Thread regarding SAP layoffs

Christian Klein and Dominik Asam cannot wait till the company is run ba the two of them, external consultants and AI agents.

@ad they did layoff 10000 when the target was 8000. 3000 was VERP, which technically is a thank you offer but rest of the world contributed to 7000. The world is not all about WDF.

@jx Just to clarify, the Betriebsrat also called as the Works Council actually works in the employee's favor. However, they do not have a lot of power. They can look into mismanaged performance allocated to somebody despite them working more. Or they can look into cases of harassment or discrimination. But it's not easy to prove either. If your manager says that you are not a good performer, that's it. At SAP, managers act like Gods because they have so much power over their reports. Your best bet is to move.

An example of why the Betriebsrat isn't so powerful:
When P23 happened, they negotiated a lot with HR and the executive board. The executive board was so powerful that almost half of the Betriebsrat members ended up 'leaving' along with other P23 layoffs. In most other companies, the union is strong but not at SAP. If you don't have a good network at the Walldorf or St. Leon-Rot office or if you will have a very hard time growing within SAP.

The best time to move on is always now, even when the market isn’t great. Start working on your exit plan today. You can’t change the system—sometimes the best solution is simply to find a new job.
Work on side projects, learn new skills, and take care of your health by exercising. I waited far too long to make the jump. I stayed for 10 years as a T2, stuck in a bad relationship with my manager. I hated the outdated programming languages and tools, clumsy UI, and the endless marketing hype that led nowhere. For a long time, I was depressed and started doing my work sloppily.
Fortunately, I eventually pulled myself together. I worked hard at my job while spending my spare time learning new technologies. It wasn’t easy—and that’s exactly why it was worth it. I applied to many roles outside of SAP, and eventually landed my current position.
My salary doubled, I earned a better title with solid perks, and now I get to work with modern, cutting-edge technologies.

@hq Thanks for your reply. I first thought of getting in touch with the workers council but I have heard horror stories about them like they take SAP to court and all that. The more I read, I realize that HR is there to protect the company not employees. I think the best thing for me to do is change to a different area then. My manager keeps assuring me that she is doing everything in her power but I don't think she is. Because other colleagues who are friends of her family are actually getting what they want but not me although we had the same performance in a year. It seems that all managers in my area talk to each other and decide who to promote or give more money to.

I am still early in my career so I appreciate your comment. I was excited to join SAP but after spending a few years here, I don't think it's worth it if you aren't well connected with management. I'll most likely move to another company when the job market gets better.

But hey, at least I am getting a decent appraisal this year. The multiplier for T2 and T3 is quite good.

T3 is probably the sweet spot ASSUMING you hit the milestones required for elevate. We shall see though, a lot still to be determined.

@j1 The Ice Queen Gina makes our paychecks leaner.

@hn The only way to get higher pay is to get a second or a third job. It's clear that SAP is in no position to be offering higher pay increases for the foreseeable future, or you fight your colleagues for a measly 3+% bonus pay under this new performance management system.

I am in no appetite to be leaving given the job market is also quite sh--e and if I do my job and get paid I am happy. But would definitely work a second job if I could given the cost of living crisis we are in.

@hn sorry to tell you that you're really naïve thinking that the new Performance rating was done to make the system more fair.

I don't advise you to contact HR after a bad rating from your manager, because HR are here to defend the managers not the employees and you'll just be flagged as a problem for your team and if any restructuring happens no other manager will accept you in his team...

Not all managers are bad, they're here to implement the company's strategy which currently is cost reduction due to uncertainty of the economy for both Cloud and AI.

The new system was implemented to makes it easier to reduce the cost globally based on T level.

It works backwards:
It's HR who asks managers to rate all their employees in a certain range.

It permits the company to anticipate the necessary budget

The new process makes it so easy that most managers can be replaced by AI. SAP is following the exact pattern of what they’re doing at Microsoft, Oracle, etc. They’re automating the manager job and will later lay off managers in bulk. I think the most stupid roles at SAP are managers and managers of managers of product managers. They take no accountability and are getting paid many times the salary of product managers.

