600 axed this week, more to come, thousands will leave and he accomplished nothing. CA used to be a great place and he'll bury it.
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CA was never a great place. It was deeply entrenched in warring fiefdoms run by power hungry dictators, some benevolent, some not. If you were in the right empire, perhaps it seemed great. CA founders were corrupt, one landing himself in prison so those values were rooted in the early culture. I lived through the DOJ oversight years, "transformative" years and finally slowed growth. The executive teams could never make real and lasting changes with a Board of Directors tying their hands and a highly resistant culture. Many executives left in frustration. Other executives became part of the problem. After getting through DOJ oversight by the skin of their teeth, and many false starts to transformation they came to a point where growth slowed and they couldn't kick up their feet on the mainframe cash cow anymore. Hence, a worldwide search for Mike Gregoire. He must have negotiated the keys to the kingdom because he did what he wanted unfettered. Real change was about to hit CA for the first time. He spoke to the employees after maybe 2 months on the job to give us the "this is what I found, here are our problems" speech. He had a firm grasp on every level of problem in CA from product, sales, engineering, marketing, culture, HR, etc. He spoke as someone who worked at CA for 20 years. He got it. So, yes hell broke loose with layoffs eventually. Is he a butcher? Well, After a long history of change resistance and execs shooting themselves in the foot and uncoordinated false starts and a failure to transform the company in any meaningful way, what choice did he have? I always knew that someday the entire workforce would need to have the rug pulled out to get rid of the cultural disease infecting CA. No disrespect to good employees and I had many competent colleagues but we were all forced to play in the toxic sandbox whether we liked it or not. If CA had culled the workforce over the years gradually it wouldn't have gotten to DefCon1 where the Rescue CEO has to do something drastic to get results. Admittedly, the workforce is not the entirety of the problem but culture is one of the most significant issues that can make or break a company. Now it's at a point where it's out of control and time is of the essence with BoD clamoring for growth that he can't cherry pick employees. It's time for entire turnover until the old culture is gone. Build a new modern culture. And then there's the need for speed because Mike Gregoire has to succeed or his reputation and coin is at stake. What are these C-levels on 5 year contracts now? He said he hated to lay off but it's inevitable. I believe that and I knew a bloodbath was coming bcuz there was no other solution with the enormity of the problem. I knew I'd likely be a casualty and eventually I was. I don't blame him necessarily. I knew it had to happen long before he came on the scene.