No warning, Performance reviews always good, including this one. People come to me for answers and how to do things and all of a sudden 2 days ago I was told I was laid off. The reason Manager said Covid and was not in the loop. HR said poor performance though my performance reviews are not poor.
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This seems to be the MO at every corporation. Back in the early 90's they did the same thing with middle level managers but this time it's technical staff. AI is taking over IT. I worked for U.S. Bank for 23 years and my position was eliminated in October. My manager was not in the loop and he'd just assigned me new responsibilities that week. At 61 with no degree, just years of OTJ experience, I'm screwed. I came to this part of Layoffs to check out Accenture because they are listing lots of openings. It seems there is a trend toward hiring anyone willing to work for half the salary and/or as contractors. This is the new feudal system - and it's 1984 on Steroids. They count every keystroke and monitor your every minute. Humans are not machines but we are being judged by them and our jobs are now performed by them. It's probably a good thing that the planet will soon be too hot to grow food to scale and support the billions of people since the majority of us won't be able to make a living anyway. With COVID we are all inside our houses and only talking to our social network connections (I deleted FB, etc in the spring) so we don't know what is happening beyond the news. No news organizations - networks or independent - are reporting this to any degree. There was one PBS segment a couple of weeks ago based on a NYT report but they keep reporting the stock market vs jobs reports. Those numbers are bogus. Get ready for the crash people. Trump is going to escape the WH before Xmas and Biden will take over after a major stock market crash. Bigger than 2008. Bigger than 1929. Get your 401k money now! The only hope we have is FDIC.
I'm 44, and have been with Accenture for 4 years at the same project and my performance reviews were never under the bar so I thought, but I was given my walking papers for "low performance" last week with 2 weeks notice, 4 weeks of pay, and 750 laptop allowance as a severance for 4 years of loyal service.
If any of you have actually be let go by Accenture in the US, you should have received a OWBPA that shows the ages of everyone in your peer group and who was released. I reveiwed mine thoroughly and can assure you that for my peer group (Technology South), there were plenty of over 40's (even 50/60) people retained, and plenty in their 20's and 30's that were released.
If you think you have a case, pursue it in court - that's your right!
The performance metrics are stricter during Covid though. So even if you're a high performing employee, there may be others that are also high performers at your same level but with a skillset that is of greater value to the firm for the pipeline of work in 2021. It has nothing to do with what your actual performance reviews were - that was for last year, they are evaluating based on next year's needs. Outside of that, there is obviously cost, including salary, benefits etc. They probably figured they could save some money on all of that due to your age and hire someone that is much cheaper right out of school. At the end of the day we're all contractors, and should just be working on filling our our pipeline anyway. Best of luck.
The layoffs probably explain why I received a call Friday around 8:30 PM from India (6:00 AM India time) wanting to submit me for a role at "Accenture/BOA". Apparently Accenture doesn't have enough recruiters left on board to locate and place talent, so they are off-shoring that function to India.
Actually, her spoken English was quite good, better than the Indians who call me from New Jersey. But her real name is Monica about as much as my name is Krishna. :)
This is not the first time that I've experienced a call from a three-party arrangement this summer. It seems to be a growing business model.
To revise a whispered lyric from a late Beatles album: "Good luck, everybody, everywhere".
Any severance for years of service?
Were any of the affected folks rebadged from AT&T? See posts there on this platform..
Unless you’re an executive, it’s rare to find anyone over 40 at ACN; 30 for women. I left before the layoffs into a role that required experience. Look for staffing firms that specialise in older workers or strike out on your own and charge a healthy rate.
A friend who has not been laid off told me they had a townhall where Accenture said they booked 100's of millions of dollars in business over the summer. That it was a great summer where they reduced their bench numbers in half. What they did not say was how they reduced those numbers. They made it sound like they placed those people in jobs. I think the guys in their 60's were some of those people and more were laid off. This is why corporations need congressional oversite. Dumb people say 'we don't need interference by the federal government' The federal government includes Congress. Congress needs to have people who will take the Accentures, Faceboodks and Amazon's of the world and hold them accountable. There is a movie called "The Company" with Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones. It shows how CEOs and Exec's get promoted, still making cash/bonuses while the people who work hard to give them that priviledge, get thrown on the street. Upper Management does not care about you, BLM, Latinos or anyone for that matter. They say 'we care' till it all settles down and then they will do nothing. Wake up people. The only reason these companies can do this stuff is because Americans allow them to do it. Accenture is not the epitome of a great company, just look at who some of their clients are. Dow Chemical, one of the biggest environmental polluters, Facebook, a greedy CEO who doesn't care if a violent content is on their site. What else do Americans need to see before they say 'no more' Every worker who does their job should be compensated fairly. They should never be thrown out of a company esp people in their 60's so the stock can be elevated. In fact seniors should be taken care of well. Where the hell are they supposed to find another job now!.. Boycott those a–holes. Boycott all the companies they serve by not buying their products till they drop Accenture as a vendor. Then lets see how those executives feel when they are dumped on the street and their bonuses an exit pay is reduced to nothing. Give them the 10 bucks an hour they deserve. Not the millions in salary for reducing people to c-ap. I hope you guys are ok and find a company that will value your wisdom.
My friend in the same age group was laid off this week. This is age discrimination and/or race discrimination. In silicon valley, my other friend could not find a job with Indian recruiters cause he was white. Another Latino friend had the same thing happen to them. They would by pass them for one of their less qualified friends. This could be happening at Accenture as well. My friend is going to contest his being laid off. The idea that managers are not in the loop maybe a 'mantra' given to them by someone. My friend delivered the new in the same manner. They could not tell him who made the decision ie, 'he was not in the loop' This is definitely age discrimination.
Same here, age 61.