I am not just mad but also concerned for myself and the rest of our company.
” leadership determined a Company-wide workforce reduction was necessary to get us on track. “
Ok a little bit of background… Prior 3 years (and longer?) had zero layoffs even during covid. Even. During. Covid. The previous two fiscals years we had 'record profits' and met or exceeded % profit goals.. The last CEO whom I thought was decent, continued to ensure us there throughout that time that no layoffs were being done and we remained strong. He decided to move on from the company for personal reasons.
The new CEO seemed like a good fit, good background, good portfolio, and actually had experience with our related business. First company announcement was for Employee Appreciation day we were given.. a half day… Yipeee.
Then the next message a few weeks later is this. “The company is having a bad year and business is slow so we have to company-wide layoffs' Im paraphrasing but that is basically it.
This is a bit of a shock to me. My team/dept is supposed to be hiring right now. I have been waiting for months already for a position/role to be filled to alongside my work to support the ridiculous amount of work and projects being thrown at me. The last I heard from my Superiors was that we were still actively trying to hire for this position. And now I hear there is 'company-wide' layoffs? WTF. Its a big company so I dont know which dept or how many. But in my areas, there is already too much work, too little time spread between not enough people. So the idea of reducing work-force scares me even further.
Just dont understand how having 2 incredible years of profits and then one of not so good profits means having to remove a chunk of the workforce. What if it was those people being laid off that helped generate the 2 previous years of record profits? They even stated part of the reason was because of competitors going after our market and offering better prices. Sooo that means there was technically nothing wrong with our business model being successful for years, just that this year has competitors who have been known to take short-term losses to steal clients and disrupt our business. Even though we have some clients who come back after they realized the competitor couldnt do what we do, and promised and underdelivered.
Just hate that new CEO comes in and in a month the first plan is to slash resources. Workers.
Rant Off
Takeaways? Don't trust new CEOs. and Dont believe that having record profits means anything for your job security.
Edit: Question for you all. If I want to demand to know which dept had layoffs and how many, how should I ask for this information? Because I want to demand to know at least the % of them.