Thread regarding Pearson PLC layoffs

Not only did Pearson upper management bring down Pearson... Pearson brought down Harcourt along with her...

The fallout from the layoffs and outsourcing continues. The outsourcing of business functions was done thoughtlessly and the result has been disastrous, creating unnecessary risk and errors that are difficult to correct. Upper management does not understand vital business processes, and no attempt was made in the outsourcing planning to engage with groups who are directly affected by the incompetence of the outsourced partners. You cannot just staff your outsourced partner with inexperienced new college graduates to perform sophisticated business processes with minimal training and expect success. I personally am so exhausted with the sadness, fear, negativity and dysfunction that is now prevalent throughout Pearson and cannot wait to leave soon (of my own accord). This company is a shell of its former industry-leading self. There is no clear vision for the future. The Board of Directors should be ashamed of what they've allowed to happen under John Fallon.

Pearson has totally lost its way like the Titanic but continually hitting icebergs.

Fallon is a liability and should be held accountable for his actions, he should have gone a long time ago. Without a doubt the shareholders will suddenly wake up and say it's time for him to go along with his millions payoff, gold plated pension and thousands of shares. Meanwhile thousands of experienced employees have been thrown on the scrapheap. With the shares diving I guess the four thousand lay offs will not stop there.

So sad---so tired----time to move on!

I left Pearson on my own approx. 2 months ago. I haven't spoken to anyone of my former colleagues since I left, only another former employee who was let go.

Can anyone provide me with and update on what is going on at Pearson.

No words to describe that email from Pearson HR.

With all that is going around Pearson these days with people jumping ship at a continuous pace and no solid direction on where we are and where we are going the following comes out to a select few from HR.

"You are receiving this email because you have been identified as a participant in the 2016 Talent Review & Succession Planning process. As a participant you may be asked to work with your manager and HR business partner to identify successors for your role and to evaluate their readiness. You’ll also be asked to update (or create) your biography in the Pearson Talent System. Your completed biography may be used in conversations between senior leaders and HR, as they evaluate the bench strength of the business unit or function."

After the corporate call of 3 weeks ago about the reorg being only 1/2 complete.

You can only take this email from HR one way.

Find your replacement , than walk yourself out the door.

This company has sunk to a new depth.

Two weeks ago, they held a series of global corporate calls, and they said that they were 1/2 way through the restructuring process. Today, they let go of most of the Learning Solutions Consultant team in HigherEd, as well as, others and the dust hasn't settled yet. Apparently, there will be another round of layoffs coming in June.

Everything has gone silent on the 8th floor at Pearson Boston.

I have been waiting for the ax to fall on me with the phone call that I don't work here anymore.

My boss is saying nothing as he is keeping his head down.

What way to live and work

There is nobody in the office, as everyone is working from home.

Want to save some money, get rid off a few floors of office space.

Nobody is using them.

Don't get me wrong I like working from home but it now takes us more time to get things done because of the people being all over the place. Communication is worse than ever !

Bottom like, does anyone have a clue what is going on.

Shades of the Sixties and Viet Nam!!!!! Herein is the lesson - you just need to sub in a few tweaks to the verbiage:

A famous quote from the Vietnam War was a statement attributed to an unnamed U.S. officer by AP correspondent Peter Arnett in his writing about Bến Tre city on 7 February 1968:

'It became necessary to destroy the town to save it', a United States major (plug in John Fallon here) said today. He was talking about the decision by allied commanders (Pearson executives) to bomb and shell the town regardless of civilian casualties (plug in the word employees), to rout the Vietcong (the Pearson we once loved).

There's a special irony there - an educational company - taking its lesson from history......

Can someone tell me who is setting the technology direction for Pearson. More importantly Higher Ed. ( the Cash Cow)

Someone take control and everybody get on board or get off the boat. If not, there will be no boat !

If its Hitchcock, Barnes get out of the way and go back to Oracle. If its Barnes, Hitchcock get out of the way and go back to telecom. Forget about the Higher Ed President ( Mr. Rogers !!!) he needs to grow a pair !!!

This reminds me of the Presidential elections with Hitchcock played by Trump and Barnes played by Clinton and the Higher Ed Pres as Bernie Sanders. Any suggestions on John Fallon ???

