Thread regarding SAP layoffs

Origin of the idea to fire 1% employees every year

I bumped into someone significant at the recent SAP Signavio event in Austin, Texas. They shared the backstory of the concept known as "Project Mongoose" also known as the plaque removal idea of "firing 1% of employees every year." On February 9, 2025, Elon Musk tweeted about it. He said, "I’d like to propose that the worst 1% of appointed judges, as determined by elected bodies, be fired every year. This will weed out the most corrupt and least competent."

The SAP Board Members are huge fans of Elon Musk. Since then, the SAP Board and top management have been hustling to make this idea a reality for SAP employees. They truly believe that 1% of any organization is filled with corrupt and incompetent people who need to be regularly fired to make the company pure. Since they can't identify who that 1% is, they want to empower the managers at SAP completely. The plan is for managers to get rid of people by giving them poor performance reviews, or if they don’t meet their quotas, those managers will also face the axe. By pitting managers against employees, it becomes easier to keep everyone scared and ensure that no one even thinks about basic work rights, working from home, job security, decent salary increases, and so on.

I’m not fully sold on these origins, but it does seem like a plausible theory. This is great news for employees at SAP Signavio who have a good relationship with their managers. Signavio is well-known for consistently promoting and giving salary increases and MOVE grants to the same employees year after year, while the Works Council refuses to do anything about it.


by
| 6828 views | | 21 replies (last October 29) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1k5mdgt3j

21 replies (most recent on top)

@dc Not true, has nothing to do with dedication to the company. In our region maaany roles with very knowledgeable people with 15+ years of experience in technical roles were made redundant. Mostly hit anyone above t4 level as whoever is making that decision has no information of the employee rather than their role and seniority and how much it costs for company to keep that employee.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @5ry+1k5mdgt3j

Chuck Norris decides who gets fired every year.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @1m3+1k5mdgt3j

@1fb Manners, please. No matter what the management does, we need to keep our standards up.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @1gn+1k5mdgt3j

@x4
Go fu-k with the board then

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @1fb+1k5mdgt3j

Wow that’s excellent! Good thing that the 100% of the corruption at thsi company can be found in the executive board and their extended members. Laying these people off should save thousands of livelihoods. Huge ROI! Dominik, get to it.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @z5+1k5mdgt3j

Could someone please turn the board off and turn it on again?

Maybe the standard solution for IT problems is applicable here.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @yh+1k5mdgt3j

Trust the board. They are great. Great!

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @x4+1k5mdgt3j

Getting rid of 1 to 2% is fine - except that people management/leadership at SAP is generally poor - so the people that leave are the few that SAP should retain. Managers have used these programs to eliminate anyone who is opposed to their agenda, or who is simply better at their job than the manager. It's all political games at SAP, so there's not much emphasis on innovation or creativity.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @tv+1k5mdgt3j

Trust the board

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @t8+1k5mdgt3j

@p6 My only criteria for choosing a bathroom is that I prefer a nice and clean one. One where a floater like you has crawled out of the pot, and has returned to your rightful place under a bridge.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @p7+1k5mdgt3j

@kr true. almost the whole company doesnt like elon. you all parrot one another and dont know which bathroom to use.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @p6+1k5mdgt3j

SAP has always reduced employees 1 to 3% reduction, every year.

Rarely above 5%.

If you do the research it is there or people at SAP know how this.

Typically SAP has low attrition rate. However if they want to increase stocks aggressively? You reduce labor costs.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @m0+1k5mdgt3j

@je
Someone that doesn’t likes Elon Musk? Hmm, could you narrow the field down to less than 180M people?

