“National Semiconductor giveth, and it taketh away,” Barry Shlachter, Jim Fuquay, and Maria M. Perotin report for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company gained loads of publicity last month for announcing plans to give every employee a 30-gigabyte video iPod,” Shlachter,Fuquay, and Perotin report. “Last week, the company laid off 35 employees at its Arlington plant. To the surprise of some at the plant, the laid-off workers were asked to give back their high-tech toys.”
Shlachter,Fuquay, and Perotin report, “A person who called the Star-Telegram claiming to have been one of the 35 laid-off workers said many employees at the Arlington plant were under the impression that the iPods were theirs to keep. Some had sold them or given them as gifts, according to the caller. ‘Nothing was ever said about ever having to give it back,’ the caller said. ‘If I’d known it was company property, I never would have picked it up.'”
“‘They were not a gift,’ company spokeswoman LuAnn Jenkins said Friday. Jenkins said she didn’t know whether the company ever intended for the workers to keep the iPods,” Shlachter,Fuquay, and Perotin report. “Employees who leave the company can return the device or pay ‘fair market value’ for it, she said.”
“As more than 100 workers enthusiastically received their iPods one morning last month at the Arlington plant, two company spokesmen would not directly answer questions from Star-Telegram reporter Aman Batheja as to whether workers would be able to keep the iPods once they left the company. ‘We haven’t crossed that bridge,’ said Scott Kahl, human resources director,” Shlachter,Fuquay, and Perotin report. “The road to that bridge turned out to be pretty short.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rob” for the heads up.]
Alternate headline: “Good publicity goes bad.”
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Related article:
National Semiconductor gives all 8,500 employees 30GB video-capable Apple iPods – June 12, 2006
More like National Semigiftgiver or National Semibadform.
What a petty company!
National Semiconductor sounds worse than Microsoft.
Perhaps Ballmer could find a job there when he gets thrown out.
National SemiMoronic.
National FullyIdiotic.
Should have just given them towels.
even though that is lame to indian give, does not common sense beg to ask “what are the terms here?” “is this mine or what’s the deal?”
I would love my company to give me a loaner 5G iPod
Add my vote to the “bad form” side.
Most companies “give” their employees “stuff”. They generally distinguish between “gifts” and “company property for your use”, though, and sometimes tell you what you can, or cannot, do with said company property.
NS obviously did not specify their continued ownership up front.
Were I one of those laid-off workers – not one who was fired – I’d tell NS where to stuff their request for the return of “their” property. The iPods were not handed out for use in the performance of job duties, and not handed out with the express understanding they were company property, and NS would not be getting mine back until a court of law (small claims court – spare no expense) said otherwise. Let the “suit” who designed the program – and gets the big bucks without fear of lay-offs – make recompense to NS.
Whatever numbskull manager that decided to ask for the iPods back needs to join the unemployment line with his former co-workers. I would be highly embarassed to work for NS today.
National Semi-intelligent.
“The Lard giveth, and the Lard taketh away.”
Kahl: chapter IV: verse 13.
That’s incredibly TACKY!
If it were me in that situation, I have a solution that would satisfy me, as the laid off employee, and would keep my arsehole ex-employer off my back: Keep the 30GB 5G Video iPod that they gave me, give them my 2yr old monochrome 20GB 4G iPod (yeah, THAT one, with the dead battery, lol). They can’t complain because they’d be getting AN iPod back, which has (or had, anyway), the same approximate value, and I’ll bet that whoever is collecting them wouldn’t really notice right away anyway. You know what geniuses middle managers can be… [ROFL!]
After all, it’s not like they’re bastard enough to match each 5G iPod’s serial number to each employee, and if they DID, well, screw them anyway. My loyalty would have died the moment they pulled that stunt.
MDN magic word = “simple”, as in, “Simple problem, simple solution.”
The Degiftator
Sarah Connor ?
AG Pennypacker: “even though that is lame to indian give…”
Not nearly as lame as using the term “indian give.”
Clearly the company should have sent out a memo before they gave any employee anything, to let them know what the iPods are supposed to be for. Clearly National Semi blew it big time by not stating before they gave out the iPods what they were to be used for and who they belonged too. I don’t get how they could give people iPods and not expect them to think it was still company property without clearly explaining that before hand. I feel very bad for the people who got laid off and now have to pay for something that they were given which was thought of as a bonus, not company property. Really, really stupid who ever thought this up.
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another CONGLOMERATE RAN BY IDIOTS!
I agree, Denis. And shouldn’t it be “white-man give”? The settlers were the ones who were constantly taking things away from the Native Americans.
Cubert. You haven’t seen the spread of casinos in Valley Center. Ca. And how they’ve screwed up the roads.
Actually, back when NS first “gave out” the iPods, the online articles that I read all noted that the iPods were going to be used to provide training programs to the employees. I think that denotes a business use, not a gift. Everyone wants something for free and loves to jump on the big guy, in this case, it might not be the right thing to do. I’ll agree, it was bad form giving them to people soon to be laid off…incompetent staff and bad communication abound in the world today. But asking for company property back is justified.
Is that Native American giving or Gujrati giving? And could Intel be accused of endian giving?
YOU CAN”T HAVE MY PRECIOUS!!!
National Semiconductor stated “the popular Apple MP3 player will be used as a new training and communications tool at National, providing a convenient real-time method for employees to download National podcasts and other employee communications.”
If I gave you a company cellphone because you’re on call, or I gave you a PDA to manage your contacts would you go and sell it?
I’ve worked for plenty of companies where I received a Blackberry, PDA, pager or cellphone. None were mine. Maybe National Semiconductor employees were confused; but the press statements were pretty clear that the iPods were meant to improve productivity and training.
If “the caller” wouldn’t have picked up their company issued device because it was company property – they should have been laid off anyway. Good on National.
So all of you who work for McDonald’s and don’t understand the business world, quiet down and flip the burgers – they’re burning.
When most companies have internal training, they usually (99% of the time I hope!) create the training program material or collateral before they order and distribute the delivery vehicle. (i.e.; you don’t buy 10,000 loose leaf binders for a training, send them to your employees, then tell them they will be receiving pages of training material in the near future to go in the binders.) You generally send out the training material with the delivery vehicle (notebook, cd-rom, portfolio, iPod, etc.).
Sounds to me like they were a gift that was optional for education. Lets see what they had created for educational material so far!
MW = hair, as in I AM getting a hair cut tonight.
never the less, pretty lame company behavior though.
Check out the casinos in Oklahoma and you’ll then know that using the term “Indian give” is correct in this sense.
I would never work for that company, ever!
I love the hypocrisy you get on this board!
If anyone tries to sue Apple, we get the kneejerk “how dare people expect something for nothing!”, “doesn’t anyone have a sense of personal responsibility anymore?”, and various other sentiments.
And now, because a company tries to take back what was obviously a company asset (because otherwise it would be a taxable gift), we get into bad-mouthing NS.
Seriously, if any of you lot had to run a major Fortune 1000 company or a European equivalent, I’d sell my shares so fast that the ink would melt.