Fallon said a month ago they are a "quarter of the way through" the restructure. I find it hilarious how they keep saying they are "open and transparent" and it's been anything but transparent. Whole departments were let go with zero communication to the field. The way we found out people were no longer with Pearson was by emailing them in need of something and never getting a response. This is an abismal attempt at a restructure. I've worked for many large companies that have reorganized and this is the most unorganized, reorg, I've ever seen. They are using people to get through selling season so they can squeeze every last ounce (penny) out before they lay people off. What they don't realize is that all people are doing is spreading rumors about and having lots of water cooler talk. There isn't a person in sales working hard right now, and why should we when we have no clue if we will have a job in 8 weeks? They do nothing to squash the tumors or boost morale- they just let it all get wildly out of control and play dumb. The communication at this company is pathetic. Rip the band aid off already so the "new" Pearson can move on and forward! Reorg's should never take THIS long!

Does anybody have any ideas on how many people Pearson let go already. There were significant layoffs in January but it's been rather quiet in March. Shouldn't be there another waive now?

I do agree the LSC's current initiative it vital to Pearson's success. However, when upper management won't approve pricing or an implementation structure for the very initiative they are focusing on we are sabotaging ourselves. You have customers asking and begging for this initiative and what do we say....nope. If it was truly an initiative then approve some pricing!!! They would rather see costumers walking away then budge on price. So, instead of saving themselves we sink further into the abyss. We need some technology people running this company!!!

Pearson is the Titanic and has it the iceberg. Worked there nearly 20 years. Decision was made to outsource all distribution functions to RRD. What a joke. I don't think Pearson knew what they were getting into with that deal. Turning in my notice this week to join a company that is on the right path.

Fallon should have been handed his walking papers long ago. That guy is a clown.

The turmoil is settling down as layoffs and rumors of more layoffs have slowed. Some re-shuffling of people has occurred. That exercise only brushed the dust of some unproductive managers and settled them into another spot to collect new dust.

The atmosphere remains toxic with little faith in the leadership . Guidance on where to go from here is non-existent. People just staying low going about what they were doing before the layoff

My observation is that some of the people needed to go while the majority of those let go should have stayed. God only knows how some people get into the positions they have with no talent and continue to survive only by kissing "A" and being "yes" men or woman

I have found a new breath of life and moving on. To my colleagues I leave behind, I wish you well.

The grass maybe greener on the other side and I will let you know. I can't stay at Pearson and bury my head in the sand. I could not take the atmosphere and management team in Higher Ed any more.

I will miss many of you !

Reach out to former colleague's , I did.

I had to Google "EPS" to see what it was and the first thing that appeared was Earnings Per Share. Irony.

The latest Pearson cut is the EPS team in Hobart. They were let go about a week ago. They have gone the way of the outsource. You get what you pay off ??

Also heard more smaller groups of layoffs expected this month.

Anyone heard any news.

It's unbelievably sad to see. I was a Pearson employee 15 years ago out of Upper Saddle River working in C&T and ESM. I left in 2005 to work for a competitor and I just seen this slow motion train wreck from afar (although I still have several friends still employed). It was a nice place to work during the textbook days although you could see the cracks and how the business was driven by pleasing the shareholders, undercutting quality. I thought the environment was quite sterile and path to professional development sorely lacking. If you weren't on the right 'team' you were relegated to the shadows. I've since worked for a few competitors and while I'll say the grass is never greener, there is at least a path to move forward. I still check my company shares and grimace at the statement every year.

My understanding is that there is a company wide hiring freeze, at least for outside candidates. I've also heard that the posted job openings are there to make the company look good and vital.

I couldn't agree with you more I was one of the lucky ones to be let go. It is disheartening to see a company crumble like this though. The talent was so high at Pearson and all I have seen is that talent be thrown away. I had heard many times that there were more layoffs to come in March, but I see on linked in they are hiring product managers for higher ed in Boston...So glad to be done with that place, no one in leadership knew what they were doing. Truly pathetic.

I am in Higher Ed for now and I say that very loosely. The fall back to school release was a disaster. I don't know where the spring / January Release is .The quarterly roadmap meetings have been a mess as have the monthly reviews. Everybody has their heads up their "“in the sand. The moral is at rock bottom. Productivity is nil and with no clear direction from anyone.

Layoff’s continue and rumor has it that the other shoe will drop in March.

I guess I am one of the lucky ones who still has a job for now. The way I look at it is that Pearson is paying me to look for a new job.

For the recently departed souls from Pearson I wish you well, you maybe the lucky ones. This is a death by a thousand cuts.

This was a great place to work. God I hate this place now. !!!!

Accenture can't do any worse with the technology than Pearson did. The lack of a clear digital strategy would be shocking until you consider the dinosaur-era textbook types that are continuing to run the company into the ground.

There have been really intelligent, tech-savvy people that have come and gone. My guess is that once they learn who is calling the shots, one of the other hundreds of job options that they have start to look more appealling.

