Thread regarding Barnes Jewish Hospital layoffs

BJC Lays off 200+ and outsources support to Tech Mahindra as of December 6th, 2019

BJC Healthcare let go of 200+ IT positions, keeping 25 actual positions in house and then letting go of the others - either through attrition or dismissal - since the announcement of outsourcing occured back in June 2019. Amazing that this is one of the best kept secrets around, never having made the news. The IT community knew and in turn, avoided BJC like the plague. The outsourcing of all technical support for BJC went to Tech Mahindra. The buzz is that the ring leader - Jerry Fox - was brought in specifically for this, as he's been through this before and a master at reducing head count. During this time, there have been others in the leadership position that have come and going, always with the announcement that it was "due to family / personal reasons"........Hmm. How about the fact that those leaders were told one thing and asked to do another and in turn, they didn't want that on their conscience, This last one, by the name of Ed, has been with BJC now for about 6 months and still hasn't technically moved to St. Louis yet, maintaining his previous residence. Not sure what he's waiting for.........unless he's the hatchet man and realizes his time is short, Why move down when you don't plan to stay long.

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| 6732 views | | 7 replies (last April 29, 2021) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+12pEdAPU

7 replies (most recent on top)

Oh yes they're doing it at Ascension health also. Isn't it wonderful that a non profit hospital entity taking millions of tax dollars and tax breaks from govt, then turns around and fu--s American workers by sending the jobs overseas to be outsourced. Isn't it great all of our personal health/financial data gets to end up with the very people you hear about scamming, hacking, etc. I think if more people call out the entities , maybe the sh-t will stop.

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Post ID: @8cblo+12pEdAPU

I was part of the infrastructure crew let go Dec. 6 2019. I had 9 years service, starting with Technology Services, building Problem Management, and moving to application support. I saw the Technology Services outsource coming at the start of 2019. Looking back, if I was Jerry I would have done the same thing. Fundamentally, the organizational culture of BJC's IT group was toxic. It was heavily siloed, with turf based groups more interested in perpetuating their control of various aspects of the shop than serving their customers. Metrics were meaningless and there was no real accountability. You could get fired for speaking the truth bluntly, but not messing things up royally. Our ability to support the organization was also hamstrung by a focus on new implementations rather than investing in service improvement for existing services, which was deemed to be an operational cost that had to be reduced no matter what. You could not turn the culture around and make the necessary investments in a timely manner, so outsourcing was a valid option. Yes, Mahindra had language challenges, but on the whole I got better service and focus on my issues than was the case with native BJC staff, and I did not have to deal with officious individuals who only saw their way as the approach to take for a given situation.

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Post ID: @1igcc+12pEdAPU

It has gone from bad to worse. The first set of layoffs were in 2018. It was a huge shock. Before that in the IT department, it was almost like a family. While it wasn't perfect, it was a fairly enjoyable place to work. The entire crew of "old BJC" senior leaders all retired and got the hell out of there. It's now ran by a new crew who treat "old BJC" horribly. It's rare when a day goes by and i haven't heard from someone quitting. So sad.

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Post ID: @Jxtr+12pEdAPU

Mahindra is an Indian IT outsource firm. BJC wants local patience but will not employ local IT staff not even within the united states. This is shameful!

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Post ID: @4mdz+12pEdAPU

At BJC you are just a name and a number, soon the patients will be. Being a previous employee it was the worse 4 months of my life at corporate.

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Post ID: @3vse+12pEdAPU

its been a few days and this is already going down hill... The last few meetings have been a big nothing for a hour+ because of the language barrier in both written and spoken engagements. JFC help us.

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Post ID: @3gfg+12pEdAPU

I was an employee there last year when the last cuts were made. Our management promised us no more lay offs and ensured the 2018 outsourcing of Tech Mahindra was it. Clearly that wasn't the truth....very disappointed in this move to save money. The outsourced Indian contractors are making next to nothing with no skills...One contractor on my team didn't even know how to ping a server when he arrived to the position. Good luck BJC....

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Post ID: @3ppb+12pEdAPU

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