Thread regarding SAS Institute layoffs

topheavy with “decision makers”

This:

‘I have never seen an org so topheavy with "decision makers" and strategists and advisors and so precious few people to do the actual work.’

[https://www.thelayoff.com/post/@oeq+1r9TiFER]

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| 2282 views | | 16 replies (last February 28, 2024) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1rcokCkB

16 replies (most recent on top)

“More like haphazard woefully incomplete.”

Like so many of the things?

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Post ID: @6awt+1rcokCkB

@4lpm+1rcokCkB You think test automation is complete? More like haphazard woefully incomplete.

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Post ID: @4nph+1rcokCkB

Ah, once a task, like test automation, is considered complete, then the workers can be let go. Devops must be done, then.

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Post ID: @4lpm+1rcokCkB

What applies to DevOps also applies to Testing.

How many of the 50 testers laid off six months ago were replaced?

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Post ID: @3gsz+1rcokCkB

It’s not like we DON’T NEED DEVOPS. Now they can hire twice as many DEVOPS people.

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Post ID: @3rad+1rcokCkB

Doubtful this selective pruning is done? The only good thing is it points against there being mass layoff.

Who or which groups do you see next for the snip?

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Post ID: @2dhl+1rcokCkB

"BL and 2 of his direct reports: JS and KP."

Any word on why? These guys are all pretty well respected for their knowledge and abilities AFAIK.

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Post ID: @2rdg+1rcokCkB

BL and 2 of his direct reports: JS and KP.

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Post ID: @2qod+1rcokCkB

"Below JP? Not many there? Care to name…initials?"

Yes, please.

We are NOT talking about Director NR, right? I thought that happened a week or more ago.

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Post ID: @1uyx+1rcokCkB

Others have referred to JP as the Televangelist.

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Post ID: @1ima+1rcokCkB

Two senior managers and a director, all had been there 25+ years.

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Post ID: @1xzk+1rcokCkB

JP's org flattened out some yesterday.

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Post ID: @1zzd+1rcokCkB

In most of my years at SAS, the organization was not “top heavy”, but rather flat: there were fewer than eight levels between the rank and file and the owners. Many companies have more bureaucracy than that.

What was unusual about SAS was that so many people at those levels were “yes-men” and “yes-women”. If by “top heavy” you mean “useless”, then we agree.

“Strategists”? For most, their strategy was to do what they were told.

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Post ID: @1fzm+1rcokCkB

It’s the way SAS evolved as a consequence of being privately owned and having been THE dominant player in past generations of analytic software. SAS could be in much shape with fewer “strategists” and many more empowered highly competent engineers, appropriately skilled at all levels from R&D to consulting to pre-sales.

Many of the current “decision-makers” are like administrative government bureaucrats — mostly existing to support their own interest while working hard to ensure nothing calls their ultimate usefulness into question.

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Post ID: @1rgm+1rcokCkB

If people keep pulling my comments out of other threads and using them to create new discussion threads, I'm going to develop a complex. This is the second one this week.

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Post ID: @lvs+1rcokCkB

It would be interesting if you could export the org chart and do some analysis on this.

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Post ID: @cos+1rcokCkB

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