Thread regarding Hertz layoffs

Thank you for the latest update. It’s very insightful and helps me decide my next move.

“Jump ship” springs to mind. Fast.

Given the zero communication your receiving here is a little update.

The board meeting was a disaster described by Douglas as chaotic and catastrophic, they didn’t even get to present the ridiculous deck they paid more consultants to do?

Why?

As during the pre read the board established it was BS and unrealistic beyond doubt.

Shocking but true the franchise fantasy is long term and undeliverable and they wanted to know how in fact they would survive the next few months given the current revenue situation, not rocket science to imagine that a board would want to see the now?

Having seen Avis and Europcar’s plans it appeared Hertz International have absolutely no idea how to survive until the year end and might in-fact wreck all the work the US have done to save the company. Instead as was previously disclosed they prepared a 3 year fantasy plan with no tangible actions?

Given August might be the worst month this year they ignored the obvious and tried to deliver some unrealistic long range Starbucks model which was dismissed as ridiculous.

So what’s next according to Douglas actions are required, wow no sh–?

So more consultants have been drafted in 3rd time lucky perhaps?

Seriously when the CFO who joined via the phone is describing his own boss as chaotic and catastrophic, hope is all that’s left.

I would add Manic to the description and inadequate beyond belief.

Nearly a month now since the last “update” or vaguest Q&A session ever.

Emails to tell us to take holiday whilst on furlough isn’t an update from management. It’s an abuse of taxpayers money.

I would save Avis results are good compared to Hertz.

August is trending -80% in Spain Italy France and U.K. is worse, only Germany seem to be ok at around -50%.

We have not reduced our headcount, fleet is a disaster and we have done nothing with Tech, Innovation or MARKETING to fix anything.
Nope wait we have also managed to lower RPD in the U.K. to an all time low..

Our leaders have sat around taking full pay doing jack sxxx since this began..

Wait I believe HR are working on the car policy for employees?
No way she’s sharing the results but they will be public soon!!!

And our promised weekly update calls another joke, I have conceded AB is the worst leader probably anywhere right now in any industry or at least parity with that group.

I heard July sales in the U.K. are around 4m all in last year were around 23m, but only the chosen few get to see them..this is not just Covid it’s a combination of Covid and appalling leadership the nerve centre needs a huge shock.

What do our numbers look like in Europe? I am sure we are at least 65% down yoy - we don’t have much off-airport and are heavily into corporate. With no strategy or innovation, no tech solutions, a money pit non-functional IT transformation project and hopeless but fully paid and bonused leadership and dire senior management. Great.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/07/28/2069065/0/en/Avis-Budget-Group-Removes-over-1-Billion-in-Expenses-in-Second-Quarter-to-Mitigate-Impacts-of-COVID-19.html

Here’s what Avis said they did with their people...

‘We reduced the size of our workforce, offering comprehensive separation packages and have furloughed employees around the world totaling over 60% of our pre-pandemic headcount. Also, we reduced compensation for our senior leadership, froze merit increases, eliminated the 401(k) match for highly compensated employees, and suspended hiring.’

And then there’s the incredible p–polishing... turning a massive decline in revenue into sequential increases!!! 59% down yoy, 50% utilisation on a fleet that is reduced by (only) 26%.

Revenues in the second quarter showed sequential improvement, down 78% in April and finished June down 59% from prior year. Revenue improvement has been more robust in our off-airport locations and is close to pre-pandemic levels. We expect the velocity of improvement to moderate in the third quarter but anticipate utilization will continue to improve as we further match fleet with demand.

“Since the beginning of April, we have seen consistent sequential week-over-week increases in rental volume, with both the Americas and International having their best volume to date last week due to increased leisure activity,” said Joe Ferraro, Avis Budget Group Chief Executive Officer. “Coupled with the significant reduction of vehicles as we right size our fleet to current demand, we anticipate both positive cash flow and Adjusted EBITDA for the remainder of 2020.”

So much denial. People aren’t renting cars.

Avis releasing their Q2 results shortly - they’re going to be horrible, and the share price of Avis and Hertz will both crash (although it’s a mystery why hertz shares have any value at all in ch.11).