I may be one of the few people here but I really like the new appraisal mechanism. The last few times, my manager gave me good ratings and said they’ll try to give a good increase and bonus. And every single time I see either my manager getting promoted or one of their friends. It’s disappointing when you do the work and don’t get returns and when your peers don’t work as much but are considered stars and get more money and stock. In the new performance management system, everything is automatically calculated so the only thing that the manager actually does is give a performance rating. And if they don’t give a good rating even though I do my job, I have the option to contact HR. It takes the “boys club” out of the equation. Another good thing is use this goes well with goals. So all I need to do for the upcoming year is to make reasonable goals and either achieve them or exceed them. And I’ll get money. No more discrimination. I’m actually happy. I hope to see less a55 ki55ing at SAP and more focus on the actual work. It su-ks that there is a smaller budget but it’s better than the peanuts I got in my last salary cycles.

Chuck is getting the raise of a T3 and the LTIs of a T5.

@a3 RE: "March 2026 won't give out a 100% bonus on any level." From a Revenue Enabling Bonus standpoint, sounds like those of us who were laid off in Q4 2025 may make out better or the same as some/many of the employees on RE plans since we are getting a 75% pro-rated bonus payout as part of our severance.

Not sure why there is so much support for the executive board in unfiltered surveys.

This is your billionaire and millionaire class, people. They’re the reason we’re all poor.

I hope they get less than 50% rating this time. But it's unlikely as there are too many CK and DA fans in the company.

Why not ask you boss, i.e. HRBP?

You know what’s disappointing?

Even with this anti-employee stance and rhetoric, the next unfiltered survey will see employees rating 60% or above for the faith in management.

Some people are such big fans of the mismanagement that they will vote against their self interest.

The only good T level is T6.

Only one person at SAP has it. Chuck.

T3 get 3% increase in fix salary
T4 get 1.7% on variable pay

Stocks will be (very) difficult to get for both.

I don't know when this rivalry between T3 and T4 started, because it feels that it was created to divide people...once SAP gets rid of T4s, some T3s naively think that they'll get their place (and level), what will happen is they'll be next because SAP now only wants T1 and T2.

Now we start hearing the narrative that we should raise the expectations of T4 by reducing their resources and increasing their workload so they never meet their objectives and (always) get bad performances: it's a setup for failure.

Basically make life harder and miserable for T4s so they leave for free with no severance.

Most of T4s are aware of the situation and they're just waiting for a Layoff plan with severance to leave.

@bm CK is setting higher and higher targets every year to not pay employees their full bonus.

@ba 7000 of the 10000 didn’t leave when VERP was offered. So executives do not want to offer a reward for leaving anymore.

SAP decided to spend 10 billion on buybacks so they still want people gone.

The next best thing to VEEP is to reduce salary budget, reduce benefits, make promotions harder, make the culture worse. Basically make the place so bad that people will leave to keep their sanity.

Many colleagues I know are looking for jobs. And none of them are longterm employees. Most longterm employees want to retire at SAP and they’re the most expensive.

Less employees also helps the SAP narrative that Joule is so good that it can already replace employees.

Less budget for employees means more budget for executive bonus.

@aj SAP missed some targets according to Doninik Asam so revenue enabling bonus will only be 90% this time.

@ad How can people leave if there are so many ghost jobs and employers offering sub par salaries? The US has had the highest mass layoffs in modern history due to "AI" and over hiring during the pandemic.

The management consultants have been going around every major employer and telling them to strip away work benefits to drive resignations without severance.

Why won't anybody get 100% bonus? Could you explain this?

Management tried the carrot approach first by giving VERPs for layoffs. That didn’t work because they could only lay off 3000 employees when they wanted to lay off 10000. Now they’re trying the stick approach where benefits are cut and salaries are miserable. Most likely that won’t work either but will just make it a very undesirable place to work.

They also stopped all off-cycle promotions. Basically take a 2% increase or leave the company without severance.

Both are worse. They reduced the overall salary and benefits on all levels.

T3 doesn't get stock options automatically but can under special considerations.
T4 has 1 year cliff for the stock options.
Multipliers for both T3 and T4 are lower than the salary increases SAP was handing out a few years ago.
All special programs are cut.
Promotion budget is drastically cut.
March 2026 won't give out a 100% bonus on any level.
Managers don't have any flexibility anymore.

It's ridiculous and doesn't even beat inflation.

But it makes sense for them to do this. Maybe the HRBP will be engineering managers. Or maybe they will replace all managers with AI. Everything is a calculation now so we don't need so many managers anymore.