"So the writing is on the wall..." Topic

They never quite can say the words but it's there for those who can read… An email from head of IT Applications in the UK branch:

As a result of a review by IT Development of the Resource Pool and Applications Management in the UK and DE we now look at how we design and implement an organisational structure for UK Business Applications which is:

Customer focused, flexible and aligned to business units

Designed to provide career development opportunities

Robust and ‘fit for the future'

Efficient with opportunity for cost reduction -
Transparent showing clear people responsibilities and accountabilities

Addresses employee survey feedback (Project Voyager) around clarity of roles and responsibilities

Continues to build on best practice skills development and

********************

Then later in the same email:

"There are many individuals who will not face any change to their roles. However for some individuals there will be a need to assess their skills and match them to the appropriate roles within the new structure. A full HR consultation process will be carried out to support this process."

So, that re-org the company undertook 18 months ago… and the one we did 2yrs before that… didn't make us leaner, better, fitter, more customer focused and aligned, flexible etc… so we'll try again. Only this time it means some of you will go.

Our contractor count is down to about 10 (we did have around 20) and 5 of those are going in the next 2 weeks. Morale is plummeting as I type. As I've just applied for a 6-12 month sabbatical from November, with a view to a career change, I'm not overly worried but many are.

Steve P

This makes my glad I'm retired with reasonable safe pensions. I wish you well whatever happens.

x42

Yep, that stuff always blows and sucks. You might consider self employment. You have no one but yourself to blame if you get downsized. :-) Good luck with what ever occurs.

LLC aka Ron

It seems to be a bit of a pattern in IT-related stuff to combine downsizing and skills shifting. I remember one previous company which

1. Cut training budgets as a cost control measure
2. Decided to change the details of the business they did so they neded different skills
3. None of the people they had were trained in the new skills (see point 1) so they made them redundant then hired some different people.

My dad was glad that he had his pension too. But he just got a letter in the mail the other day that said that due to poor performance the pension fund will likely no longer be able to provide him with the income that it had been. This is from a British company that my dad worked for for about 30 years.

Unless you don't plan on living very long, retirement is rarely a completely safe option.

Pictor
I have 3 widely separated pension sources any of which I could live on. Nothing is completely save but I think I have secured things reasonable well and at 71 I can't see me lasting more than 30 years.

x42