The ISPs will be communicated in a couple of weeks and I know many of us will be impacted.
The cascade 2 process feels like a black box. I hope the ISP selection criteria is objective - i.e. based on criteria like skills, capabilities, performance, education, experience, etc.
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It's about $$$. If they think you can be replaced by a cheaper person, you are out. You are a number on a spreadsheet and your individual value or supervisors opinion will not count. Been here before with Boston consultants.
Reading through this thread, here is what I am gathering about the ISP process:
GPs/Directors will be protect those they feel a kinship or affinity towards. The rest are at risk regardless of performance, skills, capabilities, education and experience.
This would be one way to reimagine the firm into a disaster.
I hope better sense prevails and there is objectivity in the ISP exercise.
@ec - spot on but one tweak as of late…frat brothers & sorority sisters. Intelligent people understand what PP and her ilk have been doing since 2019. The “Ol Boys Club” is still around with a whole new spin on the “Mean Girls Club”. This all began in 2019 and is far from over until 2028. Buckle up everyone…it doesn’t matter your chromosomes or color going forward. Her agenda is set.
Nothing matters. We are just a number on their spreadsheet. This is the humanistic approach that ELT has been touting.
@ep here, I will do you a favor and do the work for you.
Explanation of at will employment. Note “personality differences” or “we just don’t get along” is considered an acceptable reason to terminate an employee:
https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/insights/articles/what-is-at-will-employment
Old EJ employment agreement from all the way back to 2011 that acknowledges you are an at will employee (search for “at will”):
https://www.advisorhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Employment-Contract.pdf
Still believe your years of experience or education matter?
@ec the difference between in scale between a one off promotion and a top down restructuring is huge. It is much easier to show patterns of discrimination with more data points.
So clearly neither of you know anything about law. Understandable, since you are probably facing layoffs for the first time.
Level of education and years of experience are not protected statuses under state or federal law. At will employees can be terminated for any reason so long as it isn’t violating law. Yes, you can (and will) be laid off over someone with lesser experience and lesser education simply because someone felt that person “was a better fit for the team”. Unless their definition of “better fit” actually means “isn’t a different skin color than me, isn’t a different gender, isn’t disabled, isn’t pregnant” etc., you aren’t going to have much luck claiming discrimination. Don’t believe me? Ask a lawyer. Google it. ChatGPT. You won’t like the response…
Mass layoffs happen every week. Plenty of well-educated, tenured people are part of these cuts. Do you honestly believe that layoffs only happen to new hires, people without degrees, and low performers? Or that a Ph. D gives someone permanent job security over someone with a bachelor’s degree?
Think about how many times you’ve heard about an undeserving person getting a promotion, then realize the same person that made that decision will be making decisions on who stays and who goes.
But I’m sure things will be different this time and be 100% based on your criteria for merit. Which will perfectly align with decision makers. Who promoted their frat brothers over you. Multiple times.
Agree with @ab on this. I would think education and experience are objective criteria in the eyes of law. If the firm fires an associate with higher education and more experience over someone else at the same grade level, I think it opens them up to law suits.
@a8 experience and education matter in hiring/firing decisions and making decisions just based on friendships and vibes is a recipe for a discrimination suit. EJ has lost or settled a number of discrimination lawsuits and should know better by now.
Why would they care about education or experience? They won’t even look at any of this beyond maybe years of service, but I doubt much weight will be put into it. If anything, longer service may be a negative, because leadership might view long tenure as lack of willingness to change.
Like most things in life, this will be subjective and based on the decision maker’s perception. You will find a lot of low performers get kept over high performers simply because someone likes them more. It’s sad but true.
Hope you have a good relationship with your team leader…and that they have a good relationship with their leader. That is your best chance.
Not trying to demoralize you. This is typically how these things go. And since the firm is run by consultants now, I don’t expect it to be any different.