From my understanding of regulations regarding layoffs which may affect a large number of employees, an organization must announce their intent to execute the layoffs no later (ie no fewer) than 60 days before-hand. Recently my organization, a large corporation in the Philadelphia area, announced such plans. The company is pursuing outsourcing of most of the IT functions wthin the business from one of two vendors. Considering they have announced to all employees the two vendors under consideration are Accenture and IBM, it’s probably safe for me to speak of it in this blog.
I’ve decided to blog about my experience with this outsourcing decision for multiple reasons. First, the outsourcing will certainly affect me. I may be among the select few who are not outsourced, because of my intricate knowledge of many of the critical applications which support the business; however, my assumption is that I will not be selected to remain, but instead selected to “re-badge” with the chosen vendor. Of course, I may also be among those or are simply asked to leave. Second, this situation is naturally causing a wide range of emotions and stress in my life and blogging about it is a safer outlet than wearing my heart on my sleeve at work.
As frustrating as it is to have my job hung over my head once again (we went through layoffs just a year ago), I’m actually grateful to my organization for being upfront and honest about the situation. Beyond making an obligatory announcement of the pending layoffs, they have chosen to remain as upfront as possible by allowing lower level management to speak openly about the information they know. Of course there is confidential information that I won’t hear, but at least I am hearing regular updates regarding where management is in their decision process, and will soon hear about their intended schedule to transition responsibilities to the new vendor. This benefits me and the organization as well. For myself, I have been given ample notice to begin a selective job search for my next job, ideally finding the perfect job I frequently wish I’d try to find. For the organization, it opens the possibility that I’ll leave before they have to offer me a severance package (severance is still not promised but there are indications they are creating a fair severance package).
To keep this positive, I’ll say that I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my career, but I am also struggling with fighting off the desire to go into “survival mode” and simply take the first job I can get in order to assure my mortgage will continue to be paid. I’ll blog more about the search for my next job, but I leave with the remark that I am curious to find out who the selected vendor will be. They are both promising organizations and I have to say I might actually be excited about the possibility of being re-badged into IBM. Having twenty years experience in application development, I would welcome the opportunity of working in a technically progressive organization where I can move around. I might even find a position where I can use my PhD researching skills. It could be an interesting twist of fate.
I’ve decided to blog about my experience with this outsourcing decision for multiple reasons. First, the outsourcing will certainly affect me. I may be among the select few who are not outsourced, because of my intricate knowledge of many of the critical applications which support the business; however, my assumption is that I will not be selected to remain, but instead selected to “re-badge” with the chosen vendor. Of course, I may also be among those or are simply asked to leave. Second, this situation is naturally causing a wide range of emotions and stress in my life and blogging about it is a safer outlet than wearing my heart on my sleeve at work.
As frustrating as it is to have my job hung over my head once again (we went through layoffs just a year ago), I’m actually grateful to my organization for being upfront and honest about the situation. Beyond making an obligatory announcement of the pending layoffs, they have chosen to remain as upfront as possible by allowing lower level management to speak openly about the information they know. Of course there is confidential information that I won’t hear, but at least I am hearing regular updates regarding where management is in their decision process, and will soon hear about their intended schedule to transition responsibilities to the new vendor. This benefits me and the organization as well. For myself, I have been given ample notice to begin a selective job search for my next job, ideally finding the perfect job I frequently wish I’d try to find. For the organization, it opens the possibility that I’ll leave before they have to offer me a severance package (severance is still not promised but there are indications they are creating a fair severance package).
To keep this positive, I’ll say that I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my career, but I am also struggling with fighting off the desire to go into “survival mode” and simply take the first job I can get in order to assure my mortgage will continue to be paid. I’ll blog more about the search for my next job, but I leave with the remark that I am curious to find out who the selected vendor will be. They are both promising organizations and I have to say I might actually be excited about the possibility of being re-badged into IBM. Having twenty years experience in application development, I would welcome the opportunity of working in a technically progressive organization where I can move around. I might even find a position where I can use my PhD researching skills. It could be an interesting twist of fate.
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Efficient approach to successful software outsourcing: provider-client relationship, marketing the services, team & reso.
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