Did DXC become the toxic cesspool it is right now when it came to be or were its previous iterations just as bad? I've only been here for a year and I can't imagine having been here for ten or more and staying in this kind of environment. I'm kind of hoping that it was better before and people just kind of got stuck in this mess and that's why they're still here.
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We are still running lotus notes and innovating on top of it. This is what is called digital transformation.
the parts of the companies that formed dxc were never integrated either, different solutions and delivery systems, never standardized, new "DXC" solutions built on the mythical Platform DXC (now Platform X) meaning clients were ending up with 3 different sets of delivery with no integration, no integration of internal systems either even for a long time including email - DXC is still not a single company, just a random collection of bits and pieces of legacy companies thrown together over the years, and thus it shows in the culture or complete lack of it
DXC toxicity seed were sown in April 2006 when CSC cut 4,300 jobs in Europe. Quick history recap.
July 2007. Mike Laphen appointed President. This was in line with the CSC Governance policy of only appointing to the role of President people named ‘Mike’. The strange reasoning behind this was to hope that having consistency in the figurehead would mask inconsistency elsewhere, such as Governance and established accounting practice.
Mike (draft 0.1) offered a fresh new direction. One that would put people and values at the core. His first job was to start the WFR process. By 2009, this had covered Australia, Denmark and created lots of Union battles. By 2012, CSC was in financial difficulty and still struggling with cashflow, a large UK National Health Lawsuit through an SEC fraud investigation. Amid the controversy, Mike retired, stopping off only to grab $7M and a $1M a year pension for life. The SEC caught up with his departure in 2015 and charged him ordering him to pay back $4M of the $7M taken and charged 4 other execs with CSC settling a $190M penalty. CSC core values continued but the ethics policy was updated, and everyone who had not retired (97,000 people) were forced to sign to confirm they had read it.
Feb 2012 Mike Laurie (Mikey MKI) takes over the ailing company, promising a fresh new direction. One that would put staff at the centre of shaping its future, which it indeed did - by riffing most of them. They called it ‘Get fit’ (later renamed by the current Mike MkII to ‘optimise costs’). CSC and HP’s HP Enterprises then merged and according to Mike Mk1 would be ‘built on a foundation of trust’ to ‘allow clients to seize opportunities’ and to 'gain synergy' (synergy is an old business term used to describe cases where one loss-making company joins another loss-making company to form one big loss-making company’. DXC (Digital x force multiplier Company or whatever CSC and Seigal and Gale were smoking that night) was an ambiguous acronym, before its own workforce fed on years of promises for pay rises, helped to clarify its meaning with “Don’t Xpect Compensation".
2016 Mass WFR's. A Bullying culture. A President who was unable to separate business and personal life – having his Chief of staff cut his steak at a restaurant meal, causing “Steakcutter” to enter the DXC lexicon. And, with the final nail in coffin came when an investment group filed a lawsuit against Mike for his sacking of key people including the US Chief of Sales that was argued affected the promised forecast which was revised down twice and halved the share price leaving a lot of unhappy people. Apart from Mike, who retired with $19.4M and founded a capital equity firm, TLC.
Sept 2019. Mike Salvino (Mike MkII alias ‘Mr Shouty’ in the DXC lexicon) takes over the ailing company, promising a fresh new direction. A transformation journey that makes its top priority to ‘Inspire and take care of our colleagues’. A new age of communication through Town Halls begins to engage global staff in an open, honest, and transparent two-way communication.
CUT TO:
The President angrily shouting to the entire workforce that if they don’t like it here, they should leave.
Advice which many continue to follow to this day.
To now answer the question, Yes - DXC has always been toxic
Please join the townhalls and culture week ceberations. We are transforming.
Always been pits at both CSC and then DXC until the helm of Mikey no 1; Mr Shouty face had opportunity to improve the company but seem he gave in to his millions of $$$ pay and bonuses along with Steak Cutter no 2.
It’s been sh-t since the CSC MK1 steak cutter days.
DXC has always been toxic.
The difference was that original Mike didn't hide is utter contempt for staff, he was completely open about his total disregard for us. Mikey 2 swept in on a wave of "I'll do things differently" and "I don't know why any of you stayed here given how poorly you've been treated" and then made lots of positive noise about caring for staff, culture etc. Then the cracks started appearing, nothing changed, he started repeatedly telling us how wonderful he was, and then the mask slipped completely when he lost his temper and shouted at staff for daring to ask about rewarded. Since then (Feb 22) DXC has been pretending it doesn't have staff.
DXC is now the most toxic I've seen it and it's all down to our leaders total lack of leadership
I was there from 2018 to 2020. It ranks as the single worst company I ever worked for.
I was all set to quit when Mike L quit, and Mike S took over. Knowing how good Mike S had been at Accenture, I was very optimistic for DXC.
But, where was the Mike S who was so good at Accenture? It was like we got a 'continuation Mike L' - same cycle of 'cut staff / lose customers / cut more staff' that we'd had under Mike L.
So, it was toxic before Mike S, and I think slightly more toxic after Mike S took over. He had an opportunity to stop cutting and start growing - sadly he didn't see this and carried on destroying the company.