Anybody in Europe being re-badged/made redundant? If so, what line of business, location etc.? Is your SLT giving any sort of visibility over what is happening? I'm in Europe but working for a Global org and things aren't looking pretty...
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Europe doesn’t get impacted. It’s completly lopsided. This an entirely American problem. This is not a political statement but realize.
USA:
8-12 wks severence
No health care
No or very limited pension or sunder 6% 401k savings match
EU:
3 yrs severence
Full free healthcare
Super old style annuity pensions, young
Healthy Govt SS plans.
It’s not even close. So, if you are a multinational and you are a mgr...where will you lay-off?
Americans have no idea how insecure their place is vs EU employees from the same firm.
Been a huge amount of right/offshoring in Western EU countries to lower cost hubs over the last few years. Some really good stuff actually. Perhaps it is just me but it feels as though other parts of the globe need to catch up on that approach.
I’ve pondered this a lot where I am. Everything is heading towards automation etc leaving just client facing roles be that in xerox sales or working in retail. An economy still needs jobs because you can’t all live off the State. I honestly think things are moving towards 4day working weeks...
yes, US laws much diff than Europe. I'm not sure whether i'm jealous or thinking some of this global stuff is part of the problem.
Its much harder, slower and costly to outsource employees in a majority of European countries due to local employment law.
For example, last summer, I was ordered to terminate a colleague of mine in the UK in order to hit some imaginary maximum headcount number for my team that Icahn & co. put in place. The employee had some serious tenure with Xerox and also falls into a certain age group. I did my research and verified it with the Xerox UK HR team. Basically, if I terminated the employee, Xerox would owe the employee 3 to 5 years of severance plus some other fringe costs. It would have cost more money to terminate the employee than to keep the employee. My ears are still ringing from the conversation with my boss about that. About a month later, the Icahn folks come back through my boss with new orders. I had to create a replacement severance agreement that would terminate the employee in 1 year that ‘bridged’ the employee financially for a few years until the employee became eligible for early retirement under the Xerox UK pension plan. It also provided some additional funding to make-up the difference between the full and early retirement benefit. The employee had to sign-off on it and did. We are now friends outside of work and I am very jealous after seeing the soon-to-be former employee’s summer travel plans.
" We are not “folks” in Europe." "Folks" just means "people" - no offense intended if it has a different connotation there.
Lots more rules and hurdles to deal with when it comes to employee rights here in Europe.
Clearly if your job isn’t customer facing and is transactional it will shift quick to automation - low hanging fruit.
Interesting working for Xerox and transferring employees in when we win services contracts to now see the other side of the coin.
Personally optimistic - nothing to lose really so see what opportunities this presents and, if none, time to move on to pastures new.
We are not “folks” in Europe.
Much slower pace of change but it is certainly changing.