We've been losing experienced, well paid employees for years voluntarily. That's the exact demographic the company would want to reduce. So why do we need to do formal layoffs when so many people are leaving on their own? Are they not leaving fast enough?
18 replies (most recent on top)
@102 OpenText is a corporate hamster wheel
@dm your comments crack me up. So true so true. I quit recently. Just couldn’t take it anymore.
@md profitable now but if nothing changes we will not be around 5 years from now.
@kc Profitable but less and less profit every year. Not a growth company. Abandon ship.
@gq OpenText is highly profitable and has plenty of cash. The sinking ship you isn't a financial one. It’s a strategic and cultural one. Financially, the company is a cash cow that is performing exactly how the board wants it to, by squeezing maximum profit out of its existing assets.
The company isn't sinking in the sense that it will go bankrupt. It's sinking in the sense that it has stopped being a software company and has become a debt-repayment vehicle. They have the cash to keep the lights on and the dividends flowing, but they aren't investing that cash back into the people doing the work.
As long as customers stay, we’ll be profitable but the investors will keep on insisting on more headcount cut not new products or innovation. It’s all about milking the innovation of the past and cutting operating cost to keep the stock up.
Once customers leave in mass then the company will be on the road to closing its doors for good but the investors and executives will get off the train early to protect their wallets while all the remaining employees take on all the pain.
Everyone should have a plan b because this could happen at any time and fast.
@dy they are still profitable
@e0 yes and it’s all junk.
@az Already using in-house tools more and more, or freeware; and encouraging (bit limiting at the same time) use of copilot in coding. Even non-programmers are being forced to find code-based solutions for business goals.
When you have people that have been there a long time in some countries the payout can be worth waiting for!
@cc it's not. They are losing money on the debt servicing.
@cc it's profitable because you (ot) happen to not layoff the 2-3 whistleblowers that could go nuclear yet. Because for now the teams that see a lot of the f*ckery are considered essential. Even if they have layoffs it's usually a recent hire over the tenured ones with premium tea. But statistically it's like the 3 people MLM saying - you can only do so many layoffs until you run out of those first round layoff folks. Then not only do you have to look into those people who see the chaos - or the people they need to do the job but it's that or you pray you don't need to send them to a buyer (or that tea gets out nearly scotfree.)
Sales are not angels - be in the wrong departments and you can see them pressing support teams for $0 fixes, usually manual because some of them die inside if they need an order they can't get commission for. That also includes the Product Managers somehow - I hear you all love special keys from them too. Whatever is the path of least resistance to your next deal~
If you have a cloud/ps deal - you may be getting a nicer key than you bought thanks to their on-boarding.
Not every contract clause can be obliged; region is usually pretty good but language statutes or human-only are not guaranteed. With the sales compliance team potentially gutted you could be in for a nice lil payday too.
And if you don't know 100% what your renewal covers, chances are you're overpaying or underpaying - meaning the one time you need something you're in for a very unwanted surprise. The ELA folks don't get audited timely so use whatever you want and then downsize before then and you get really good RoI. Finish up early you can price shop with alternatives too.
If you think OT is productive, it's because nothing damning is out yet. Make an actual friend of some of the right depts. Ones that don't get commission - they may be candid with you. No 'SeNd Me A SiGnAL mEsSaGe - I'm a RePoRtEr FoR xyz' yall had your chance and you come up when it's already too late.
P r o a c t i v e l y
My contact has absolutely immaculate tea (which for the older folks means good/dangerous. Receipts, backups, the works.) Something happens to them or 1 other dude they're not gonna look back if they pass on their stuff. Nothing OT can really do since they're proactive. I got popcorn as I wait with them.
@cc Because there is a limit to being profitable by cutting people, shrinking OPEX and raising prices. This is not value creation. This is purely optimization, and you can't optimize forever. So unless the business starts creating real value (true organic growth), then it will remain in shamble.
@ad how is the business in shambles ? It's still profitable
Things will start really falling apart when Shannon’s IT team stop paying for all the disconnected 3rd party tools. We’ll be told to use our own apps to save money and set up robotic process automation bots (not AI, but we’ll call it AI) to try to make them work. That will fail and then we’ll just start selling IP at pennies on the dollar for what we acquired them for.
Our best days are behind us.
Journalist at BetaKit here, please reach out on Signal at @madisonmcla.12 if you have info to share on the layoffs.
Business is in shambles if you haven’t noticed
The same opentext won’t exist in 12 months.
I’m one of the cuts and I couldn’t be more relieved.
It’s a fire sale. The going out of business sign is printed and we’ve already contacted Spirit Halloween to lease out our office space.
Think you answered your own question there, my friend.