CH just sent the email. I guess we will find out what package we will be getting, or the lack of any packages. Save up your PTOs and use your sick days first, as sick days do get pay outs, but PTOs typically do. Good luck to us all.
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The “bigger picture”?
Here’s what it looks like from the ground.
We keep getting unity speeches, but every day still feels like OSIsoft vs. Everyone Else, two companies awkwardly sharing a logo.
Slapping a “diverse leadership” label on a slide deck doesn’t bridge that gap.
As for the layoffs? Let’s call it what it was: a purge of inconvenient voices, followed by a fresh coat of OSI-blue over the corpse.
Worse, they were executed with all the grace of a fire drill in a server room, cold, chaotic, and deeply impersonal.
If leadership wanted to show how little they value the people who’ve kept the place running, mission accomplished.
Watching last week the IT Roadshow pitch to Casper their “AI innovation”, a Copilot demo wrapped in $800K per year of consulting retainer. Either we’re witnessing staggering incompetence, or someone’s golf buddies are popping the Champagne.
If we actually want unity, how about we start with:
Acknowledge the split. It’s real. We all feel it.
Fix the product. We’re still shipping what feels like 2005 code.
Listen to customers (radical concept, I know).
Promote based on proven results, not volume or politics.
Cut the vanity projects and be transparent with ROI by product line.
And try transparency, for real this time, not the curated kind.
Until then, asking people to “recommit” feels less like leadership and more like rallying the crew to polish the deck, while the engine room is on fire.
Let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Leadership across AVEVA comes from varied backgrounds, and that diversity is a strength—if we focus on collaboration instead of division. A unified strategy that leverages the full scope of our capabilities is essential.
The recent layoffs, though difficult, were necessary to realign resources toward a sustainable future. These changes mark a critical reset after years of uneven focus.
Moving forward requires breaking down silos and fostering greater accountability. We have the talent and foundation to succeed, but only if we work together with clear purpose.
For those who remain, now is the time to recommit and help build Aveva’s future. It won’t be easy, but with unity and determination, the company can regain its footing and thrive.
a simple formula to success:
PROMOTE PEOPLE
WHO GIVE A SH-T!!
One of AVEVA’s greatest innovations lately isn’t in industrial software, it’s in perfecting the art of rewarding mediocrity. High performers?
Oh, they’re great… as long as they stay quiet, keep delivering miracles, and don’t expect recognition.
Work your a-s off, miss dinners with your family, bring in customer wins and in return, you get a front-row seat watching someone with zero technical clue but excellent PowerPoint skills get promoted to VP.
Apparently, the fastest way up the ladder here is by mastering office politics, not product knowledge.
We’ve got a full-blown circus in charge now and Casper’s leading the parade with his band of balloon-popping visionaries.
If this crew is steering the ship, AVEVA isn’t coming back to relevance anytime soon unless, of course, irrelevance is the new strategy.
So it's been over three months since my direct report manager was let go along with their direct report manager.
You know what I don't have yet? A direct report manager. There is VP (OSI of course) who was tasked with figuring it all out and re-organizing our group and others in to something. Keep getting promises of an announcement coming. Still waiting.
LOL the CIO just announced another VP hire!! WOW just WOW
@bg1 OSIsoft could get away with zero QA since the software doesn't actually do anything, meaning it's ultimately a giant specialized reporting package. If it takes six months to get an update, it's not like it can take down your factory like software that directly controls production like an HMI or MES.
Genuinely curious, what’s the official count of AVEVA VPs who scored a promotion by grinding on an exec at a Coldplay concert? And spare me the “earned on merit” fairy tale, my subscription to corporate fantasy expired long ago.
@8mh I agree this company wants everything cheap, but I don’t believe they care if it is good. The recent layoffs and co direction since the OSI acquisition is to reduce and eventually eliminate QA in favor of more developers. While that may work for some cloud products where you host the software and can quickly update it, this does not work when the customer installs the software on their HW and has to wait weeks for a software fix.
@b2n of course, customers love platforms! They wake up every morning thinking, “If only I had a cloud platform with no actual apps to run on it, my life would be complete. Genius stuff. Truly. What could possibly go wrong?
