[caskstrength]

> If I were an Intel employee I would never accept a pay cut "justified" by the company's willingness to pay dividends.

Maybe they intentionally want to cause some attrition with this move without announcing additional layoffs? It is kinda win-win for them since they both save money on payroll and don't do explicit layoff with pay severances, risk of lawsuits, etc.

Obviously such approach can cause "dead sea effect", but they either don't care or assume it won't happen.

[adg001]

Yes, this is a tactic some companies resort to in order to incentive resignations. However, as you correctly highlight, this typically results in a loss of talents. AFAIK, Intel is already experiencing challenging times. Attracting – and retaining – new talents is especially hard to do, when the job marketplace learns about this peculiar work culture that prioritises paying dividents to talent retention. I would be very happy to be proven mistaken, for the sake of friends working at Intel.