If the return to office thing is happening, can someone confirm what will happen to virtual
There are thousands of virtual employees so they won't all be let go
Will they be told relocate ? Or will they remain virtual if over 50 miles to an office
4 replies (most recent on top)
@df well said… the HR “calibration” process mandates that managers must give a % based their employees a 1 or 2 rating where the 1’s are let go on the next RIF and the 2’s get PIP with hopes that they become a 1 on their next appraisal. If not we are encouraged to find ways improved employees are not using AI or validate their entire position could be replaced by AI so they are next on the chopping block.
Mark ran this company like a Ponzi scheme with acquisitions and all the ELT were in on it. Now the cat’s out of the bag and they are doing all they can to get the stock up so they leave with a great package. What they can’t do is spend money to fix problems, so they just cut jobs and hope the people remaining pick up the slack.
The luck ones will be the 25% that divest from OpenText. The internal mess and necessary investment in R&D will take years to turn things around.
It’s sad since there are so many good people here. But executive greed took down a great company.
@OP There is not office space for every employee. Field sales teams are the exception off the bat, so you can subtract those employees. OT already has employees mandated in the office 3x a week. That will change to 5x a week. There will be a date when it must be followed. Other employees in certain groups, like engineering in the US, will be assigned an office site. The goal will be to get these employee groups to a region by X date (engineering is an example, many other work groups like HR, finance, operations, etc), and this will also be used as a process for attrition. There will be exceptions, but all hiring for a work group will require that new hire work in an office in a specific state in the US and the same for all countries. At some point, OT will have managed employees out from the business and only hire employees for full office work. And of course they will hire in the cheapest labor market globally. Unless you are selling, your work can be done anywhere. Employees will be managed out through performance, disinterested in relocating, WFRs, resignations and no backfills. Remember, the new policy is any employee who receives a below expectations rating is automatically let go for performance (zero severance, they will tell you it is two weeks but that is because your true firing date is two weeks later than the day they fire you). Think about this: Every business unit MUST have a certain percentage of employees rated as failing. That number changes every year. That means in any give year, off the top, that percentage of employees will be fired.
Remember, OT is selling 25 percent of its business. Not a secret. ADM, SMALL Bus Security, all analytic products. That means in addition to the salespeople who sell those products, support functions overall (engineering, operations, finance, HR, and so on,) will be cut by 25 percent. The OT workforce over the next 24 months will be about one fourth less than today.
The "office policy" is part of this larger effort to reduce the workforce for cost savings, yes, but also to have a lean, manageable entity for buyers.
Also, pay attention to what happens at the VP+ level. When you start seeing leaders moved to different business units, that means they are being moved out of business units part of the projected carve outs..
Also, this is all part of positioning the workforce and policy for the new CEO (External Hire). The board wants the CEO to come in with new policies in place so they aren't the bad guy. They also want the image of "control" and " OT is running a tight ship" and "we are watching". All very very deliberate. There are different ways to impact stock price. One is changing your image.
The ONLY goal of senior leadership is to GET the STOCK price up. That is it. Everything else is done to support that. Remember, their big money comes from company performance for leadership, including big bonuses.
Many of them won't stay long after the new CEO. They will walk away with MILLIONS. Sandy for example received $3.5M.
In short, EVERY employee should be on a serious job search.
You are foolish to think you won't be let go. Do you not know how things work at OT?
Exceptions will be made for the right people. Everyone else can be replaced in a low cost center