@OP A contributing factor to the lay off was a mandate from CH to hire a large number of new grads. CH did not provide extra budget for this and attrition has been low over the past 12 months, hence the only way to make the budget work is lay off senior employees. CH does not understand that fresh grads do not want to work on legacy (15+ year old) code and that you need SME knowledge to debug, enhance, innovate these softwares. Cloud Platform is great, but customers don’t buy platforms, they buy applications that solve their real world problems.
The co direction now is replacement roles in low cost countries… so we should see how good it is for the co in the long run.
What makes this situation even worse is the fact that they promoted a bunch of people right after terminating folks due to cost savings!
12 promotions (higher job level)
16 progressions to senior responsibilities
Honestly, this co wants everything cheap and good. There is no such thing in reality… so let them be delusional and see how this co goes… it’s either going to be taken over or sold off eventually ….
@8cv It was worth a shot. Regardless, it is a shame the EUC team was laid off. I felt that was extremely short-sighted of the company, and you're right - to then advertise the same positions in Kuala Lumpur is just a slap in the face. I wish you the best of luck - it is a tough market right now. I was laid off as well, just not in this round.
@227 I love how well this is worded!
@8cv Nope
@795 Rich?
@89d ... "The beatings will continue until morale improves!"
AVEVA has a diverse product portfolio. Following the recent round of reductions in force (RIF) in R&D and Portfolio, the overall sentiment appears to be quite negative. The cost reduction strategy involved the dismissal of senior employees in predominantly high-cost locations. It seems that AVEVA strategically mixed the list of RIF employees to minimize the risk of lawsuits, likely with the assistance of professional management consulting services. The criteria for selecting employees for the RIF remain unclear. This action is expected to assist AVEVA and CH in improving the net margin, which was poor in the previous fiscal year, if they use the savings effectively.
The progress in R&D has been slow, and there is a lack of clear communication regarding its direction. Both R&D and Portfolio leadership are perceived as weak, and their indecision is hindering progress. There are concerns within the organization about the feasibility of achieving the goals set by the management consulting firm, which are being followed by the R&D and Portfolio heads. Compensation at AVEVA appears top-heavy, with leaders primarily following instructions to maintain job security and earnings. It also seems that CH might be receiving misleading information from his management team, particularly regarding employee engagement and the state of R&D. Although CH has assured us that there will not be a second RIF, further measures may be necessary if performance does not improve.
You think IT is a dumpster fire? Hold my coffee and let me introduce you to the CloudDevOps Team, where incompetence and arrogance collide in a spectacular explosion of chaos.
Oh yea wow, shocking, IT is a total joke.
Who could've seen that coming?
It’s been the company’s inside joke for years.
Most teams just quietly build their own tools and pretend IT’s “solutions” don’t exist.
Why bother? They don’t care what we actually need, they’re too busy enforcing their own irrelevant rules from whatever alternate universe they’re living in.
Management in AVEVA IT is a joke. The CIO/VP/Director/Managers have zero technical knowledge on the work that their teams do. As a result, they set expectations that are literally impossible from a technical standpoint.
@73b That´s basically confirmed - the EUC Team was terminated (including myself) and now these pricks are hiring EUC engineers in Kuala Lumpur!
Were the salaries even really that high? Or 'high' for AVEVA standards? This is one of the most underpaying companies for tech roles I've ever seen. Maybe if you're from OSISoft your salaries probably pretty decent or close to industry averages, but us from AVEVA (before OSISoft acquisition) the salaries are horrible, sub 100k salaries for non-entry level SWE roles in SoCal.
@6q9 u go n check LinkedIn and the internal job opportunities and do the analysis…
Reason why CH says it’s 10% headcount costs cut… coz here they are laying off colleagues in high cost countries and then the next moment, they are hiring similar roles in low cost countries. That explains the 10% headcount costs reduction.
AVEVA is re-hiring form some roles where impacted. I heard that some people were let got cause there salaries were too high. Not sure how true that is... anyone has any info on this?
Sure, go ahead and hire a consulting firm if you want them to come through and layoff thousands more.
