What is everyone's thoughts on today's Town Hall?
42 replies (most recent on top)
@14d no they aren't, they will remain remote
@10n James is officially done. This is just a pseudo role to keep him on the payroll for the remainder of the fiscal year to meet the requirements of the bonus package he received in addition to the comp increased when he agreed to take on the CEO role temporarily. He is retired and we'll see an announcement around that shortly after the start of fiscal year 27.
Also, new CEO is not a fan of the President of Sales. Expect a change there.
@12y So this means that people in more remote locations, hired as permanently remote, are going to receive a mandate to relocate themselves and their families in 2027?
@122 When will the range be expanded? Drawing circles on a map--of 30 miles--doesn't mean a 30-mile drive, it could be 40 miles. What happens when they decide that anyone in a 60-mile radius can drive back and forth? That could easily require a 75-mile drive depending on roads.
And what a farce, a "green" company... the RTO and all the driving that employees will need to do, belching their greenhouse gases from their cars, the company will just say it's not them burning the fuel.
@122 work from home is dead. At Waterloo, they have bought 2 new floors in another building to renovate and move people in and have plans to renovate floors in the Waterloo office.
Does that sound like they want to hold off on RTO? The only thing bringing back WFH is what caused it in the first place
@122 Same. Only it was Liverpool FC.
He didn't answer the question about holding off on RTO until fuel prices settle down, in fact he said people need to understand the value of interacting face-to-face; he's going to accelerate the RTO, count on that.
As for football, I wanted to shout "go AFC Richmond!"
@ka funny how the spin that James has been “promoted” from CEO to Chief Client Officer. OpenText marketing and vocabulary is the craziest I’ve ever seen. OpenText 3.0 will have Supreme Titanium X and Super Aviators, can’t wait.
@ea Sending McGourlay back to run the Help Desk is the definition of insanity.
I was laid off Apr 2025. I check here regularly to see how much, if any, things have changed for my friends that I made while I was at OT. Sounds like to me from the comments, that absolutely nothing has changed for you folks. What is the old adage ... "The beatings will continue, until moral improves". It took me a almost 8 months to find something in my area of expertise, but do know, THERE IS LIFE AFTER OT and it is better! Maybe the board should just fire everyone above senior manager and be done with it!
@ew that didn't look like a diver
@fr Unlikely he actually makes things worse (it is a pretty low bar), just takes the blame for continuing ELT fu-kups and infighting.
retired gremlin comes back to worsen life for others, becomes richly rewarded
@ev it could also be because he's a diver. Tudor was well known for producing watches for divers. My diver friend has one.
@d1 Poor man's Rolex.
so we are monkeys, he feeds bananas to us
@ea the fat guy was Jenkins, an old dinosaur running an AI company, lol
Congrats to James Mcgourlay (shocking in front of a customer) heading back to running the HELPDESK. Very unimpressive maiden speech by new CEO zoned out what’s his name again? Who was the fat guy at the start ?
@c8 The names can return, but the products have been zombiefied with OTEX dysfunctional culture.
@bh seems he is just here for the paycheque and touring the world on company money. More of the same.
@bf I noticed his watch as well, and I’m not even a watch guy!
@bz if anything, I hope he just gives us the old names back. Customers don't want "OpenText Application Security" they want Fortify
@by by that logic though - most of the other bad decisions are going to be maintained.
Meaning the teamwork talk isn't getting anywhere. And if the last sale(s) arent enough it'll be risk for more layoffs.
Listen-n-learn then lasts into what little we have left.
@aa I got that vibe too. But he said earlier that he didn't want to be the type of leader who walks in the door and immediately reverses everything previous leadership put in place
His welcome email he is going on a multi month(junket) listen and learn…. Isn’t that what he should know?
How expensive is the luxurious watch he was wearing today?
His linkedin shows he has a gap of 3 years?
@ah oil barrel price increases. We're not going back to pre April prices for a while.
Plane tickets are starting to factor the oil price now. Other industries will be hit more for summer. Meaning it's estimated to take over a year to correct.
That's gas and oil getting you to an office and maintaining it. Your electric bill too. Plus extra AI use needs more. That's transporting food. That's affecting manufacturing that needs oil or gas. That's altering shipping costs (something OT may need to take.)
Some countries are trying to cut office days to preserve oil (because if you don't have your own - you're held to whatever costs you're given).
The US has an E15 idea for May - but older cars (and some machines) can't use higher ethanol mixes, and it may be less efficient. That's not a clean fix.
@ae I thought the best part was Jenkins talking about he loves books, sounds like he couldn't even use a laptop but yet, here he is running a tech company
@ab what do you mean effects into Sept next year
@ac he didn't across that way at all. What do you mean normalized work culture ?
I particularly enjoyed being told about how AI works in business today by a boomer who's been out of work for 3 years.
I'm concerned he came out of retirement. Why? Because he was offered some big money including a huge incentive for a short turnaround stay. His job is to slice and dice the company, get the stock price up and stable, and then go back into retirement. Think Massive Layoffs and Massive transformation in how the company operates including what becomes normalized work culture.
@aa I took it as he's not touching it for now. Meaning working towards full RTO unless things take a nosedive.
For context some folks are anticipating effects already into Sept of next year.
Seemed quiet open to returning to 3 days office in my opinion
The bar is so incredibly low. It isn't hard to have a good welcome and intro.
“What if the futbol team manager keeps pulling players and I’m forced to play multiple positions?@ (layoffs)
'Great teams win championships'
THEN. QUIT. LAYING. THEM. OFF. Stop making me explain their job to them and whoever's left. There is no value in that because the people who would be valuable or decent to be around are gone.
Is this an actual team mentality or Blue Lock?!
Boomer "my wife doesn't think I'm an adult haha" jokes 🙄
Early 2000s management terminology, empty platitudes and general style. Trained engineer mad at software engineering co-opting the title. Doesn't understand the difference between the words "customer" and "client."
@a2 They could direct the call to Indian COE, or an AI agent.
Hilarity will ensue.