NEW YORK, Jan 25, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Sun Microsystems (SUNW, Trade) employees are sending mixed signals about their company's future, New York research firm Vault has found in new employee surveys on the hardware giant, which posted a larger-than-expected loss in its fiscal second quarter today but saw revenue grow as a result of recent acquisitions. The survey results, published today, can be accessed on Vault.com.
Vault's employee surveys give investors and jobseekers insight into the company's business operations.
Says a senior technical support engineer, "Sun has more brilliant and nice people per square inch than any other company I've ever worked for."
For survey results, visit: vault.com
But an IT manager writes that Sun's problems "started when (CEO) Scott McNealy started golfing with Jack Welch, CEO of GE. Jack Welch implemented Six Sigma at GE, which was the methodology behind their highly successful quality program. The credo is "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Six Sigma works well for companies that manufacture jet engines, hydro electric generators, nuclear reactors, light bulbs, products with long life cycles. But not so well with products with short life cycles. IT engineers spend countless hours tracking their time and are forbidden to perform work that "isn't in our charter". The dollar return on the Sigma analysis isn't great enough to justify fixing any individual bug. We live with constant noise in the system that is getting louder. |