ex-Intel engineer here.

> Intel engineers, to put to bluntly: suck.

It hurts, but it is true.

> I took voluntary retirement and went to work for a smaller instrument maker. I’m way happier.

I was not so lucky. I would have loved the voluntary separation package. They did get around to doing straight large layoffs one year. My manager got laid off, I was not so lucky. I wanted the layoff package. I told him I'd happily trade places with him. He tried, but was denied. I ended up leaving anyway. Now, like you, working for a small company and much much happier.

I replied to another Intel engineer saying something similar: after seeing Panther Lake I just can’t believe that Intel has an engineering problem.

Intel engineers absolutely do not suck.

me and a quarter of my company are looking up the barrel of a voluntary separation package. but I just moved to a team full of brilliant people working on a project that's a zen garden of algorithm design, so I won't go gently into that dark night.