This is what our "leaders" think of us

In a Hub Q&A with someone I won't name (look it up), an employee asked about the effect of knowledge "being walked out of the building."

The response was both stunning and tone deaf.

"Our efforts to make our organization simpler...were deliberate. We believe the benefits of empowering those closest to the customer, allowing them to cut down on approvals, and move faster far outweigh the cost of some institutional knowledge exiting the business. No one should feel unfairly burdened."

There is a lot to unpack there! First, laid-off employees are referred to as "institutional knowledge" who apparently are not very important.

Second, how do large numbers of layoffs help the customer? Some of the people laid off had relationships and regularly dealt with customers. And how are those left NOT supposed to feel unfairly burdened?

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What’s the title of the Hub post?

Reading the “Corporate think” all I can say is word fail me

Horrible :(

They care only about making the most money by outsourcing and laying people off. If they truly cared about customers, they would recognize that institutional knowledge is what the original company was built on and is what retains customers. The whole premise of the Westlaw brand, for instance, is that it's products are worked on by people who are attorneys and legal professionals who are themselves knowledgeable. Eliminating layers and simplifying the business is just coded rhetoric for reducing labor costs and increasing profits. If those in charge would just own up to this and admit they only care about money irrespective of how they get it, I might retain a modicum of respect for them. But they won't, so I don't.

Its pretty rich that we keep being told we are being "empowered" and our work processes "simplified" when we are no more "empowered" than before.

In Toronto they are holding an "Unconference". The joke is that it is not a conference set up by managers and executives but supposedly run by the peons. Yet it is managers and upper execs who are telling the peons to set it up and how to set it up. So it is exactly the opposite of what they claim.

Our jobs are also more complex now that we are dealing with more outsourced partners.

What do our leaders think of us? They don't think of us at all. We are little more than numbered worker ants.

Appalling. As a proud member of the institutional knowledge who exited the business last year (not my decision), I feel fairly unburdened after reading this--relieved to be free of a company that puts "those closest to the customer" (translation: Sales) ahead of the subject matter experts who create and care about the content. Maybe customers won't notice the drop-off in quality...but only for a while.

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This is what our "leaders" think of us

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