NetApp has made another round of layoffs in the USA and elsewhere.

In a statement the company said:

Over the past year, our CEO George Kurian has shared how NetApp has been transforming our business to improve productivity and lower our cost structure to align with our revenue expectations and fund investment in growth areas. We are starting to see results from these investments that position us to lead in the parts of the market that are growing, like all-flash arrays, next-generation data centres and hybrid cloud solutions. On November 3, we communicated to our employees that we will be undertaking a global restructuring as a part of planned transformation efforts. This will impact approximately 6 per cent of our workforce. We remain confident that with sustained execution, we can expect a return to moderated growth in our FY18 (which begins in May 2017).

It's estimated that NetApp has some 10,600 employees and, therefore, around 636 people are going to lose their jobs.

NetApp has been lauded as a great place to work, being ranked second in the 2014 Business Insider list of "20 Most Flexible Employers in America" and number three in Great Place to Work's 2013 "World's Best Multinational Workplaces" among other accolades. It had been on the FORTUNE "100 Best Companies to Work For" list for 13 consecutive years in 2015.

In the 2016 Great Place To Work review, many good things were said about NetApp's work environment while acknowledging layoffs:

Recent changes in NetApp's leadership and business strategy, including layoffs, have left a share of its workforce suggesting the company could better communicate its direction and employees' part in it. Even so, team members make frequent note of their pride in the ways they continue to give back and meet high-tech challenges alongside their co-workers. "It's a large company with small-company values," says one. "I love working for NetApp. Every day I get to push the envelope of technology and prove why we are so awesome."

Such pride can be a fragile thing when colleagues are laid off again and again. ®