Don’t expect any explanation from EU Leadership, but it will be the first real indication of the impact of COVID-19 on the car rental sector. Keep an eye on the news stories over the coming days.

Up until now the industry has been able to hide behind the lack of solid data - not any more!

Then we will get a flavour of the number of EU redundancies we are likely to see - Avis have already reduced the size of their EU operations, but will reduce further. Hertz has yet to take action, but it’s coming - at least 50%.

As an aside, the recent U.K. government reaction to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Spain and the resulting reluctance of consumers to book foreign holidays (combined with the fact that corporate customers aren’t travelling) gives you an idea of how this is going to be a long slow recovery.

Hertz is not going to survive.

I don’t think they know what to tell us, my wife’s employer keeps them up to date weekly and tells them everything even not to go on vacation as it’s not safe.

Our leaders are awful.

I’m sorry but being honest I don’t think they have a clue.

I'm sure we were told we'd have a weekly update, nothing for weeks (apart from take holiday). I wish Hertz would just make the decision keep/layoff staff, this limbo is wasting time and lives.

Any updates? Seems like radio silence for a few weeks now. Well except to ask us to take our holiday entitlement aka let’s milk the taxpayers

Crashed and Burned..

Based on the lack of punctuation, I have to ask the following...

Tracy/NO’B, what would you differently?

After all, you are a veteran of the industry (aka time-served CSR) or, as is the case with TG, you are providing pro-bono consultancy services to organisation to help them through COVID-19 (yes that’s right, you heard it straight from the horses mouth).

If you’re part of the nerve centre, and you disagree so much, why not stand up and take some ownership? You’re paid a big salary - is that so you can sit quietly and agree with everything Angela says?

Stand up and help us!

Time for my first post.

Sitting here in the fourth month of furlough, with 3 (yes THREE!) more to go, I find it very frustrating when senior Hertz people post mindless comments on LinkedIn. And then the 'likers' (lickers) jump in - 'hertzstrong' or whatever weak sentiment they peddle. We aren't strong. We are dead. If you can't save the business, then at lease have the decency to keep quiet about it.

Every time I see this I want to post a comment 'yes, but what about all the people you're about to fire'. It makes me sick.

I don't know what they are trying to do with these posts - I mean it's not as if LinkedIn is a source of revenue. It just makes you look stupid and needy - 'look at me, I'm such a good corporate citizen, like me please, I need validation'.

If you're a senior leader (Director/VP level), then I would stay off LinkedIn altogether - frankly there's way too many highly paid individuals that I hope won't have a job in the new world. Hertz just isn't going to be that kind company. So please take your full salary for now and keep quiet - have some consideration.

Which brings me onto my final point. What in the name of santa's sausage does the VP of Revenue Management & Fleet Planning do? There's no revenue to vice-preside over. There's no fleet planning to vice-preside over. Surely the layers of extremely capable directors and managers are more than up to the task of keeping seats warm until bankruptcy happens. I mean, is this role seriously going to exist again? It's a joke.

So many lessons remain unlearned - I can't work out if it's the culture or the people at the top (or both) that are seriously to blame for the ongoing madness of hiring megabucks castoff's from other industries and then letting them k–l a rental car company.

If we had kept it simple, controlled our hiring and then employed some folks who knew how to take us forwards into the new mobility space, whilst consolidating our existing business, then maybe we could have had a chance. Too late now. It's over.

Hello everybody else - I hope you're ok, and not going slowly mad, like me.

Bye.

What rate is holiday leave being paid at? Furloughed % or full rate?

If this situation ends with redundancy, I believe holidays must be paid at 100%

Just saying

Good news AB is rowing to the US?

As we have previously exposed on here her Estero one day meeting‘s, require her to stop in Atlanta for a holiday along the way.

Counting it up since Nov.

Thanks Giving 1.5 weeks.
Christmas and New Year 4 weeks.
May 2 weeks.
July 2 weeks..

So far in 8 months she has had 9.5 weeks vacation!