The leadership team must be in a real cozy bed with the Board to get this much rope to hang the company with.

I have been around long enough to have seen what has gone on in a number of industries. Having worked at Pearson and in the education field I have observed that Pearson and the education industry have always been 3 steps behind when it comes to technology. In the Pearson case moving to the electronic world is a formidable endeavor. They have been at it for a number of years now and haven’t come close to getting it right. They re-orged, moved people out and brought others in and have achieved little and continue to go around in circles

John Fallon and company are completing the circle and steering Pearson into the abyss by joining forces with Accenture who promise they can support and deliver technology more cost effectively along with the “do all” application shops (Oracle, Forge Rock etc...) Watch out for enhancements, they are a costly killer.

Accenture is a body shop. It throws multiple cheap inexpensive bodies at a problem instead of industry knowledge and experience. Once these companies have their hooks into you, it’s hard to break free

Most industries have learned from their mistakes and are moving away from the off shore model and outsourcing because in the long run it has proven to be more expensive to support, limited flexibility and just plan infuriates the business with the long lead times.

Pearson is circling the drain

Another item, Pearson has replaced it C execs a number of times with nothing to show for it and has reshuffled the lower deck a number of times. In my option the problem is in the old guard at the next level down (President, Sr. VP). The only remaining constant level who never seem to get touched?

Between Fallon and the old guard the rank and have voted “no confidence” in the Pearson leadership.

I can no longer work in chaos with a lack of direction and the fear of getting laid off. I have given my notice and moving on.

Yup, once a company let's Accenture in, they eat through their talent like cannibals, replacing it with their own low cost robots in ChIndentina- China, India, and Buenos Ares that are pretty much worthless because they cannot think so what happens is that the on shore people that remain have to absorb all of the thinking work that the off-shore people can't do which then increases the hours they have to work with reduced support. Then Accenture collects their commissions in an annuity like fashion for years to come while leaving a worthless shared services center in their wake, changing cultures forever for the worst. Total disaster to many firms that don't know how to measure the true cost or how to fight against it.

How many people do John Fallon and the North American leadership team have to lay off before someone figures out their the problem? 4000 jobs? How many of those could be saved by changing the 4 or 5 at the top?

To the person who wrote this: "It's been 2 years and I have yet to find a job - not any demand for someone over 50 these days! Where are all the "so called" jobs? It's sad applying for $10 – $13 hr jobs and still no luck (401k won’t last that long!). I come from Harcourt/The Psychological Corp days and it's a shame that Pearson has brought them down as well."

I still work there, and have had calls from vendors asking if I knew people that they could hire (freelance, whatever) to do outsourced work. If you have any contacts at the Company, you might try asking them what outside vendors they are using.

I'm so sorry for your experience. I'm still here, but it is definitely not a pleasant environment to be in.

Pearson management protects itself while outsourcing worker jobs to India, RR Donnelly and others. They should be ashamed. I question what value a $150k VP or higher offers when they're virtually invisible and hiding along with having no tech or workflow knowledge. Meanwhile they layoff $35k workers who actually do the work versus staring at PCS queues or Amazon. Sickening.

I was part of the massive layoff in 2014 – with more than 15+ years dedication, my position was eliminated... this was the place I thought I would be retiring from! For about a year, I applied for numerous Pearson positions I was qualified to do, but to no avail or any response, I finally gave up... you’d think Pearson would want to help one of their own – nah.

It's been 2 years and I have yet to find a job - not any demand for someone over 50 these days! Where are all the "so called" jobs? It's sad applying for $10 – $13 hr jobs and still no luck (401k won’t last that long!). I come from Harcourt/The Psychological Corp days and it's a shame that Pearson has brought them down as well.

Sorry to hear about your job loss. You make some very interesting points about the direction the business may be going. It will be interesting to see if you are correct as time passes.

I was laid off at the end of January. I have not responded to any comments or option’s until now as I needed time to absorb what has happened and not responds with emotion but with some sense of a level head.

The Pearson I knew is gone. The old Pearson needed to change and move forward and it was not happening as fast as it needed to. At first, I saw a few people go that should have gone. Then I saw good people who had good ideas let go because the powers to be would not listen. The people shown the door was pushing for Pearson to move faster to stay on top. That was not the Pearson way, it was not their culture. These people didn't fit in. They caused waves.

What you had was a race car idling in the pits with no driver.

In comes John Fallon who talked a good game about getting that race car out of the pits and onto the track but he forgot one major piece. He keep the obstructionist in place and put other people in place who had no clue on how to move from “ A” to “B” in education areas. How many CIO's has Pearson had in the last 3 years?

