Its September and the talk about RIFs is increasing on this site, let make this forum better and write comments that are helpful and give as much info as you can, avoid posts like "its going to be blood bath", and write the facts you have heard, if the sources is good. Many people on here NEED their jobs and are trying to ride it out at optum, and are relying on this site as the only source of some information. Thank you all in advance
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Every qtr there is a culling of the herd. Been consistent for the past 15 years. Ingenix/Optum consumes other companies for market share or a tool they possess. If you are part of a recent acquisition rule used to be lifespan is about 2 years until the acquired entity is dismantled for parting out. It appears with the optum Health area the timeframe has been compressed quite a bit. If you are in an IT field that function will go warp speed to APAC since people work cheap offshore. Just the way of the jungle. The other area is on the United payer side. More and more functions are being transferred over to Optum. End goal is payer side just designs the plans and operates as the bank Optum does everything else.
I agree with @1vew+1ulInlU2 and the other posts about the benefit of the comments here. I realized from this site that I should be prepared for an RIF. If I listened to my leadership I would think I am safe and we are are-building. But instead, here I am making personal financial decisions and budgeting for an RIF now. I also really appreciate the comments from former employees about the delayed severance and the information you need before you are cut-off. Because of those comments I started looking at ways to make money if I need to stay afloat and I am reading up on my state’s unemployment rules now. And maybe I won’t need to rent out my spare room or my list of Optum/UHC contact numbers and severance policies were not needed - but I am less anxious with it. So thank you for all the commenters and comments here.
So … hey those that are laid off stop complaining and give us who still have a job the information we require.🖕
Well there will be more layoff. Someone sent a recording of the layoff in July to a psychiatrist and he played it . There is a project called Monarch and in July they went from over 100 clinics down to 77 in Florida and Texas. According to the message there are 12 more consolidations that will occur from August to the early part of 2025. It will impact their clinicians and their non clinicians.
@cho+1ulInlU2 Numerous rounds of layoffs this past year should be all the notice you need to start looking.
I will agree this site is great for juicy tidbits of news. But that is separate from getting advanced warning about RIFs.
Please, think about your logic:
(1) Worst case, you hear and see nothing of value here and you get RIF'd out of the blue.
(2) Best case, you hear and see posts on this site and..you still get RIF'd anyway.
There is no third case where you hear nothing and can guarantee not getting RIF'd. Nobody can guarantee that and alleviate the anxiety you feel.
The correct move is to assume getting RIF'd is inevitable and get off the ship. Switch to anything with more stability.
The false confidence that has "played into a lot of anxiety and stress for thousands of us with families and lives" is wrong, I agree. The lesson to learn here is to stop trusting senior leadership and start trusting your eyes and ears.
I guess you can look at transferring, but I don’t know how this site would help you avoid a layoff. If you want to ride it out, I guess you should think through how this site would help you in that. It might not be good for your mental health to keep confronting the uncertainty.
@btf+1ulInlU2 - Discrediting any content as not being real info in this forum would be a mistake, IMO. Role-specific posts to the date were coming out 3 months ahead of my July RIF date. Posts regarding C-level residents and key decision-makers parting with the company, investigations, legal issues, and more, there's been a lot of real information about the company and in a lot of cases, this has given people generous notice that maybe it's time to hit the open market!
What? Is any leader going to tell their workforce anything different than how well their market was doing? No. They're going to deflect any concerns that may get brought up too.
For months that false confidence played into a lot of anxiety and stress for thousands of us with families and lives, and it's wrong.
Thankfully our exec team kept that Change Healthcare letterhead around, so they can notify the 140 million that they had a DATA BREACH and lost your data. Makes it look like it was not a UHG/Optum issue. Integrity matters.
I think it is assumed that looking for another opportunity is good practice, but the market is tough I don't blame anyone for trying to "hang on". I disagree with that last comment, there was a lot of pretty reliable info provided prior to that last RIF in July. I don't think that person is looking for 100% accurate info just a general idea. You also cant presume that everyone on here has worked for a large company, a lot of the team that sees patients come from hospitals and or non profits that very rarely have an type of cuts. To the original post, sorry i don't have any info, kind of hoping for the same thing you are, ANY info
I'm not sure what you expect...it's an anonymous internet forum. If you've spent any significant time at a large company, you'll know that by the time you hear about layoffs, they're already complete. Only senior leadership and HR are informed about who is getting the axe and they have massive incentive (read: they dont want to get sued by Optum) to not leak. Nobody here has any real info prior to the cut.
If you're worried about your job, start preemptively looking. Don't hang around waiting for the speculative axe to fall. The best negotiating leverage you have for money and benefits is preexisting employment.