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @kr+1k5mdgt3j

@hv Totally agree with your comments. When it comes to SAP, we have business followers as leaders.
I am the walrus, goo-goo g'joob

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @jg+1k5mdgt3j

@e0 Well, well, well. It appears that our beloved and respected CFO is increasing his public profile this year. Hopefully, this is all with an eye on his next position, which hopefully won’t be at SAP

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @jf+1k5mdgt3j

sap is on blue sky. employees asked christian about it on a call and he agreed that sap would stop using twitter.

this post is made up by somebody who does not like elon musk.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @je+1k5mdgt3j

Removing the bottom X percent of performers in high tech companies goes back to at least the 1990s. I’d heard about this at companies like HP and Intel when I was still in school. Also, the consultancies often had “up or out” policies for their workers. Either get promoted or leave. So there is nothing new under the sun.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about business leaders, it is that they often repeat the same actions taken by the previous generation of leaders. Many of these Generation X leaders are just running the Jack Welch / General Electric playbook.

If you follow the careers of Welch’s acolytes and GE alumni, you can see how they go from company to company repeating the processes they learned at GE - and absolutely ruin those companies. Examples include Boeing, Motorola, and Nortel Networks.

Trimming the bottom percent is a sign of a mature company which is beyond its high-growth adolescence. Top Line isn’t growing, so focus shifts to the Bottom Line. Tesla is in the process of arriving here (Musk example above) and SAP is more of less here as we’ve hit saturation in the ERP market.

Margins will shrink, so the only things left for a board / executives who lack creativity and vision is to rank, cut, and repeat.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @hv+1k5mdgt3j

@dc The good of customers and partners is also not high on their list of priorities.

This will come back and haunt SAP once the current board buzzes off with their fat bonuses.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @gg+1k5mdgt3j

@OP https://www.businessinsider.com/sap-cfo-ai-make-more-software-fewer-people-2025-9

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @e0+1k5mdgt3j

A lot of folks believe that the Board won't be able to (1) let go of 1 to 2% of employees each year, (2) award themselves hefty bonuses, or (3) boost the stock price with the lackluster SAP products and AI-first approach. But that's not the case. HPOM has provided them with several loopholes to navigate around strict European laws. The standardization brought about by HPOM indicates that certain roles will become obsolete, making it feasible to lay off employees when an entire position is deemed redundant. HPOM also consolidates various roles under one umbrella, simplifying the argument that we don't need so many people in the same position, which in turn facilitates the process of letting go of a percentage of the workforce. The new performance management system already allows SAP to hand out smaller bonuses to those with poor ratings, so they’re hoping some will voluntarily leave. Up until now, new acquisitions like Signavio were seen as a growth area and thought to be "safe" from layoffs. However, the entire top management at Signavio is now made up of SAP employees who have been around at SAP for two decades or more and this seems like a perfect moment for them to let go of integrated employees and bring in other long-term SAP colleagues. The Works Council isn't as strict as they ought to be, as we noticed with P23 and P24. A lot of them also left during the last layoffs. The SAP Board aimed to cut down the workforce by 10,000, but only 3,000 actually quit, so they need to find a way to let go of at least 7,000 more soon. SAP isn't on the hunt for good talent anymore; they're prioritizing loyalty to the company. So, if you're a recently integrated employee or haven't been with SAP for long, it might be time to start looking for other job opportunities. Their urge to get the stock price up and give themselves fat bonuses is too strong compared to the good of the company or its employees.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @dc+1k5mdgt3j

Stacking managers against employees is what US companies do and follows a competitive mindset, it doesn't necessarily make them more efficient and you can forget about HR's Talent Acquisition and Retention rhetoric because this type of weed-out culture encourages people to stay for 2-3 years and leave, and worsens the company's workplace culture by encouraging people to report and throw each other under the bus in order to curry favors. This only works when you're a big brand company like Meta and Google. Nobody outside of Europe knows what SAP is where the exit opportunities are far lower.

Following Elon Musk, the only reason why he does so well is because of his proximity to government contracts, that's why he flipped when the EV mandates ended. Unless workers begin to unionize for better working conditions, you're all s*** out of luck. The rich will continue to sc--w you over and replace complainers with low cost center workers.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @bp+1k5mdgt3j

Post a reply

: