Update that resume!!!!! Good source has confirmed
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@1sa You need us more than we need you. We already know we’re all going to lose our jobs within the next 2 years and we can tell the leadership team is just leading us to our sla-ghter. You just called us “ungrateful subordinates”. Why would we want to help a company whose leadership team calls us “ungrateful subordinates”? I echo the sentiments of the previous commenter. This is a disgusting example of leadership.
@vt Ungrateful subordinates
Just to echo your point, I've witnessed first-hand exactly what happens when you "reach out at any time" for support to your manager - a perverse combination of public apathy, backed up by a more sinister and stealthy attack on you behind the scenes by HR and senior management.
As soon as you raise anything health or safety related at Blackbaud, you have a target on your back - and it won't go away. You're a liability in their eyes, and one they will find a way to remove from the business.
@sw As someone who is in a position of leadership, how is this only now being treated as a realization? I work closely with Customer Support and they've had a culture problem for close to a decade, if not longer.
And the most concerning part of that person’s comment wasn’t the comparison to “EMS.” It was the fact that they described teammates casually discussing sucde as a potential response to how miserable they feel at work. That is not normal. That is not acceptable. And it should be treated as an immediate crisis.
When you say, “You can reach out to us at any time when the job becomes too stressful. If the job is too much, and given the circumstances of Blackbaud’s 2-year plan, slack off as much as you like until you find your feet at a new place,” it comes across as performative support rather than meaningful action. It reads less like advocacy and more like a way to keep Support staffed long enough to support the ramp-up in India.
I’ve personally seen how this plays out. A longtime Support employee I worked with for years lost their job a couple of years ago. They were excellent at what they did and were well-regarded throughout my team, but they were placed in an impossible situation of supporting an entire product line alone after the rest of their team moved into other roles. They struggled under an ongoing workload equivalent to multiple employees, with minimal backup for years. Someone on my team even expressed concern to their manager that they were being spread thin. Predictably, they became overwhelmed, and their tone deteriorated at times, but the circumstances were unreasonable.
There was also a period where they were being targeted and bullied by specific employees after a situation that was reported to HR. In their final months, their mental health visibly declined, including noticeable and rapid weight loss. While still employed at Blackbaud, they confided in me that they communicated in weekly check-ins that they were emotionally struggling and could not keep up with the volume and pressure. Leadership’s response was not to properly staff the role or reduce the load, it was to let the position remain under-resourced and then escalate them to HR when they eventually cracked under immense pressure. Interestingly enough, since their departure, the role is now properly staffed. Funny how that works out.
What ultimately led to their termination is especially troubling. I later found the exchange that contributed to it, and they were defending Customer Support and a customer. Their situation is a clear example of how employees who speak honestly about their experience are either ignored until they break, or later punished for it under formal processes like a CAP.
At this point, what you’re offering reads like a standard HR-approved script, not accountability or meaningful leadership.
@s4 HA! I did not crash out but rather you all got upset after I simply dispelled nonsense of this BS rumour and pointed out we‘d be fine this week — not fine as in hooray we‘re safe forever 🌈
I merely stated I’ve fought the beasts of the Baud for many years to keep as much staff as possible and argued for every single KPI % point that show that we are worth every single penny to eyes of ELT members who’d ki-l each other if someone tossed a single cent between them all.
A bunch of individuals, which, staff of mine or not are entitled to their opinion as I am of my own. The fact we had one individual to compare the job to EMS stress levels tells me that we have a serious culture problem in support and I‘m sorry we‘re letting you down.
You can reach out to us at any time when the job becomes too stressful. If the job is too much, and given the circumstances of Blackbaud‘s 2 year plan, slack off as much as you like until you find your feet at a new place 👍🏽
@rw how have you saved your job? I’ve been here longer than I care to admit, and longer than I wish as this job market is TERRIBLE, but I’ve watched now through many RIFs that really good people get the axe, and it wasn’t performance based, it was just they got the short end of the stick. You are just a name on an excel spreadsheet. Maybe a manager chooses one person over the other, but it made more than the other person, you are gone.
@rw That's exactly how great leaders respond to negative feedback from their employees. There's a reason for why you're getting so defensive. Maybe reflect on that instead of crashing out over an employee calling you a "sheep".
