Happy New Year!

Doesn't matter if tests are replaced by competitors or not. Lost revenue is lost revenue, period. When the high cost, high volume tests that you have and think you have an advantage with start to disappear for whatever reason, it's a problem And Siemens has more than enough problems now without losing more business whether to competitors or not.

Learn a bit about what fungibility means.

'' Any non-critical DX tests get dropped, and necessary tests Siemens provides are being replaced by lower cost ones from competitors.'

Hold your glory there buddy. The second part of the request was to name the rplacement tests from competitors.
Also those are large volume tests for just about everyone else, especially PSA.

I will repeat, as much as I hate siemens pap like this just muddies the water.

I can name two tests that are relatively high cost and of dubious medical value (at least when used for screen rather than for specific medical problems):

PSA
Vitamin D

In the case of the former, the test has become even more contraversial in terms of what is done to the patient following a positive result and some expert groups are recommeneding that PSA no longer be used for screening.

In the case of Vitamin D, the test, while a popular 'fad' today, is generally not necessary for those who eat an healthful diet and/or take appropriate vitamin supplements. There is also some contraversy as to what the normal range should be, and when the definition of 'normal' is not clear, the clinical utility of any test becomes questionable.

I will leave it to someone else to come up with the third test rather than taking all of the glory for myself.

' Any non-critical DX tests get dropped, and necessary tests Siemens provides are being replaced by lower cost ones from competitors.'

Name three of those tests.

As much as I hate siemens, nonsense like this just muddies the water.

With more people being insured under ACA, the DX business should be looking good, at least in the US. Right now Siemens is in a mode of trying to limit the bleeding until their new system becomes available. Unfortunately, the fact that they have yet to consolidate to a single facility, at least for R&D, is greatly reducing any chance that their new system will be successful. Unless they can find ways to cut overhead quickly, Siemens DX will suffer a very slow death. Despite anything being said internally by management or any of their programs and visions, management has yet actually do anything to really change the downhill slide. The numbers from last year may have been rosy, but there is still little sign that the company is coming together and starting to move ahead cohesively as a team.

I have heard the same gloom and doom on this site for over 30 years!Unreal. You all a bunch of malcontents! Most people I know do not go to the rumor mill anymore. I can't help myself. Like looking at a train wreck.

The DX industry is heavily dependent upon government spending. Most governments are being forced to cut back. Any non-critical DX tests get dropped, and necessary tests Siemens provides are being replaced by lower cost ones from competitors. It's a dynamic being played out in other industries as well.

The diagnostic marketplace could care less about Siemens DX.
They went from #1 to #4(or lower)in less than 6years.
That basically says it all.
Their planned Agenda 2013 is a garage sale on platforms no one wants anyway.
Could they sell it off? No way.
What they should do is eliminate lackluster product lines and concentrate on the ones making money and have a future.
The company needs a serious consolidation and slimming.
Until that happens they'll contiue losing marketshare, customers and money.
It's a business dynamic problem and only a solid business dynamic plan will help them. Garage sales, old instrument lines and redundant sites are not the answer.

Something to think about: Assuming that Siemens cannot turn things around in DX, and, further assuming that they attempt to sell DX, but cannot find a buyer to make it worthwhile, let us say that Siemens just decides to eat the loss, take whatever tax breaks they can, and shut DX down completely.

The question is: Would the world be better off without Siemens DX products, worse off, or basically unaffected as whatever market share they have is taken over by the survivers?

Merry Christmas to all.

It is not just DX. She is singing for all of Healthcare. The system has been gamed for too long. The fat lady is in the middle of stomach surgery!

Amen to that.

No raise (till July), old platforms, non-existent management guidance and no light at end of tunnel.
Yes, I do hope we get shutdown, packaged off and move on with our lives.
As my husband keeps reminding me about DX, "the fat lady has sung".

So what does the month of January hold for us?

Misery.
Another painful year working for a company that could care less about you and its customers.
Our only salvation will be an eventually layoff schedule and "package".
In the meantime customers will continue to bail, marketshare lost and management forever touting how wonderful things are.
Yes, working for Siemens DX is a blessing indeed.
Merry Christmas to all.

