Large amount of layoffs today. If you get the important meeting on your calendar then you’re next!
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Can anyone help answer if our benefits will continue for the duration of severance? And do benefits include everything we have enrolled for?
Since there are many of us current employees checking this thread, how’s RTO been treating you?
These are trying times at Medidata. A Q&A session with Anthony was held a few weeks back and to this day, they have refused to post the recording.
So much for transparency but it is somewhat understandable, as the meeting was nothing short of a disaster. Edward Ford tried to play cover but there's only so much you can do when Anthony continues to repeat the line that this was a restructuring (correcting people when they say layoffs), confirms that the 25 mile radius for RTO was completely arbitrary, talks about how important it is that we keep our culture (when he is the one actively destroying it), and achieving double digit growth (without any specificity on how to achieve it).
Honestly and based on conversations with others still here, the best thing that you could probably do to improve morale for the teams is to boot out Anthony.
It took weeks for the contents of my desk to be mailed back to me and when they arrived, several things were broken beyond repair, just completely shattered. Talk about unprofessional and disrespectful. Insult to injury.
PIPs are a result of failed management. People who reported their managers to HR were easy targets to be let go. If there was ever a time to get rid of a problem, this was the opportunity. Someone said this below, we are all just a number. If you aren’t happy you’re better off just finding something else.
Thinking back to January Dassault had 1000’s fly across the globe for ValueUp in Monaco followed my Medidatas commercial kick off in NYC days later with more flying in, if things are tight stop the events! Fast forward a couple of weeks later HR started joining leadership meetings in February pushing the agenda of getting low performers onto PIP’s quickly. A perfect excuse for removing people months later, the whole situation has made me lose faith in the organisation I loved.
Regards to the below: I, too, like to rearrange the deck chairs of the Titanic.
Lots of inaccurate information here. Don't believe everything you read.
In the eye of the law, this is a layoff from reduction in force. Such layoff is highly regulated by federal and state laws. The company has to and is indeed following all applicable laws. For the starter, there's a federal Q&A website providing understandable plain English explanation about the waiver, aka severance agreement, at https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/qa-understanding-waivers-discrimination-claims-employee-severance-agreements.
The slack channel link is not working. If it is not a layoff then what is it? I know not everyone was given the same reason of restructuring.
the town hall today was quite the roller coaster of deflection and gaslighting!
Does anyone have details on the severance agreement?
It's not a lay off guys, he said.
A non-Medidata sanctioned Slack (work)space at https://join.slack.com/t/newworkspace-ogq2411/shared_invite/zt-2j4x5gp0m-hsuj623Xji5Xo3NQaJ3AQQ has been created for those affected by this month's layoff on the Way to Recovery. Please feel free go to the link and join.
https://join.slack.com/t/newworkspace-ogq2411/shared_invite/zt-2j4x5gp0m-hsuj623Xji5Xo3NQaJ3AQQ
Per https://www.eeoc.gov/history/older-workers-benefit-protection-act-1990, the company is legally bound to provide the info how many people are affected and not affected as well along with the unit and age distribution and the reason why people are selected.
Sorry can some one please elaborate why one would be losing the 401K matches thus far? Or is it just for this calendar year?
Anyone else just realizing that your losing thousands of unvested company match from your 401k?
The severance agreement is like shooting a gnat with a cannon. Maybe don’t get your pants taken down in public and in court by Veeva again next time. Speaking of “ankle biters…”
Same boat as everyone on here. I get it, layoffs happen. Worked in the banking industry and saw it happen second hand, unfortunately now I’m first hand. Have many gripes, but mostly the way they went about the layoffs was completely unprofessional. I had my manager do the unfortunate task of delivering the news, who’s been with the company only a year. His discomfort was obvious and upon reflection felt bad for him. I think layoff conversations should be done by the upper management who were ultimately involved in the decisions for the mass layoffs. Own it and face the people whose lives you altered. Don’t manage this down. Alas, life does go on and will keep my head up.
Does these layoffs include UK team or only US team.
Makes you wonder what Naveen our old head of HR/ people team knew was coming and why he left so abruptly recently when he had also announced in an interview in Jan that medidata was a class above the rest and no plans to layoff unlike other companies
I have to hand it to Anthony. Just a month in as the new CEO, and he has managed to pi-s everyone off with the new RTO policy and then layoff a ton of people. Keep up the good work Anthony, Dassault will thank you for it!
