Someone on my team left and took a pay cut, which honestly surprised me. The work here isn’t terrible, the pay’s fine, and the people are decent. I get the anxiety around layoffs, but I didn’t realize it was pushing people that far.
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@ad I'm one of the old guys and I can't agree more. Not exciting, but acceptable work as well as not exciting but acceptable salary with close to 0% increase every year. Still better than taking a pay cut... Grass is not greener. Last time I checked most SAP customers pay less except for MAG 7 due to high % of stock-based compensation that keep increasing in value. Seems like SAP plans to move toward the same model but SAP stock price has been much more volatile historically.
The reason may be because they heard rumors about compensation (optimization) announcement coming in Jan. Guess what that means.
Honestly, holding tightly there for the moment until hopefully l will get s fair severance...then with this market l would definitely accept a pay cut to work for s company that treats employees as people and not as a cost on a spreadsheet to get rid of once they have done their part. The board got to a level of shameless which is unreal...they even don't care to discuss the negative numbers of the unfiltered survey. Full autocracy mode.
Burnout is real. Working with no purpose, changes, having no control over your career and the corporate politics.
It’s so unfortunate.
The worst part is the facade that SAP portrays in their culture. Culture of what? Smoke and mirrors?
Promote and progress your people. That is culture.
You start to ask yourself, is it worth the money?
Save your money, you don’t want to report to id--ts when you are 60 years old.
Depends...if you are still a young person, you are probably trying to buy a house and start a family, SAP with its large uncertainty means it is difficult to plan a future where you can get cut anytime. SAP has pulled the rug from underneath you on this.
If you are older, probably looking to semi-retire and a pay cut where your mortgage is nearly fully paid off is fine and acceptable. At that point, you've dealt with the politics, and just want an easy peaceful job with no dramas.
Mid-career professionals: Probably because the company is cutting out middle managers and there is no future at SAP as those roles are being offshored to South Asia. But you are still desired in the industry as you are neither too cheap or expensive. But your job security su-ks because AI automation may creep up on you.
You don't know your colleague's entire personal story or thoughts.
They may well be moving for a pay cut now but with the view that there long-term career prospects will be far better while working with real technology and tools that are used elsewhere. A software developer working with ABAP their whole career will find it tougher to get a job when the layoffs come for them.
SAP is a huge company and your experience there largely depends on your team and your direct manager. I plan on taking a pay cut too. I'm just hanging on now to pad my savings as much as possible.
@OP the work isn't terrible but it isn't exciting either...so I understand "old" folks who need their salary to sustain their families and can support terrible conditions choose to stay no matter what.
On the opposite, I understand that young engineers want exciting, challenging projects on new technologies to build their career and a SAP is no longer offering this environment US, CA and western Europe sites...
What do you think voluntary early retirement is?