It is to my dismay to see HP Medical, once part of a great company, to go sharply downhill since acquisition by Philips. You can still find pockets of good engineering teams here and there and some of the old "HP way" mold is still around but they steadily and quickly disappear due to repetitive rounds of layoffs and people voting with their feet.
In my many years in the industry I am yet to see corporate culture more antagonistic to engineers than Philips'. "Dime a dozen" or, more likely, "Yuan a dozen", is Philip’s motto when it comes to "individual contributors". From day one they make you feel worthless and replaceable, and emphasize how lucky you must feel to be admitted within twenty mile radius of their shrine. Many are full of hubris and arrogance, which is felt everywhere.
The place is pretty much run by the "good ol' boy" network. They spend their days at coffee stations and behind closed doors playing office poker with each other. Everyone keeps cards close to their chests as it's all about know-who as opposed to know-how.
No matter what your talents or contributions are, you won't get anywhere unless you kiss a lot of a--. Everyone has brown nose and it is pretty much a job requirement.
If you stick your head out, you will find yourself at cross-hairs of a dozen guns for violation of status quo. You are not supposed to think or voice an opinion, just do what you are told to. The boys will take care of you (or so they say), as long as you demonstrate 110% loyalty. Applying to a job outside of your immediate group is usually taken personally, frowned upon and viewed as a breach of loyalty. They sure talk about you behind your back even if the application process is supposed to be confidential.
Much of the product maintenance has now moved to China. Middle management is pretty much held by the balls by the overseas team, completely depending on them for meeting quarterly product goals. Every morning they turn East and pray to the God of "globalization" to please, please continue his favors in return for modest company pay. Many in management are completely clueless and out of touch with reality outside of corporate walls, never worked anywhere besides HP/Agilent/Philips and are mostly driven by fear and complacency.
Once in a while corporate will do a round of drum beating and self praise to boost frail employee morale. But, ironically, Philips being extremely cheap, much of corporate entertainment is done on your own dime (you could skip PYOW after work beer party, but see the above for your career potential).
If you are engaged on a project requiring help from another team (engineering or legal), most of the time your e-and voice mails will go unanswered, unless you think of some kind of quid pro quo or elevate issue to the management chain. If the other team sees you as potential competitor they will try hard to derail your project. Ouch. That hurts. So much for “One Philips”. Or is it “Sense and Simplicity”?
