.

    Comment by Reality — January 25, 2009 @ 10:04 am | Reply

  16. Yes… It has been that way at TI since the late Jerry Junkins left… The people that do all the work always suffer cuts… The managers that make the wrong decisions about the direction of the business always keep their jobs.

    Comment by RR — January 25, 2009 @ 11:37 am | Reply

  17. It don’t matter who did what if your in the factory bottom 20% your f***d!

    Comment by Ricky Martin — January 25, 2009 @ 1:51 pm | Reply

  18. It’s just a job and not a malignant cancer sentencing or the end of the world. This will show people how to start living within their means and stop them from trying to keep up with The Jones’. Go outside the US and see how other less fortunate people live without a big house, SUV, new car/truck, jet ski, boat or new clothes or stock options and 401K. Some people just wishing they had shoes on their feet or even simpler than that…just hoping their family has atleast one meal a day.
    Reality check this year for many many people YES myself included. Time to look upwards and no longer at our incomes or the government for hope.

    Comment by Raptor — January 25, 2009 @ 8:08 pm | Reply

  19. Anyone knows the details of the package TI will be giving to those affected by the layoff?

    Comment by Rick Smith — January 25, 2009 @ 8:38 pm | Reply

  20. i heard the package will be 2 months pay plus a weeks pay for every year of service i.e if you have ten years you would ge the 2 months plus 10 additional weeks pay

    Comment by john doe — January 26, 2009 @ 3:42 am | Reply

  21. TI usually offers two months pay plus one week for every year of employment…..

    Comment by Waba — January 26, 2009 @ 5:38 am | Reply

  22. I was layed off in 2003…the way they decided who stays on and who goes was all political. Folks that belonged to the right club stayed on…and those on the other side kicked out!!

    All this after I had invented the High Performance Analog dielectric gate !!

    never again

    Comment by MR — January 26, 2009 @ 9:44 am | Reply

  23. I really agree with Reality. I’ve seen many lay-offs within TI over the past few years. What surprises me most about groups and/or projects shutting down is that how the managers in those groups/projects are simply put in new places, while the engineers are let go. Hello! If these managers couldn’t deliver successfully in their previous positions, what makes you think they’ll be able to deliver in their new positions? That’s really the core problem in TI. They have too many people in management and too much faith has been put in them, no matter how baseless that faith really is…

    Comment by Jane Doe — January 26, 2009 @ 10:51 am | Reply

  24. […] Texas Instruments Layoffs [updated 1-26-2009] […]

    Pingback by Today’s Hot Layoff Topics « LayoffBlog.com — January 26, 2009 @ 2:19 pm | Reply

  25. TI announces job reductions of 3,400 – 1,600 voluntary, 1,800 involuntary
    (26 Jan 2009)

    Comment by Gr8 — January 26, 2009 @ 5:49 pm | Reply

  26. I worked for TI geophysical systems group in Cypress back in the 1980s and we were the IBM of said systems, but TI lost it’s way because it had no vision, no innovation, no breakthru/disruptive products. TI unlike HP has been risk adverse for decades while companies like Intel and HP has passed them by. Other than making short term profit they have no mission to be in business.

    Comment by jack snyder — January 26, 2009 @ 11:44 pm | Reply

  27. I worked for this company during the 80’s and
    always regretted leaving.The whole office I worked for has been shut down now and all my friends lost their jobs. Field sales is a scarey position at any manufacturers.
    I still have faith in the management and have no problem with hard working people enjoying a little night life. There is too much infighting and struggling for power, but hopefully wise decisions can be made to keep this great company afloat. I have faith!

    Comment by Jane Doe — January 27, 2009 @ 2:00 am | Reply

  28. Does anyone know what happens to the tution reembersment after the layoff??

    Comment by HOUSTON IAN — January 27, 2009 @ 4:03 am | Reply

  29. pls post if either the plants in Houston or Dallas laid off this morning a bit jittery…

    Comment by HOUSTONIAN — January 27, 2009 @ 5:07 am | Reply

  30. Jane Doe, you are so on the money about the TI Way. They have this good old boy network of cronies that begins at schools like Texas A&M, Texas Tech and University of Texas and it follows them thru Texas Instruments – school mates become working cohorts, professors become outside consultants, and you get ahead by being a crony player and following the script. The vision thing is something they do out in Silicon Valley, not at the TI headquarters in Dallas. So they missed out on the personal computer which they gave to Compaq, IBM, HP, Dell and Apple, personal hand held devices they served up to Motorola , and their co-invention the microprocessor which they waved the white flag to Intel in the 1970s-1980s. It was not always that way according to the book “Built to Last”. TI was a creative and innovative company in the 1950-1960s under it’s early founders to growth and profit and never looked back (Bucy and Shepard would have none of that vision thing or questions about why not so you have the company you see now). There is also among it ranks a ting of race and gender hysteria. TI does allow noneWhite men and women to work as technocrats and managers, but the real policy makers and executives are for the most part White men.

