[helsinkiandrew]

I know from experience that working at an outpost of a company run from another country can suck unless communication and direction are very clear.

Whatever the company may have said about assurances that their jobs are safe, making people in Australia redundant, moving production to the US and hiring more people in the US sounds as if thats the direction the company is heading in and the jobs in AU will be less interesting and eventually eliminated.

Retention bonuses and salary may help, but letting them know what the AU team role will be (why is it being kept rather than moved to the US). Will they have autonomy or ownership of something or just passed overflow work from the US?

[qetuo13579]

The AU engineers have all the existing product knowledge. The US is hiring for multiple positions to work on new products but US HQ doesn’t want there to be a distinction between the two teams. The plan is for both sites to be involved in all projects.

[twobitshifter]

I think the engineers are voting that it’s not a great idea to separate r&d from production. There’s many stories of how this has led to further outsourcing and loss of technical edge.