And they want you to use your furlough for your holidays?

Do as I say rule applies here, and clearly her holiday entitlement is double everyone else’s..it’sh–ting 50 days and that’s excluding the BH she has taken?

Oh and wait, more to come when she gets back to the UK she has to stay in the Buckingham Palace Mews alone for 14 days..

While we have a brilliant tele presence room..

All this and no weekly up date...this has to be the end?

Leaders lead by example this is exactly the reason the ILT leak they are frustrated with the hypocrisy...

Also, there were 4 bank holidays in April/May. Per government guidance, if you usually have the bank holiday as a paid holiday then during furlough you can take it as annual leave (don’t! Let us accrue!) or defer. Guidance on the gov website:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/holiday-entitlement-and-pay-during-coronavirus-covid-19
Let’s hope hertz have been accruing all the holidays!!

So the Holiday email..be careful because your not required to take it in furlough, they can ask you to take it but your not required to do so..

Particularly not at reduced rates, and remember if you don’t get asked back that amount won’t be in your severance.

My recommendation do not ask for leave..accrue it all until full pay resumes carry it over..or wait until the end day..furlough is not exactly stressful!

Hmmm...

https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Employer/MjgcjF0T/2019

Looks like there’s an imbalance.
Look at the bonus comparison.
We didn’t get bonuses last year.
Anyone care to guess who it was who got a bonus?

Here’s some information on the UK rental sector:
https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2020/07/06/rental-industry-faces-slow-recovery

Does anyone know if there’s going to be any “business updates” this week? AB and the ILT did promise weekly updates.

It’s dismal that they have essentially trapped all furloughed UK employees.

Any redundancies? Can’t give any further information? Why? Every other business in the U.K. is downsizing. How long are you going to continue to fob us off?

Hertz jobs are at risk following years of inadequate leadership. Simple. Leadership are responsible for everything - strategy, culture, working environment, profitability. Everything.

If you are a senior leader you will know this, and at the end of the day you were employed to make things better, not worse.
(Let’s not get into who decides what is better or worse - that’s a whole separate topic!).

Senior leaders come and go - and often go on to greater things. I am sure some of them are able to tell excellent stories to future employers! That’s their business and their skill - painting beautiful pictures. Typically they blame the previous incumbent, or external factors, or the culture, but at some point they have to take ownership for their actions. They have to look in the mirror and be happy with what they see. That’s why they get the big money, and the expectation is that they deliver.

As a case in point, Michel has not surprisingly landed on his feet, and is actively sought out for his insights about an industry in which he has much respect, affection and huge experience. So let’s be equally polite and treat each other as we would want to be treated. He had his critics, but who doesn’t?

No one really has any ideas about how to fix the current situation. And some members of the ILT are talented individuals, and in normal times would be superb for Hertz. COVID-19 has made Hertz one of many weaker organisations that is a passenger in the global crisis.

Stronger organisations are taking positive, if painful steps. Realistically there’s not a great deal Hertz can do right now. Sure, more communication would be great, but until the resumption of something approaching normal trade, and the associated jobs that can be retained, we have to wait. Just my view, and I’m sure many disagree, but we are all entitled to an opinion.

We are lucky that in the meantime the various International governments have stepped in and supported employees. I am very happy about that, I can tell you! Just look at how our American colleagues have lost their jobs. My sincere sympathies go out to them.

I wouldn’t trade places with Angela for all the horse meat in Europe. BUT I would probably communicate some positive steps, such as whether or not I have sacrificed some salary. That’s up to Angela and the ILT. Maybe they have, but I don’t know because they haven’t told me.

In the meantime, I repeat the message I have given all along - be prepared. Don’t sit back and wait. Right now, today, stop reading this rubbish and take some positive action.

I will continue to post whatever useful and forward looking information I can discover that will help us all. I will definitely not be kicking middle managers who have left the company. We are in this together.

Let Tracy and her cronies bicker and bully - it’s her style. Folks, it really doesn’t matter. Shame on them. It’s an Internet forum, full of the things that happen on Internet forums. Playground stuff - ‘he said this about me’, ‘someone pulled my hair’, ‘Tracy was called a liar by a high court judge and now she won’t give me my football back’ etc etc. You get the idea.