    Comment by jack snyder — January 27, 2009 @ 9:27 am | Reply

  31. REWRITE: TI was a creative and innovative company in the 1950-1960s under it’s early founders. It quickly turned to the growth and profit model and never looked back (Bucy and Shepard would have none of that vision thing or questions about why not were never on the table so you have the company you see now). There is also among it ranks a tinge of race and gender hysteria. TI does allow noneWhite men and women to work as technocrats and managers, but the real policy makers and executives are for the most part White men.

    TI is and remains a southern company. The southern mentality model is driven by fatalism, Protestant fundamentalism, Southern militarism that is combined with primitive commodity and almost laissez-faire economics that is often hostile to analysis and criticism. This model purges free thinking, kills the liberalism of novelty and adventure and strangles vision for most workers. At the end of the day it remains a conservative company that has not much interest in the future.

    Comment by jack snyder — January 27, 2009 @ 10:32 am | Reply

  32. TI is not a bad company. But it does have the worst management teams in some business units. That’s why it keeps shifting it focus. It gave up on DRAM in late 90’s. Now it is running away from wireless/cell phone. The problem is its bad management recycle culture. Hopefully it find its new luck before its analog business by its junk managers.

    Comment by JJ tang — January 28, 2009 @ 1:21 pm | Reply

  33. TI is not a bad company if one does not want vision, innovation, breakthrough or disruptive technology or any technology that has to do with the future or bleeding edge change that leads.

    Comment by jack snyder — January 28, 2009 @ 5:50 pm | Reply

  34. #34: Polaroid, RCA, ..now TI is joining the club

    Comment by DF — January 28, 2009 @ 5:54 pm | Reply

  35. I got cut in the layoff. I was expecting it because my boss had taken the voluntary package and his manager seemed to be avoiding me in the hallways. It is pretty pathetic when a company gives you great reviews and pay raises for the past several years and then throws you to the wolves when the business goes South. I don’t wish anything so terrible to happen to my former coworkers (many friends), but I hope their company goes completely under. 18 years on the books and 25 years unofficially down the drain. I’ve been told when TI is contacted for a reference they only verify if you’ve worked for them and state whether you’re rehireable or not. The answer to the latter is no… the only people that show up again after a layoff are conracts. I was an exception about 20 years ago beacuse they realized I could help them out after they screwed me over (18 years on the books and 25 years unofficially). When I returned I had a mindset that I was just going to put my time in a draw a paycheck, but that changed after I was reassigned under supervisors that recognized my value and motivated me to achieve the success I eventually earned.

    Rich Templeton is going to give another one of his “we lost many colleagues and friends… I know its difficult” BS broadcats to the TI workforce Monday… ” but I have the confidence that all of you are going to move forward and be successful.” What a douchebag.

    Comment by RR — January 29, 2009 @ 9:32 pm | Reply

  36. TI is a very racist company towards the white crowd now…

    I would highly recommend no one try and work at Texas Instruments unless you are of color…

    DMOS5 is a very bad fab that will let you go for no reason at all. I worked at TI for 20+ years and they let me go because they didnt want to look racist and let a brother go…

    Comment by DMOS 5 — January 30, 2009 @ 3:39 pm | Reply

  37. Get the word out…

    Do not work for TEXAS INSTRUMENTS …

    I agree with DMOS… They are a very bad place to work for…

    Comment by Henry — January 30, 2009 @ 3:41 pm | Reply

  38. #37-#38

    That is not the case! There are no Blacks, and there are no Brown, Red or Yellow people. There are only balance sheets. Head counts. Paper. Consumers. Investors. It is an amoral system. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! We live in the United States of Perpetual Amnesia. No one remembers any thing beyond the last quarter or who was the last American Idol.

    There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those *are* the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Joe the Plumber. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. and Ms America. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Honest Joe, to see that . . . perfect world . . . in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. Bank America and Exxon will spin it any way they can to make you feel better – and the police wants your hand guns cause they fear a popular revolt. America is built on faith and hope because you know at the end of the day thats all you got. The FED is just a printing press and your dollar is worth less today than it did last Sunday.