After reviewing the ex-colleagues who were let go it seems that although they ranged from leads to directors in level many of the individuals I had seen had been here for at least 2+ years and therefore I’m assuming would be on track for a promotion in the next cycle(yearly promotion cycles mandated by Dassault vs the original medidata cycle is already problematic) so instead of rewarding the hard work and time at the company it would be easier to keep the newly promoted people (announced just last month) and layoff all the people who would be looking for higher pay themselves next cycle and offload all their work to these newly promoted coworkers who will be told they should be lucky to still have a job so they should grin and bear it with the mountain of additional work. Sinking ship with Dassault at the helm, definitely not Glenn’s vision.
What is with all the "I'm getting a lawyer" comments? You're employed 'at will'. Unless you can prove you were let go for some discriminatory practice, you should save your money and move on.
I am a single mom with no back up family. I sold the company and believed in it more than anyone. My child and I finally felt secure in life based on what we believed in Medidata. As an employee in my 50s and believer of the culture which I sold, Mothers Day was pretty bad.
They should cut down the cost in multiple ways instead of firing people.
How was everyones severance? Mine was only 4 weeks... I hope I can find something.
Check your agreement folks, mine had several errors in it with regard to referencing the confidentiality agreement.
Other than that - chin up folks, I lost my job twice during the pandemic, ended up doubling my salary in the end.
It would have been beneficial to have had the opportunity to interview for available positions before the sudden layoffs occurred. Transparency and communication regarding these decisions are crucial for employee morale and understanding. Providing a three-week window for internal interviews within one's capacity would have been greatly appreciated.
Totally agree with vinod's comment. I still see atleast 1 SVP and a senior director in a job that is costing not just the team they lead but entire organisation. No real knowledge or experience of the area they work in.
Apparently, it was across all departments. A lot of middle management is gone. This was not a thought-out process, it was just a "we need to cut X amount of salaries to beef up the books for the next quarter", which is why a lot of people with 10-15+ years were let go since you get a bigger bang for your buck by laying them off. There is no plan in place for what will happen next. People doing specific jobs where there is no one else to do them were let go with no thought on who will do it now. With so many middle management gone now, everyone they managed is reporting to VPs. So these VPs went from having to manage a handful of other managers to managing 10-20+ people. Of course, India wasn't affected since they don't get paid anywhere close to what US workers get. I suspect more and more work will just be pushed to them. This was just a case of the company doing bad last year and beginning of this year, so obviously the best thing to do is... lay people off. The board loves it, Wall Street loves it, and C-suite looks like they are doing something. Like many people have said, at the end of the day we are all just numbers in a system to them.
Just when you thought it can't get any worse, it did. No wonder Medidata is gonna go down the same path as Dassault Systemes. Outdated software practices and under-skilled staff leading to poor product experience.
I was one of the ones too. After 18+ years with them. I was in R&D.
10 yrs ago, G&T were running the show, we had super-charged growth, and nothing seemed impossible. But even then, hot new heads of this or that would push out high performers in roles that didn’t fit their new vision. I loved the culture and mission, but it was always a business, not a family.
Now Medidata has low-charisma leadership, financial retrenchment, more competition, and the need to deal with all those operational inefficiencies that everyone’s complained about for decades. I’m sad to be let go after almost 20 years, but drastic action was clearly needed, and I suspect that things are going to get much worse for our former colleagues before they get better. (FWIW, my emp lawyer buddy says the separation agreement is pretty standard.)
Can we all reach out to the same attorney? How does that work? I will do my research and find an attorney and may be we all can meet over a call next week? Did anyone else sign the agreement? Did you know you can change your mind within 1 week if you disagree to what was proposed. In my case, I was clearly ready for a promotion and with a new boss it was nothing less than a S*** show
What about those leaders who use the Amex card freely for 1_?-coming to office via taxi rather than public transport?
2 - booking flights and cancelling them and rebooking
3-going to external events with no real contributions43
This is called Peter Principle. Clearly incompetence is getting rewarded. Find another job and move on... Don't give anymore time to them. We were a number and never forget in future jobs.
Vow... So underhand way to deal. Consider as a favour. Learn and remind ourselves... We are a number and don't go above and beyond... In your workplace. Commit to what you are asked.
Didn't think my almost 17 years at Medidata would have ended this way. That 'Important Meeting' invite was a bit daunting to see in my inbox when I logged in - the mtg was shortly after.
My role was being phased out, and I was thus working towards a potential promotion (supported by lower management) with a new system in place... but, me staying clearly wasn't meant to be. It certainly is disappointing but I had a lot of good years, there, and worked with some great people. I hope anyone who was let go can find a better opportunity!