Be good and look to the future! Have a great Sunday.

Echoing the post below. 6000 over employees with livelihoods at risk. This forum has forced the ILT to at least get off their fully paid behinds and actually have to do something, not much but at least puts them in a slightly uncomfortable position.

And not sure why someone who chose to get laid off months ago is still on the forum. What has he got to contribute except to stir trouble? Ignore the mindless noise.

Personally I don’t care who is writing on here.

It’s more info that we receive from the current ILT, like everything currently associated with Hertz it’s turning toxic.

And don’t forget last weeks message you have to stay on furlough because we can’t afford to pay your wages or your redundancy, seriously while the complete ILT is still in place with PA’s business class flights and personal limos..oh and consultants doing all the actual work?

Plenty money for somethings just not the employees.

Instead this page descended in to a local haters campaign very sad, driven by Paul who apparently got laid off in April as unlike the rest refused furlough..his choice?

Can we stay focussed on what’s really going on, 6000 people’s jobs are at risk and it appears no one has any idea’s how to fix it..

That begins at the top, this crisis is this years dilemma, and it is not being solved!

And this thread began because AB failed to lead or communicate..

Stay on the thread and ignore the haters and speculators..it’s all BS.

I hope the infos keep coming now that the leakers are known?
It’s going to be a long time to October - I’m grateful for the government social support, but I see then end is coming.
My friends it is time to look outside of the touristic sector - flights, hotels, cars, maybe even restaurants and bars are not options.
It would be great if we could get some support with job search and resume - any ideas from HR teams?
Good luck to us all!

** UPDATE **

The same person from the Procurement. Supply Chain and Fleet Operations department has tried to add me as a contact via his Linked In profile early this morning.

I declined.

I do read this forum with interest once or twice a week, but please keep me and my name out of this toxic and bitter conversation.

As for the reference “g-“ this is out of order and has no relevance to my workplace or is any of your business.

FYI, it is interesting to see my Linked in profile has been viewed by a member of the Procurement, Supply Chain and Fleet Operations department two days ago.

We must not lose sight of the fact that the reason we are in such bad shape is directly due to the inadequacies of the previous leadership. Hertz was financially weak prior to COVID-19.
For example, the strategy to “Double your profits in six months or less” was not a success. Replacing the the word “profit” with “loss” is what actually happened, and there was no global pandemic to blame for the deterioration.
Just so we’re all clear, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work out who wrote the post starting with the word “Exhaggerated???”. Check out the spelling and lack of punctuation throughout the post.
Still it’s nice to have Nicola, Tracy and Iain contributing to the forum. :-o
I’m nowhere near VP level (‘Manager” would be a promotion for me), and I absolutely refuse to get drawn into posting against my fellow workers, but it’s clear to me that we are now seeing the leadership having a pop at each other on this site.
Please stop.

Employees should stick together and show solidarity, remember we are about to be scr@wed big time by the ILT. Whoever that have and can share information please share.

I think whoever wrote “ Whoever is writing these posts needs help. The bitterness must eat them up inside.” is probably the real Tim. Not sure why he ended up with his name on here, but you have to take the rough with the smooth - all part of taking that big leadership wage.

My experience has been that the better a leader you are the less people say nasty things about you on anonymous forums - there’s no smoke without fire etc etc.

This site has been great for me at a time when I’m getting no information from Hertz at all. Yes, there’s been some angry and demeaning posts, but conversely (and more frequently) some real truths are being shared - truths that our leaders will not tell us.

What do you expect? Hertz is a 100+ year-old powder keg. Full of people who have been bullied, lied to, passed over for promotion, under paid, over paid - you name it, it’s happened, and my excellent colleagues have put up with all sorts. We are really fed up of the terrible culture and the endless attempts by leadership to sweep it under the carpet.

So yes, you can expect some bitterness on here. But be smart enough to read between the lines and spot the real truths that are being posted.

It’s also important to allow people to express themselves without fear of reprisals.