I believe that the board of directors has or will give Fallon a directive to get moving or he is out. I believe that Fallon will fire the CIO in the next 6 to 9 months due to his failed attempt to simplify. He has been at it for a year now with nothing to show for it but hard feelings between the business and technology. After Fallon cans Albert H. the board will can Fallon by the end of the year

Then the cycle starts all over again for 2017 and Pearson continues to lose market share. The common thread to all this is that the same old leadership remains just under the surface.

It’s times to change the culture. This is a business! It’s about making profit through education.

Get rid of the “Pearson culture” Pearson is the poster child for Analysis Paralysis

If you can't get the race car onto the race track you can't win the race.

John Fallon has ruined a good company. This will be the 4th restructuring since 2013 and each time he has failed to see what market needs or the direction it's going. Pearson always had a good product and people who knew their products and loved what they sold. I am sure by December of 2016 there will be another restructuring. it's a shame.

slow downsizing of salaries and offshoring that's gone on a few years now. Sorry for anyone that had to deal with this. I worked there 5 years too many myself.

There are a lot of other great opportunities out there. Tech space is changing faster than many can adapt, so try to put this behind you.

I have to echo the sentiments of the poster worried about the LSC group spearheading DDA. To trust that group with DDA is beyond absurd, especially when pretty much none of them have seen campus since the position was created in 2013,. What relationships do they have? Product knowledge?! It's one of the worst/most money wasted within all of Pearson HigherEd and they have absolutely ZERO accountability/checks and balances to see if they actually out there doing their job effectively (or at all). I've LOST business due to the incompetence of my many LSCs (I've had 3 so far) and have also had to ask my LSC not to visit any of my schools in the future because they are so inept and ill equipped. Yet, they keep their jobs and receive BIGGER bonuses than I have- you know,the one actually out there on campus everyday securing new and keeping existing business in tact.

As a company, we are so far behind the 8 ball (as usual) regarding DDA- if upper management thinks we will get DDA business closed for Fall they have another thing coming for them. I've secured a DDA before and it took years to get around all the approvals and university red tape. We should have started this initiative 5 years (or more) ago. Oh- and we are going to push for DDA yet involve the bookstores?! Have we not learned anything? It's time to cut that cord! Go directly to the customer- the STUDENT and cut the bookstores loose. But again, no forethought from this company whatsoever. Trusting the LSCs to actually leave their homes and travel to get this initiative in place is laughable, and shows that upper management is completely out of touch with what is going on in the field.

"Rights & Permissions wasn't noticeably gutted in Boston". "Lots of staff sitting around chatting as of last Friday ". "No bloodletting in their view". Well stay tuned as the other shoe has not dropped yet. All the SMS support work is being shipped to Sri Lanka. The CIO and Forge Rock are moving in. The CIO wants nothing to do with RUMBA. Question: What happens to the all the teams supporting SMS, RUMBA, PI, Passport? How many get absorbed ? How may become Accenture employees. Remember the performance team transition !!! How did Fall back to school go !!!!!. How many will be let go . Its all about the numbers. cost, cost, cost. Rights and Permissions teams don't bury you heads in the sand. The tsunami is building.

Actually there have been people in management positions let go in NA.

It is not at all surprising that hiring continues - any company that restructures will shed some roles and add new ones. Meanwhile, business continues and new contracts are continually being signed. If it's a large company, that means you will see lots of job ads. Take note, however, of how many of them are "term of project" positions. A lot of this restructuring involves reducing overhead by switching from heads to contractors and outsourcing to vendors.

Why is this not a news story yet? Pearson Education extracted deep tax discounts from Christie and Bloomberg to stay put in their respective states in brand new facilities, with the return promise to both Christie and Bloomberg that Pearson would increase hiring in their new subsidized locations in Hoboken and Hudson Street.

Instead, before the dust even settled on these relocations, Pearson has now laid off hundreds of employees in both NJ and NYC to be outsources to India. Where is the press on this? Donald Trump would have a field day with this information.

Post ID: @FhOdLiL-pxzd ?

Rights & Permissions wasn't noticeably gutted in Boston. Lots of staff sitting around chatting as of Friday this week. No bloodletting in my view.

Higher Ed supposedly had massive cuts in Hoboken.

I'd be terrified of anything the LSC group is spearheading. If Pearson is going to put all their eggs in that basket, employees should start updating their resumes now.

Pearson's Higher Ed Rights & Permissions staff gutted in Boston and Hoboken. Great people lost their jobs. Managers were kept though. Appears nearly all the work is going overseas. I love the fact that Pearson message is that it will help you learn, but they forget to tell you that once you do learn, you better live in India because that is where your job is going.