Thread regarding SAP layoffs

Like everyone else was saying, they're going to flex their muscles on RTO. Talk to Facilities in any office, they'll tell you that they're prepping seriously for more capacity. It's been cascaded to new hires that 3 days a week is the norm, no matter where your team is geographically. CK emphasized RTO was so new hires could learn from others in office. It's what Hasso and the board want and CK's been jetsetting across Europe to emphasize the buzz of being in office, even though him showing face is why 50% of the office in a certain geo shows up that day. Not going to comment on the policy, just going to say get ready to see offices more full (though different teams can play by different rules as usual).

@zfi+1rFwVPgm

Yes Indeed - In a week or so, the US will be a bloodbath. Whoever is left standing will in a short amount of time wish they had also gotten the pink slip.

That's how the cookie crumbles when you have the highest sales country and biggest focus are for new Cloud sales - all SAP needs from the US is sales dollars - not employees.

It certainly appears that the RTO will not be enforced across the entire enterprise in an equitable manner as some teams have not been told anything as to what is expected next Monday.  CK should have been aware about this risk when he made his promulgation in January.

If he knew anything at all about the operation of the company he would have known that there are many, many employees who do not have management at their location, but rather are managed by somebody from a different country on a timezone many hours different from their own and will not have a clue as to who is in or not in the respective office.

The lack of proper enforcement across the company, after his announcement was broadcast all over the global industry, will make him look like a fool whom the employees have no respect for and just disregard his directives.  The next time he issues a mandate, who exactly will comply???

The only outcome of this mandate will be to drive more resentment throughout the workforce as some teams will have to comply while others with whom they share office space will not have to RTO.  

RTO will be sporadically enforced. It’s a tool they will trot out when they want to get rid of someone. My boss will enforce it only against people he wants to leave. He already allows people to not comply with company policies if it suits him.
Surveys are such a waste of time. Since no one’s compensation depends on it, it’s just window dressing to pretend SAP cares about employee feedback. My boss consistently gets bad reviews - he’s been with SAP 20+ years.
Layoffs - the number of VERPS won’t reduce the total number of layoffs no matter what is said. They want as many people gone from high cost countries as possible.
The U.K. and Ireland will be affected, too. In Germany and France the employees have lifelong employment.

@yxu+1rFU4jdN

Bumping this post forward, made good points on the impending layoffs.

Regarding Layoffs and VERP, I have been to several "low-cost" locations in EMEA and LATAM and APJ and it was clear to me that the workforce there is very young. I don' see anybody there even eligible for the VERP.

The VERP will come down to the two largest workforces, US and Germany. In Germany, since there will not be any layoffs, I don't see why the more senior workers there would take the VERP. Many of these have been with SAP for 25 + years, they get good benefits & salary and continuing working will increase how much they will collect once they opt in for SS and so I think many will bypass the VERP.

Therefore, the layoffs all hinge on how many in the US are first eligible and second how many take it. Many teams don't even have anyone on their team older than 59. So, I would think there will be less than 1000 in the US who take the VERP. Leaves some 7000 to make up the difference to get to CK's 8000 number.

That's a huge number of layoffs on a US workforce of less than 20,000. If this is going to be how it works out, then the US is in for a dramatic decrease in workforce and even worse morale to contend with.

My manager and her manager and her manager all work from home. Not one communication on RTO has been cascaded down. That’s how the reality of this mandate is going to work.

Would managers already know who is getting laid off in their teams?

In our case my Manager has brought up the RTO several times since CK's announcement and informed that she is expecting everyone to be in the office 3 days a week, starting April 1.

Seems from the posts here that other managers haven't yet provided any guidance as to what is expected April 1. That's typical SAP,

My guess is that if nothing is done on a global base to bring this to 100% compliance, there will be complaints to the SAP "Advocate", HRBP's, L1 managers, etc... and then the other shoe will drop.

I still just don't get it, many, many people have been working from home long before the pandemic and there wasn't ever any hint of a problem - don't get what CK was trying to accomplish?

Be on the watch. Shortly after the Layoff notifications are made, we will all get another company wide announcement, restating the mandate that RTO is now in effect, and everyone is expected to be back in the office.

From that point forward the L1's will take over and hold their managers accountable for complying.

Yes, the Layoffs will have the ultimate impact on everybody to comply and doing so in silence.

At this point and how things are all coming together during the first week of April, then there is really no doubt about it - This was all orchestrated to go down to accomplish only one thing, which is fear and absolute compliance.  It was all planned out to be done this way.

The "trust" factor could not be eroding any more rapidly as it already is.  Correct, it's nowhere near the same company anymore.

Cancel Officer Christian Klein?

Just a thought…..I’m wondering if CK’s middle names are Oscar and Charles? 😉

Let's be real here. The employee survey is nothing but marking "completed" on a checklist. There's no point for surveys if the feedback is ignored/discarded. Imagine if employee satisfaction, trust index, and morale was a KPI for executive board compensation.

The RTO announcement and sheer lack of guidelines is a joke. CK is right about one thing. RTO is not about control. It's about a lack of leadership and jumping on the bandwagon.

CK's reputation as a CEO is riding on his mandate to RTO. Think about it, his mandate to RTO was published all over the industry. He didn't waffle at all about it - he made a clear statement that the pledge to work from anywhere was rescinded - period.

Now if some part of the company complies and the rest doesn't, what does that say about his Leadership? He is well aware that how the company complies (or doesn't comply) will be watched and a failure to RTO will be viewed as his failure. He is not going to be risk being viewed in this manner.

So far my team hasn't been given any information about coming back in the office next week. I believe our immediate manager is just relying on what was said by CK in January.

I think how the RTO is handled will all come down to the L1 level and what pressure they apply to their subordinates to get everyone back in the office. And in this case, I do think CK (and also Hasso) will put the pressure on the L1's to make this happen.

Well summarised! I know that RTO will be a hammer used by some managers whereas those managers who live remotely won’t enforce it. Great article/opinion in NYTimes describing our “transformation” and how chaos and uncertainty inhibit productivity but execs are addicted to layoffs because it boosts the share price and makes them look modern and “disruptive”!