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HP People Stories, Norena Gutierrez

 

 

Norena Gutierrez

 

A couple of years ago, the HP Retired Employee Club newsletter published a wonderful poem, written by Norena Gutierrez, a 23-year HR employee, most recently working at Boise. I confess that it left me and a lot of us with a lump in our throat and perhaps a tear in our eyes. It absolutely expressed the way most of us felt inside, as we looked back on our own decades of hard work for OUR company. I decided that I would like to include it in my Narrative History of HP to express in a real way our love for our workplace.

Although the HPREC newsletter noted that Norena was an HP Retiree living in Spain, it turned out that she was still working in Boise. I contacted her and asked for permission to reproduce her words in my Narrative, which she approved. But the really bad news was that she had just been told that she had been Work Force Managed (WFM). WFM, a nasty little modern business acronym (and euphemism) which means you are out of a job. The term hides a strange feeling for most of us because on one hand we know that the external business situation has forced drastic organizational downsizing upon HP and Agilent. But on the other hand, we all know personally some of those thousands of people similarly affected. In this case, Norena has prepared for her future life in real estate, and we thank her for her dedicated service and wish her well. Happy Trails, Norena.

When I told Marc that I would like to include Norena's insightful poem, I tried again to contact her in Boise, but so far have not been successful, even though she shows up on Facebook. Nevertheless, I feel that she would approve this appearance of her poem in these person profiles on the web.

 

-- John Minck

 

 

 

The Lights Will Still Go On at HP

by Norena Gutierrez, September 2005

 

They say the "lights will still go on at HP" without me here.
I know that is true, but I wonder who will miss me?
I wonder who will miss the love I have given this company,
I wonder who will miss how much I cared about The HP Way.

I often chose to come in early, work through lunch and stay late.
I thought what I was doing was so important.
Especially when it was for customers or when it was something so new,
What we were doing would change the world.
But the times I was the most selfless, was for my co-workers who needed me.
Maybe it was to review a document, give feedback, change the code, whatever!
This is what I will miss most, knowing that I was important to my co-workers.

I will miss the lifelong friends I have made
We had so many days of meaningful work together.
We made a difference and we knew it.
We understood the power of a team.

I will miss that where ever I went in the world,
I always found great HP people.
People who cared as much as I did.
People who loved our HP culture enough to keep it precious.
These are the great HP people who shared in success
And when times were tough were the first to say, "We'll get through it together!"

I will miss the picnics and the beer busts.
But mostly I will miss the managers who believed in me, who challenged me,
who told me that I was a leader and important to the business.
I will miss the profit sharing checks.

Not for the money but because I knew I was a part of something so much greater than myself.
I will always remember the handshake and the "Thank you" of the general manager.
Those were some of my favorite times.

I will miss the laughter and excitement of creating new businesses and improving processes.
I will miss the serious times when customers' needs were on the line.
We were all engaged for one purpose.
It was our finest hour.

I will miss saying I helped create a great HP product.
And now will relish in how it changed the world.
I wouldn't have missed that for anything.
How proud I am to have been an HP employee.

I would have worked for free for you HP.
I loved you that much.
You should know that I cried when Bill and Dave died.
I had finally figured out what values really mean to a company's culture.
My only regret is I didn't have a chance to say thank you.
I'll take that learning with me as a final gift of all the years, of the great company Bill & Dave built.
I leave you now HP.

I am proud to have been the heart and soul of The HP Way.
I took it for granted for so many years.
I was a guardian of all that was good and meaningful in this company.
Thank you for trusting me to do the best job I could.
That's all I ever wanted to do.

 

 

 

 

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