    Comment by jack snyder — January 30, 2009 @ 8:45 pm | Reply

  39. When I first started at T.I., Jerry Junkins was in charge. The management was (even then) a ‘good ol’ boys club’, but they had good experience in the business. After Junkins passed, The decline in management was gradual, but accelerated.
    As the experienced managers retired (forced or otherwise), They were replaced by incompetents whose only ideas on improving profit were directed at the workers. We watched as the management organizational chart grew larger in multiples while the experienced hourly work force was decimated, to be replaced with contract workers from overseas at often less than half the wage of the worker they replaced. A company that once valued it’s experienced workers now views them as liabilities. The results often show in the product. That’s why their market share continues to shrink.
    Ethics has become a forgotten value. Human Resource professionals have been replaced with bureaucrats whose only function is to institute the inept management’s policies and to cover the company’s butt when they violate labor laws (most often by firing the violated employees). Audit procedures are only followed during the day of the audit. Otherwise, they are ignored.Safety violations are ignored to keep the product moving. People reporting safety violations are fired.
    T.I. likely spends as much on law firms to protect them from union organizing and employee law suits as they do on employee benefits. Most of the competent have left (or been fired).
    This was once an innovative and and wonderful company to work for. It has now become a corrupted facade of what it used to be.

    Comment by Bill — February 1, 2009 @ 12:30 am | Reply

  40. A BS statement after the lay off,”TI has cash in the bank….” these pple think we r so dumb hah????

    Comment by mad asian — February 1, 2009 @ 6:48 am | Reply

  41. #40 Bill:

    You are true and correct. TI has this deep hysteria, fear and paranoia about Labor Unions and Visionaries. It is a profit and growth centered company, not a customer or product/market centered enterprise. It is a culture that is an extension of it’s Southern culture. In the South, labor is just another commodity like cattle, oil, gas and cotton, tools and chairs. Thus the whole of the South has this tension with men who labor and men who invest, but men who labor identify more with men who invest than with those who work and that works fine for TI, the Southern states and community stability. The tension between labor and investors is about race and class, outsiders and insiders, fatalism and freedom, and the problem of knowledge and the fear of knowing and the loss of deep concern of novelty. Note that the whole of the South has not and is not a culture of major prize winning invention, vision and creativity out side of entertainment. In light of these facts it is no accident that the South has produced few world class inventors and only a few Nobel prize winners.

    Comment by jack snyder — February 1, 2009 @ 2:22 pm | Reply

  42. What is the severance package at TI layoff?
    I heard it is ONLY 2 month salary, and very less than severance package given by other companies.

    Comment by FD — February 5, 2009 @ 1:02 am | Reply

  43. 8 weeks plus 1 week for each full year of work provided a legal waiver is signed.

    Comment by RR — February 5, 2009 @ 3:25 pm | Reply

  44. alot of ass kissing @ that company

    Comment by mad asian — February 8, 2009 @ 5:41 am | Reply

  45. Some waivers require you to sign away your right to sue or lay any future legal claim against the employer in court, and if you do sue thu “approved” Arbitration. Most employees do not read the fine print before or after employment.

    Millions of Americans are now required to give up their right to take their employers to court in order to get a job or to receive severance. Thousands of employers require new employees to “agree” to take any legal dispute that may arise to private arbitration. The Supreme Court has not only approved such agreements, but has done so without requiring that arbitration be fair.

    Employment arbitration today is a unilateral decision made by management. The vast majority of employers who use arbitration require employees to “agree” to waive their right to a jury trial or lose their jobs or be denied certain benefits.

    It’s like having two guns at the head. The employer hold one gun and you the other. Either way it goes yours brains will be on the contract with your name all over it.

    Comment by JESSBSIMPLE — February 8, 2009 @ 12:54 pm | Reply

  46. Claims to be Waived
    Most employers require that employees who are given severance pay agree not to sue the employer thereafter. In fact, most companies that offer severance do so to gain the certainty that no lawsuit will follow the termination whether or not the employee has any grounds for a lawsuit. A severance agreement should contain a comprehensive list of the type of claims and lawsuits that the employee is giving up as part of the agreement. This list is typically very comprehensive and contains almost every conceivable claim, except Workers Compensation claims that cannot be waived in a general release. Employees who sign these agreements should understand that their rights to sue in the future are severely curtailed if not eliminated entirely.

    Non-disparagement Clause
    This clause requires that both parties not to disparage each other to third persons. For the employee, this helps with job search because the terminating employer will not make unfavorable comments to prospective employers. For the employer, the departing employee will make no disparaging comments to other workers, clients and/or customers. If both sides decide to include this clause, it is important to define what specifically can be said so that no confusion ensues later.

    Arbitration/Mediation Clause
    This clause is typically included to avoid the high cost of lawsuits in case a dispute arises in the future between the two parties. To avoid the costs of lawsuits, some agreements include a clause that any future disputes will be submitted to an arbitrator whose decision will be binding on all sides. Others agree to submit future disputes to binding mediation. Where such is the case, it is important to include the names of acceptable mediators/arbitrators, how one can initiate a request for mediation or arbitration, the deadline for doing so and the venue where the mediation will occur.