@qd I have personally saved many job at the Baud for many years and I will continue to do so. Do y‘all care to share your efforts or will you continue to belittle and downvote me for dispelling this post‘s BS rumour? We’re all in the same team and share the same frustrations. This company is a-s, always has been and I hate ELT with a passion you couldn’t possibly match. The situation from our leader’s email, Mike the Drunk is deplorable. This sheep has stood up more times than you‘ve ever done at Blackbaud, so answer me this, what does that make you? A worm?
And no layoff today after all
The road to layoffs is paved by a-s kissers. “Just learn to use AI and you’ll probably be fine.”
@nh You’re still playing the role of the sheep and you’re still complicit to what the ELTs are doing to the employees you claim to care about. This is an example of the lack of leadership within Blackbaud Support. Submissiveness is applauded and anyone who dares to try to step up and actually lead or fight for Blackbaud Support or the customers ends up on the chopping block. Your employees see right through you.
@nh fine ?? We are never fine. We are the EMS of Blackbaud. The stress levels are crazy high. Sometimes taking a one way walk across the Ravenel is talked about by my team.
Based on the last few rounds of layoffs, managers stated they had no information. Appreciate you trying to do the right thing for us, but the SS Blackbaud is ever so close to the iceberg, and we all know what happens to those of us in steerage class.
If not this week, will it be next week, or next month before a lucky few get to man the life boats while the ELT orchestra play something inappropriate from Mike's lux yacht while the rest of us drown in the Cooper.
This post and the entire email from Mike G is all an absolute joke. While I know there’s lay offs everywhere, how could the ELT be this bad? How could you tell people your job is on the line for 2 years? Make better decisions. Fire people who are horrendous at the jobs and maybe you’ll be in a better position for profit. Corporate America is floundering. Blackbaud is a sinking ship because the ELT has no pulse on anything. The amount of dead weight that could be gone if you just fired people who su-k. Not only that, excruciating hiring process and you still hire absolute mo--ns. And throw in anxiety that your job is on the chopping block every single day and you can’t get a different job because this stupid country has the d-mbest job market.
We should be fine this week.
However, you should NOT expect the direction to turn. The wheels are in motion for a massive lay off in Support eventually and be prepared to continue your career elsewhere at short notice.
I‘m incredibly proud of my department and I will do everything I can to protect us. This hasn’t been easy. You‘ve all worked so incredibly hard and we‘re fighting every single day to keep as much headcount as possible.
The 10-Q filing with the SEC should be available sometime after the US markets close today.
https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1280058
Good luck to all.
@m4 I don't think they've posted it before hand in years
@kp go get the transcript tonight. They always post the ‘script’ the day before
You forget a very important detail with the ELTs decision making process; they're d-mb as sh-t. You can only make assumptions for them based on their greed, not their intelligence.
Personally, wouldn't be surprised if they held off on big cuts a little longer. In my area, there is still a decent amount of India hiring that needs to happen as well as training which takes a very long time (6+ months minimum). There's a reason the e-mail mentioned a 24-month timeline. But honestly, anything can happen, especially small cuts every month.
And yes as the other posters below mentioned, the BB India roles pay extremely low even for India, BB is literally fine with churning through tons of interviews just to hopefully land someone good who will accept that kind of pay.
@kp We have managers (in engineering) headed to India soon for hiring events. The events are every two weeks. Have heard the company is behind on meeting their hiring targets in India....they are paying bottom dollar and expecting top of the line talent. Think Hyderabad is kind ofmIndia's San Francisco in terms of tech. Good engineers go and work for Microsoft, etc....not BB.
I wouldn’t be shocked if something got announced on tomorrow’s investor call since there’s precedent, but India doesn’t feel ready to take this work on yet. I’m sure it’s coming by end of Q2, just not convinced the timing makes sense right now. Maybe there’s retention pay to keep a few people around to train replacements, but even that feels messy from a logistics standpoint. I could be wrong, and I know this is happening everywhere this year, but it doesn’t feel imminent to me. Has anyone heard anything specific? Our ELT person was in India a week or two ago.
They typically dont do it on Monday’s or fridays. But these days there is no telling.
Nothing yet, just waiting for it.
To any support agents reading this, go f*cking crazy this week. Burn the damn place to the ground. You are the soul of Blackbaud and are what made Blackbaud so great. You have been treated like red-headed stepchildren within the company for far too long and you don’t deserve to go out like this.
Does anyone have any updates?
From the moment I met him, I knew Miguel Alfaro was going to destroy Blackbaud Support.
Earnings is the 10th
Any idea on when next week?
Good luck.