Ducks in a Row: Once Again Old is New
by Miki Saxon
I find it amusing how frequently I read something that is presented as totally new when, in fact, it was done decade(s) previously.
In this case, it was the agreement not to poach each others engineers, supposedly masterminded by Steve Jobs.
Just how far Silicon Valley will go to remove such risks is at the heart of a class-action lawsuit that accuses industry executives of agreeing between 2005 and 2009 not to poach one another’s employees.
The last time I remember this happening was in the late Seventies/early Eighties by the HR organizations in a group of semiconductor firms, including National Semiconductor, AMD and Intel, among others I can’t remember.
The story was broken by a gossipy semiconductor-focused newsletter to which everyone in the Valley subscribed, shared and denied reading. (Sadly, I can’t remember the name, although it was published by an individual who lived near Santa Cruz.)
Word was that being caught reading the newsletter could get you fired.
When the information surfaced it was the EEOC that fined the companies involved.
It was a stupid corporate move then and just as stupid now, but back then the workers affected didn’t do anything; how times have changed.
Flickr image credit: Harold Heindell Tejada
January 27th, 2016 at 1:16 am
[…] played a central role in the “no poach” scandal (where a number of top companies, like Apple and Google, agreed not to recruit from each other) […]