So what does the month of January hold for us?

Well, it has been one bumpy ride since the "Competitveness Program" began. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. Merry Christmas and just remember it is never to early to break out the bubbly!
Here's looking at your Mikey.

"God Bless Us, Everyone"
Tiny Mikey

Yep, Germany's finest.

Either way, the rest of us got screwed.
What are we now anyway? 4,5,6 in marketshare.
If ever a company needed a reorganization, new management and a major slimming down in size it'll be DX.
Six years later they apparently haven't learnt any lessons.
Agenda this and Agenda that.
Coal Coal Coal to all of them.

The bonuses come out of last year's budget whereas merit raises come out of next year's budget. MR simply does what the bean counters tell him to do.

What difference does it make. Mikey's merit increase is "chunk change" compared to his bonus and stock options.
US employee's were taken to the cleaners on this. Losing 6-months merit raise...someone should have told Sandy before she blitzed my roof.
Siemens has no shame. When the economy gets better I hope we all bail from this shameless company.
Told my kids, if anyone deserves coal this Christmas it's MR.

When are those numbers made public to us?

Merit increases.

Was it the bonuses or merit increases that Mikey said that mgmt wasn't receiving. I bet it wasn't bonuses.

Check the business numbers for the quarter ending this month. If you hit them, there may be no layoffs coming. BTW, MR has a reputation for making sure the bonus multiplier is good - he is, afterall, more incentivized by the bonus than the base pay. Hence why he paid for the extra QA help out of the base pay raise.

I want to keep working and I am not WISHING for a package. I wonder how come they did not do a voluntary retirement on other sections of Siemens.

Well, we got our STIPS. Now all we need are our layoff packages and it'll be a perfect Christmas indeed.
You can work as hard as you want but this ship continues to tank.
Bad Management with no respect for employee's.
Take away 6months of everyones merit raise...you get what you pay for. I'd rather stay home and shovel snow.

After MR reveals his true identity, he says to those shocked employees: nice work, here's your package.

I was watching "Undercover Boss" last night and thought how that would never be Siemens.

Remember the old GIGO adage. Good software requires good input from other engineers, customers, and chemists. Most importantly, it requires excellent communication and feedback among the various groups who need the software and those create it. Tarrytown has a long history of bunker mentality in which the various groups do not communicate with one another, but rather tend to fight each other in order to protect their respective turfs. Under conditions like this, the quality of software creators becomes somewhat irrelevant.

There are very few "Americans" in the SW dept at Tarrytown. There would be no point in outsourcing, or bringing in greencards for lower costs when engineers are lacking in solving software problems related to automated diagnostic equipment. Writing code and deciding what to write are two different skills. A slower coder with exceptional systems analysis skills will outperform a super coder who doesn't know what the problem is.

Maybe so.
I'm getting the feeling a rather large wave is coming in the near future.
It's no secret DX needs a large change in course direction.
Siemens Germany is very disappointed on their "return" the past 6years.
Radical changes are coming.

"Save it.
You'll need it after the layoffs."

Funny. Those getting the biggest bonuses are the least likely to be laid off. When was the last time that you saw the big boys get it in the neck? If they laid off the incompetant managers and executives, who would be around to decide who will be laid off next?

Save it.
You'll need it after the layoffs.

If only the gov't didn't take out all those taxes! I am still happy anyway.

Yes, it's much bigger than we ever had!

Bonuses tomorrow! Yipee

No. There is no one left who understands the DX business and how it differs from other Siemens' businesses.

Who's running things at Siemens now, in general? As the company has slid, its safe to assume that talent has jumped ship. The upper echelons of the org chart are there by appointment (sort of like being sent to the Eastern Front) but the rest, are they second or third stringers, dead enders too old to jump, fill in wannabees? Without the best and brightest, is there at least anyone that is OK and somewhat not dim steering the ship?

Your sense of entitlement is astounding. How's this for an alternative:

If Siemens wants to get rid of dead wood, just fired em for non-performance. No severance to pay at all when you get fired for cause. If cause can't be found, just lay them off with the minimum allowable benefits. Comapanies are not run for the benefit of dead wood, even companies as bad and incompetant as Siemens.