If I read the previous post correctly, then the suggestion is that there is a leak coming from Angela’s inner circle, and that it is some way connected with the ex-COO from Scotland and her VP friend in franchise? Wow. I don’t get the other bit about a homepage, but hopefully someone can shed some light on this. There’s definitely real bitterness there.

The random nature of some of these posts is bewildering.

Speculations around the author of these posts is just ridiculous, I’m sure the real Mr Blackwell would not appreciate the suggestion he is not very smart, especially by someone who can not spell.
It’s exaggerated not exhaggerated .

I think the suggestion that past executives are influencing current staff is farcical.
I’m sure anyone who’s left the company is delighted not to be part of what can only be described as a sh– storm.

Focus your energy on what’s important, protecting your own interest and find a new role.

Whoever is writing these posts needs help. The bitterness must eat them up inside.

another wasted call full of lies.
brav wasn't even there.
we can't afford monthly salaries and we are in a "precarious situation" (says watkins), but cannot project what happens after october 31st.
for real? you expect santa clause to drop in early this year and give us the missing millions?
harsh truth is that company would love to, but cannot afford redundancies. senior team kicks the can down the road, still gets full salary and keeps feeding misinformation about the reality of the company finances.
loved it when douggie the donald was talking about a 3 year plan. sounded like the hobo's desire to own a 100 foot yacht.
advice: if you are employable, don't wait and actively look for a new job. our days are numbered.

When in September does the waiver run out?

Seriously Brav is at it again, how long is this pain going to last.

Furlough until end Oct, basically she’s hedging her bets on the waiver which runs out in Sept, if the U.K. business keeps on the current trajectory it’s all over and we get dragged in to the US Chapter 11.

And then they don’t have to pay the same redundancy rates..

And go figure they are taking you all back in the quietest 4 months??

I'm not surprised that the last post about AB @ IHG was deleted - I think they are tightening up on what contravenes the site rules. There were a number of allegations in the post that whilst they may be true, were almost certainly unproven (and probably unprovable) and therefore the post was removed.

For those of us who got to read the post, it it was certainly enlightening and sadly not surprising.

It is incredible that the Hertz 'Executive Search' / HR / Talent teams do such a terrible job. Think of the layers of inept management that they have gifted the organisation, and think of the people that those leaders subsequently recruit.

It is no wonder we are where we are today. A bad leadership hire takes years to fix, and in this case successive atrocious leadership hires will be the death of the company.

I can't think of a single exec-level hire in the last 10 years that has delivered a significant positive contribution to the organisation - just a financial and talent drain as good people leave.

I think AB, UK VP Ops, Nayan etc (pick any recent hire) are living proof of how bad Hertz exec recruitment is.

Then look at the internal promotions - and specifically in the UK - it was hoped that the clearout after Neil C would have had a positive effect, and yet somehow the cronyism continues. The UK Leadership team isn't qualified to... [fill in your own words here].

Sad.

Why do posts keep being removed from this page?

I thought this site was a forum that allowed individuals to speak freely? As long as the content is not inflammatory, racist or libellous it should not be removed.

It seems suspicious the posts that have been removed appear innocent, one featured advisory content and the other regard two employees who opted to leave the company. The second ( TV LL leaving) keeps being removed .??!!

It appears even this site is being controlled by AB, leaves one pondering what’s so special about these posts.

If administration happens then the media needs to know what an astounding job the ILT have done! They shouldn’t be allowed to assume any future leadership position in any company!

They are using the Bonds (Loans)..to pay themselves when it runs out, problems will come that’s guaranteed and they are not paying suppliers or rent, cash flow won’t last much longer but as long as there is some they will pay themselves and pretend they are doing something useful when instead they have no idea!

The fact that they have cut no one is astounding particularly given the climate but that’s unfortunately the awful leadership we have now, they are just playing monopoly until they go bust..

** Thank You **

to Tim for your detailed replies they are very useful and are helping me to plan forward.

The question that baffles me is why Hertz Europe have no money but yet continue to have money to pay the senior team? They ain’t cheap.