Who is actually making the decisions on who / what positions are made redundant? The brand VPs? HR?
Just curious as I’ve been through this now a couple times and it always seems that sometimes that brand VPs are surprised, sometimes they are impacted, or sometimes they seem to have had a say in how it goes down.
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I was a Director there until it happened to me. I was never consulted and never told in advance.
Depends on what is going on. Teams that are being consolidated or slated to move to India or Mexico, theyll decide who stays or goes. If there aren't enough of those scenarios to meet their "productivity targets" they'll skim off from any team that has low justification for their headcount, either remove the position entirely or move it off shore. If you have stayed in role for "too long" or your salary is on the high end of the bell curve for your level (collecting merit increases but not moving).
Changing roles and moving around the company is a good way to outrun the red pen, if your line of work allows it. Check out the other sectors. Good way to get a lateral increase or promotion.
This is just my observation
I can’t say for certain but here’s my take. In the past, local market directors had a say on who was let go. Today, I don’t believe that to be the case. This VRP was all HQ. After that, who knows.
I have a family member who is a VP. In confidence they told me most restructures come down from the top.
Might be able to protect someone but generally speaking its "here's our new structure and here are the heads we need"
I don't think any Director or Sr. Director is making a call unless it's down to one or two people on their team.
As a senior director, I have been involved. Higher ups tell me "We need 30 heads", I push back, "How much savings do you need and I will optimize spend and protect people" only to be told "30 heads, it doesn't matter what level, fill out this spreadsheet by the end of the day".
A few ocassions I have been told "this person is gone, you cannot backfill"
It's finance, the C-suite and their HR henchmen.
I am a director and have been surprised every time at the changes.
Believe me, the Directors and Sr. Directors are part of the process.
Directors and sr directors always swear they aren’t involved and have no idea until it happens. I don’t believe that.
I think everyone who comments here is too low on the totem pole to know.