DST has been on this path since probably 2010, if not earlier. I spent 16 years with the company, all told. I stuck around until the very first layoff in the company's history in 2011. I survived that round, but vowed to never let incompetent morons like the ones running the company drive major decisions in my career ever again. I began looking for a new job and landed one fairly quickly and now, 7 years later I make almost double what I did at DST. If you've been at DST for a decade or more, and didn't see this coming, you were blind. If you did see it coming and stuck around year after year during layoffs, hoping the axe wouldn't fall on you, well you are just plain dumb in my opinion. DST as a whole, became complacent, C-suite folks (McDonnell, McCullough, etc) grossly mismanaged the business and didn't correctly gauge the direction of the whole subaccounting piece. The way DST made money was by charging their clients somewhere around $4 per customer account per quarter on their system. Clients who had a huge broker/dealer presence within their shareholder base were a big money maker for DST. Let's say T Rowe Price had Charles Schwab as a shareholder and Schwab had 100,000 individual customers who held shares in a T Rowe Price mutual fund. The Schwab customers alone would be a $400,000 revenue stream per quarter for DST. Eventually, Schwab got wise and decided they could track their shareholder accounts cheaper themselves. So the combined their 100,000 individual customer accounts on DST's mainframe system, down to 1 house account with Schwab's name on it. So then DST went from getting $400,000 per quarter, down to $4. DST's leadership was fat and happy, and didn't see this coming or just weren't agile enough, saavy enough, or had the foresight to renegotiate client contracts to make up for this. They should've been charging clients on a sliding scale between accounts on the mainframe, and assets under management. But they didn't. So the slow death march began and Tom McDonnell, Tom McCullough and the rest began retiring before their holdings took a giant sh--. Everyone employed at DST with half a brain could see this. The smart ones got out LONG ago. It's only the lazy, complacent, afraid of change cowards that didn't move on long ago. So I don't feel sorry for any of these people. They should've done the smart thing and looked out for themselves, their career, and their families and left for a better job. But they didn't. They just sat there with their thumb up their a-- while DST's leadership screwed them over. To all the people laid off...it's your own fault.
17 replies (most recent on top)
Didn't the OP indicate he survived the 2010 layoffs, but left soon after? If so, seems to me he has some very well made points. Just because some of you don't like what he has to say? Boo hoo.
Kicking people when they’re down.. make you feel pretty big eh?
Nah, OP is a bitter , former laid off employee of DST. So obvious.
A few red asses in this thread who can't stand the truth. Poor snowflakes, did the OP hurt your delicate sensibilities with hard facts?
Jesus, when you start in January and get laid off in June, it's a surprise.
Dear Hard Truth,
Your disdain for DST and its questionable leadership over the years is understandable, but your lack of empathy for the current employees losing their jobs and the employees who continue to work there is not helping your credibility. Waging a personal vendetta toward the company and its employees is a very clear testament that 7 years of being away from DST and double the salary has done little to help with your attitude and bitterness. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing it was not a sad day for DST when you resigned; perhaps a "win/win" as they say. :-)
OP sounds bitter.
Post @TSL9zoH-fbb: OP may have stated some facts, but also a lot of useless opinion.
Dear “Hard Truth”, one size does not fit all, take your blessing elsewhere, you arrogant POS, and go f yourself.
And every IT company should be building everything in cloud based automated systems that require half the staff to operate. and if right tools installed, new products are all developed by the product manager without development staff.
Post ID: @TSL9zoH-zva is nothing but opinion. The original post was 100% factual.
Who said they had left?
If you left 7/8 yrs ago, why are you still on this board? Too much time on your hands?
Agree Yawn
I agree with you.
The first group layoff was 02/01/2010.
Wall of text.
BTW, you don't have a "career", you have a job.
You sound like an arrogant, narcissistic prick.
Only people who are running their own companies have true "careers", you are just a worker bee who still has to report into the man on some level. Don't kid yourself. Anyone who leaves this much blah blah blah me me me text on a wall is a bore.
Yawn.