Optum was hit in December and January. I was in Advanced Illness and they cut half our team. Unfortunately, I was one of the ones cut and one of the top performers. There is no rhyme or reason as to who they chose to lay-off!!
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As a Sr. Mgr with Optum IT:
In the old days the process for a RIF was:
- We'd get a call from 'leadership' to reduce costs, they'd usually give us an increasingly ridiculous target, like one year it would be 5 million, the next 10 million, then 20 million, etc.
- We'd look at improvements, look for any potential ways to reduce our costs. We'd stop the purchase of things we could, and we'd eliminate any open hiring requisitions, anything to try to prevent from moving on to actual layoffs.
- If our cost-savings efforts failed to meet the 'savings' expectations, we'd move on to staff reductions. It depended on who led your overall service tower, but generally they'd just spread it like peanut butter across everyone's teams; e.g., everyone has to let 20% of their staff go.
- We'd then try to do a performance analysis and try to identify lower performing staff to select for the RIF. The problem quickly became, after 3, 4, 5, or more years of the same approach, we really no longer HAD anyone we'd consider 'low performers.' I'd like to think I was always fair, but the truth is that at some point it comes down to some people you like and know well, and others you may not know as well. It's an agonizing situation, but at least we TRIED to put some basic effort into it.
Fast-Forward to today . . .
There's no process. It's just 'we're eliminating all telecommuters,' or 'eliminate half your team,' or increasingly, 'I want you to eliminate these people . . .' (and then they give you a list, as the manager you have no say in it).
I have NO idea what any of the logic is behind any of this. They're taking highly effective processes and teams and ripping them apart for no apparent reason. It's not 'cost savings' anymore, because the end result of a lot of this is increased cost, not less. So I'm biding my time, knowing my day is coming soon. I'll be happy to collect my severance and get the hell out of the toxic swamp.
If you were rewarded for your high performance in the past, you will be a target for layoff now due to your relatively high salary compared to those around you. I had the most experience, most education, was considered a SME for many subjects my coworkers never had to worry about because I was the "go to" person. They are all still there, I am spending my days fine-tuning my resume and attending career transition webinars from the outsourcing company.
They do not care about performing, they care about cost per FTE.
Guess you weren't a top performer after all. Sobering.