Aside from the doublespeak (giving words different meaning), we were told the purpose of ER was to ‘reduce layers and increase spans’. We were told, ‘this isn’t about money or profits, the firm is doing great!’ But now we are being told each area has a dollar amount they are aiming at and so associates may be moved into lower grades. The way it was explained to our team was they can pick a couple lower grades to keep versus keeping one higher grade associate. Therefore, some leaders will choose to move people into lower paying grades to keep more people — which seems counterintuitive to what ELT is trying to do (reduce layers, et. al). We’re not allowed to say people are ‘laid off’. They are ‘retiring’. It feels like we are living out the book, 1984. The thought police are telling us what to think and none of it makes sense.
We are also told leaders have ‘care and compassion for how we are feeling and want to create the best colleague experience’ but they have 9,000 to communicate org changes to and it ‘has to be done in 2 days’. This is a self-imposed deadline. It doesn’t have to be done in 2 days. This isn’t about care for colleagues. The HC division town hall had a nice little planted question around “what have leaders learned during this difficult time?” And then spent most of the Q&A pontificating on what they have learned about how awesome their leadership team is. But they didn’t give hardly any time to questions from associates. Suzan McDoofus is so proud of her role charter and ‘accountabilities’ but the reality is, she is accountable to no one. Is her pay affected as she creates a toxic work environment for the whole firm? Does she go on a PIP?
How are they positioning comms in other divisions? If this is the associate experience being led out of HC, and they are teaching all the people leaders at the firm, do we ever again envision EJ as an employer of choice?