    Employees Over 40 Years of Age
    The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) permits those employees over 40 years of age to have a minimum of 21 days to review the severance agreement before signing it. They must also be afforded the seven days after signing it to change their minds. For employers, this typically means that payment is withheld for the duration. Under certain circumstances, the employee may waive some of these rights so that the employer does not withhold the severance checks for the entire waiting period.

    Comment by JESSBSIMPLE — February 8, 2009 @ 1:19 pm | Reply

  47. TI is the WORST company to work for. TI still has good ole boy network so your performance is not based on what you did for the company, but how many asses you kissed in a day. DMOS5 managers lie to their employees during performance review (TI calls it DPM review). The stock performance of TI since 2001 says it all about this company and the upper management.

    Comment by DMOS5 — February 16, 2009 @ 5:47 pm | Reply

  48. They use Contractors for half their work force.
    I should know. I use to work for them in a section called Bump inspecting wafers for flaws. They hire their contractors through Volt Services and laying off their contractors happens all the time. This is nothing new. Half the workers at the Stafford complex are or were contract employees. When they start laying off their own employes. Then they are hurting.
    We all know why companys use contract workers.
    Advoid benefits and such.
    Glad I do not work for them anymore.

    Comment by Mark — February 18, 2009 @ 9:51 pm | Reply

  49. Mark you should come back we have a place for you

    Comment by manager — February 24, 2009 @ 2:13 am | Reply

  50. DMOS5 is right. TI is the worst company to work for.

    Comment by MA — February 26, 2009 @ 5:51 pm | Reply

  51. TI has started layoff in India as well, though they don’t call it layoff.
    Employees are laid off quitely with ZERO severance.

    Do you want to work for such un-ethical company??

    Comment by Anonymous — February 26, 2009 @ 5:53 pm | Reply

  52. Rich Templeton and Greg Delagi have basically turned a Dallas instition into a company that is lost and does not know what is is or where its going. And the board gave them increased stock options for killing business. Executive corruption is now in full force at TI much like we see at US banks and investment houses.

    The only thing to stop evil from winning out is for a few good people to do nothing.

    Comment by TI "class of 09" — February 28, 2009 @ 2:48 pm | Reply

  53. SHAME on TI.

    Laying off people without severance in India. TI is treating Indians as second grade employees.

    Comment by RH — March 2, 2009 @ 11:35 am | Reply

    • Relax, my friend. They screwed up with everybody, no matter what nationality they are. Oh no, wait! Actually they did not screwed up with only one nationality, and it’s name is greed.

      Comment by Anonymous — March 2, 2009 @ 11:40 am | Reply

      • Right.
        I heard from one TI India friend that TI India is spending big money on pantry and other renovations these days.

        And then they say its financial crisis!
        All mediocars making money in these upgradations.

        Comment by Anonymous — March 2, 2009 @ 12:29 pm | Reply

  54. i am going to say TI is one of the worst company i have ever seen/worked
    in one yr I have changed around 8 pc.
    my first pc was p3 with 512 mb ram
    and 8 gb hard disc
    i worked/struggled on this pc for around 4 months

    after changiong 8 pc in a yr
    and all are outdated pc
    wat de expect from employee
    he is going to perform gr8
    this is so frustrating i almost stopped working

    not getting gud performance is solely there responsibility

    Comment by TI Ex Employee — March 2, 2009 @ 12:20 pm | Reply

  55. Lot of managers at TI are making bread and butter by politics.
    TI should throw these managers who are good for nothing.

    Why do they layoff hardworking junior level engineers.

    Comment by Employee — March 2, 2009 @ 12:24 pm | Reply

  56. Texas Instruments India is no more a Great Place to Work and just fall in Good Place to Work. They dont pay severence during layoff and any employer is evaluated how it takes care of employee at bad times. I suggest you to look for other options in market before joining TI. Even existing Texas Instruments India employees should look for options if they smell like layoff, otherwise you may find yourself kicked off without severance without any reason.

    Comment by Employee123 — March 8, 2009 @ 10:26 am | Reply

  57. Severance package offered by companies in India.
    CISCO – 7 month salary
    Cadence – 6 month salary
    Motorola – 6-24 months salary
    Texas Instruments – 0 Yes it is zero. This company only has rosy picture, it has worst policy. They are doing back door layoff in India.

    Comment by Unknown — March 8, 2009 @ 11:14 am | Reply

  58. “Benchoth” Indians ,all you do is complain deal with it !

    Comment by manager — March 25, 2009 @ 4:39 am | Reply


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