I'm a little shocked that we're still waiting for our turn. Usually, our management is very layoff happy and they'll use any opportunity to get rid of employees. Does anybody know what's going on in regards to this? When can we expect to join the rest in pre-recession RIFs?
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I’ve been directly involved with conversations with the EC regarding staffing and our ability to effectively service our existing clients. I know that it’s a known issue that our lack of headcount in Operations is hurting our ability to provide effective client service. This is not specific to our firm and is seen across our peers. I also know that we aren’t considering layoffs right now, in fact most EC members are arguing we need more headcount in ops to protect the business we currently have and open capacity for new business.
We will see where the market goes, but we are not currently in a position where Ops headcount is expendable. Maybe some other support staff around the edges, but historically layoffs have been heavy in low-cost US Ops centers and right now there isn’t much appetite for that outcome. Anything can change with a few months of bad market conditions, but right now it’s not on the table.
There are an awful lot of Director level and higher people around, many newly hired, who spend their entire day in meetings. Mostly looking at PowerPoint decks and chatting. Meanwhile the folks on the floor are doing the actual work. Yet the group in the conference rooms, who have no idea about what anyone actually goes, makes decisions. Decisions about who goes and stays, about what gets shipped overseas, about which of their cronies they can bring in from prior firms. A good place to start would be to figure out how many of these upper level folks can go without causing a ripple. Bet it’s a lot. But of course that will never happen. The illogic seems to be that if things are running well then hey let’s move the function- it can’t be that hard to do, right? Rather than understanding that it’s running well because you have good people. Things like this suck away enthusiasm and motivation.
All the banks are laying off, yes, the economy is in the cr----r, where are all the displaced workers going to go? We don't make things in this country anymore, haven't in a long time... what did people do in '08 when the economy crashed? Just wait it out? What other industries pay as well & want a similar skillset?