I sympathize with those who still perform well and get laid off. I don't sympathize at all with the sloths who do nothing and expect an extra reward.

If Siemens wants to get rid of the deadwood then offer them a package and many will go.
Otherwise they have no incentive to leave and or retire.
Regardless, the biggest problem with dX are redundancies at all their sites. Unless they shutdown unnecessary sites, consolidate manufacturing and put to sleep lackluster no-sale platforms they'll continue losing money.
Going from #1 to #4 in less than 6 years takes talent. But it's not the kind of talent to be proud of.

Why would you want and wait for a "package" deal? Are you close to retirement? If so, I would suggest you retire.

What they should have done is do another voluntary heave ho. Not everyone at Siemens was offered that and I know plenty of people that would have volunteered.

I don't have a lot of years in to even think of a "package" deal. I will just go in and work hard and hope I don't get the heave ho.

Don't know, but could outsourcing produce anything worse than TTN software has done in the past 30 years? Software has been a problem with just about every new product as far as once can remember, either in its final form or in terms of causing significant schedule delays during development. That department has needed a big shake up for years.

Any truth to the observation that Trytwn Software group is laying off Americans in favor of foreign hires on green cards?

This is like the ant and the grasshopper. Pray for a package, have the best Christmas ever, and be out on a street corner begging by next July 4th. I think it's pretty sick that people are actually looking forward to getting a package rather than working hard to try to keep their job or working hard to find another.

Some people are paid to be good. People like the the 'grasshoppers' are good for nothing.

Sooner the better.
Half my Site wants to leave already. The other half is deadwood
DX is stuck with waiting for retirement.
Give us the standard package and it'll be the best
Christmas ever.

It's been pretty quiet. When is all this suppose to occur?

I totally agree with you! Finally, someone who is rational and logical in their approach to how they see themselves du lich hue and their job in the future.

My dept will probably go sometime in the future. I don't think tomorrow or next week. Hopefully, when the job market is doing much better. For now, I will stay. I work hard, du lich hongkong get along with my unruly co-workers and I like my job. One should always keep their options open anyway. It doesn't hurt to pray and be positive. Otherwise, you are just worrying yourself to death.

If you do believe that you can survive the layoff AND you can grow your career at DX, then choose to stay should be okay. Otherwise you may want to jump the ship early just for your own career development.
END QUOTE

There is "no" growing your career at DX. At my site you can spend 5years doing exactly the same thing. You aren't going anywhere.
If you're young then jumping ship is your best recourse...and sooner the better.
Most of what is staying and not looking elsewhere is deadwood waiting for retirement. If you're in your twenty-thirties and this is also your ambition then stick around and good luck with that.

Good point. Actually, everyone I know at my site is already looking. Whether or not DX has some layoff schedule, people just want to leave this dreadful company.
Best way to describe management is "blind leading the blind".
I've worked at two other diagnostic companies over the past 15years and, by far, Siemens DX is at the low end of scale.

From a business perspective they haven't a clue as to what they're doing. They show no respect towards the employee's and they actually wonder why people are leaving in droves.
All of the best people are going to the competition.

From my personal experience I'd say to find another job is the best solution for all the possible trouble you may face after laid off. I was let go from LA in 2010, spent exactly 18 months to get the next job 5% pay increase and better title compared to what I had at DX. The only "luck" I got is I was able to collect regular UI and most of EUC tiers. So my 18 months were totally covered. But I don't think folks after me can get that lucky.

If you do believe that you can survive the layoff AND you can grow your career at DX, then choose to stay should be okay. Otherwise you may want to jump the ship early just for your own career development.

Another point consider is I could have got 15% increase if I negotiate my offer while still at DX.

To the person who wrote the word of caution - I totally agree with you! Finally, someone who is rational and logical in their approach to how they see themselves and their job in the future.

My dept will probably go sometime in the future. I don't think tomorrow or next week. Hopefully, when the job market is doing much better. For now, I will stay. I work hard, get along with my unruly co-workers and I like my job. One should always keep their options open anyway. It doesn't hurt to pray and be positive. Otherwise, you are just worrying yourself to death.