Maybe we can hire a Consulting firm to show us how to run a Software Company?
JH? An absolute powerhouse of irrelevance in AVEVA.
I’ve been here over 20 years, and I can confidently say IT has done exactly zero to improve efficiency, unless you count slowing us down as some kind of reverse innovation.
Most teams just build their own tools because relying on IT is like asking a goldfish to fix a car. Shauna, bless her ghosting skills, never replied to a single email. I assume she’s either allergic to keyboards or permanently stuck in an “Out of Office” loop.
Anyway, I couldn’t be happier to be escaping this circus of tech-savvy incompetence.
The bar was on the floor, and somehow they brought a shovel.
@OP After this "action", I knew it was time to start looking, already on the way out of the mess.
I have worked with JH for over a year, and I have seen this person devolve into someone who only functions with people who tell her what she wants to hear, not what she needs. She has dismissed everyone else who has challenged her.
She is incapable of understanding anything technical, even basic things escape her, the fact she has become a CIO is shocking as there is no capability there at all.
Policy and process are her world, she's a consultant and only knows the buzz words.
IT as a whole has halted since she has been CIO, people are terrified of her, she is often cruel and and at best dismissive of others. She has made people cry, she has yelled she has made people feel worried. She is toxic. The company can't see past her presentations that she forces others to make for her. She has her little embedded notes in the packs and she only knows what are in those little embeds.
It broke me this last round, to see who was let go for nothing other than not being a sycophant. Aveva is not what it was, if this is where it's going no one will be there.
I will resign with glee, I will look forward to my exit interview and I will make sure HR knows what a monster they have employed. Everyone is looking, no one is happy, JH is the cause of all problems within IT.
IT officially su-ks. the leadership is terrible and the cio is useless. CH has done layoffs last year at a smaller scale.
If they were somewhat capable at their jobs , those layoff wouldnt be required.
They are the ones who should be fired.
JH is terrible. She's vindictive, blames everyone for her own inadequacies. So many good people have been let go since she arrived. I hope I'm in the next round. Nobody is happy. Everybody is overworked and unappreciated and always walking on eggshells. Why doesnt HR do something about her. Who chose her to be a CIO?!!
The amount of farewell meals with colleagues during this period is so so upsetting. N some of those who got laid off but have not left,.. the co is squeezing them dry and with no proper handover plans etc…
Most companies are similar when it comes to such situation. But this company is the Champion… the magnitude amount of mess is like a cesspool… there is no way it will be cleaned up
@2vs JH is so bad it's hilarious. I feel sorry for all of us still here, I think most people wanted to get laid off!
If AVEVA wants to survive the company must get rid of CH and JH (CIO)!! ..how is it even possible that JH is now the CIO - she doesn´t understand even the most basic IT bits!
Here they are doing lay off, u look at linkedin… they are hiring. There is no good way to handle lay offs but it pays to be transparent and heads up early on how they want to restructure the organization optimally… n not hire some 3rd party consultants n do the work blindly without analysis
CH spends money like it’s going out of fashion, Brian keeps his incompetent mates protected, 10% could have been saved in IT with two people that are notorious for doing nothing but running up travel expenses. The CIO is the most incompetent professional I have ever seen.
For the first time ever the new CIO exceeded ITs budget by 4 million, has delivered nothing but divide a subpar service and Compromise payouts.
I have not been cut this round but am determined not to be around for the next round.
Don’t feel sorry for the ones that leave, Feel sorry for the ones that remain!
I’m sure those leaving will go on to bigger and better things, (look at the fist round of cuts the CIO made, companies falling over themselves to offer those ITSM experts roles) where as it has fallen apart without them here.
It appears the cuts in some departments are just personal vendetta’s and the retention people that refuse to challenge the CIO. CIO is an unstable bully HR don’t care to address it.
Well, the cr-p culture and product stagnation happened on the watch of the "WonderWare Lifers", so seems to be a lot of DENIAL going on here. Independent of that, what we need is to be leaner, to be better integrated and unified, and to have a leader who can bring the disparate teams together as one Aveva. CH is not that person.