Thread regarding 3M layoffs

Who decides who to lay off

For a rough guide for US staff groups:

  • Supervisors/Managers whose groups are not impacted - will find out at roughly the same time as everyone else. Maybe an hour or two before. They won't even see the list until after the announcement.
  • Supervisors/Managers whose groups are impacted - Will generally find out about two or three weeks in advance. Unless the manager themselves is impacted. They will get trained with HR on how to deliver the news to the employee.
  • Director level - Generally follow the Manager rules, but might have some say on who goes in their groups, especially if there is a close call on cutting person A vs person B. They will find out a few weeks earlier than the Mangers that something is coming. If the manger is impacted, they might deliver the news to both the manager and those impacted in their group.
  • VPs - Here is where the names are chosen. They will be signing the 'special CDAs' for 'Codename Project Access'. Most of the cut decisions will be made between the VP and HR reps. They will be mostly looking at a demand from above that a certain number of people need to be let go.

The VP and HR will then go through and pick people based mostly on demographics (age, gender, race, job level), with very little consideration given to performance either way. The cuts will be targeted so that the demographics of the cuts try to match the demographics of the group to reduce the chance of legal issues. (i.e. If 30% of the people in the group are demographic ______, then about 30% of the cuts should be demographic ______.)

The list will be 95% final a month before announcement so HR can get all the paperwork ready to go.

3M does this in a very inhuman, almost mechanical process, one senior leadership should be ashamed of themselves for creating.

Bumped from @2kji+1m96Ng5q for important info.

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| 3726 views | | 10 replies (last April 20, 2023) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1mcZQxAW

10 replies (most recent on top)

Well obviously you don’t work for 3M if you don’t know zl is the second half of ert and aside from needing resolution WE, it’s an important component of bmr.

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Post ID: @2ale+1mcZQxAW

What is zl?

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Post ID: @2ndc+1mcZQxAW

Op says the process rn has been held up by tts and the zl needs to be worked thru by weeks end.

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Post ID: @2xdo+1mcZQxAW

OP, where do we stand in the process rn?

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Post ID: @2fte+1mcZQxAW

@1nhs+1mcZQxAW

As I wrote before - selections are mostly done to keep demographic statistics nearly un-changed. This minimizes the chance of successful lawsuits.

As the example: If a VP-level organization facing cuts is 30% over age 40, then the cuts will aim to be roughly 30% over age 40. Then if there is a lawsuit "they laid me off because I'm over 40", 3M can say the cuts matched our population, there wasn't a bias for or against.

The same logic generally goes for gender, race, and job grade.

Once the demographics are satisfied, only then can things like actual performance, experience, and qualifications be considered. By then however much of the list has already been decided demographically.

In my experience, no technical job grade is safe. I've even seen in my career a T7 get cut once.

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Post ID: @1edx+1mcZQxAW

How are the laid-off employees typically selected? Do they tend to keep the most senior employees? Or do they tend to keep the cheaper, less experienced employees? Specifically wondering for technical roles, where experience is extremely important.

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Post ID: @1nhs+1mcZQxAW

@wyq+1mcZQxAW based on current state of affairs, you can bet your house on it. Question is when, where and how much.

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Post ID: @fbx+1mcZQxAW

Are layoffs definitely happening?

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Post ID: @wyq+1mcZQxAW

Lot times higher ups decide that doesnt know who does what on your team. They look who makes the most on their paygrade and starts there.

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Post ID: @zlu+1mcZQxAW

As a Supervisor, I found out less than 24 hours before I had to give the news to affected employees. People above Supervision (Staff) knew for weeks.

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Post ID: @epg+1mcZQxAW

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