Projects can be boring, staffing can be really tedious, most employees are either totally disengaged or extreme kool-aid drinkers, bench community requirements seem punitive, and ultimately their lay-offs impacted me and were handled horribly.
More on the layoffs -- I was laid off after 2y 11.5m, and my severance package was 4 weeks + 1 week per year served, I was 2 weeks shy of three years and they did not round up, so I got 6 weeks rather than 7. I left with 6w severance pay and 2 months of paid healthcare benefits. It was handled horribly, they invite everyone last minute to a big company-wide meeting (the night before, after close of business the invite goes out), This is not a live call from a leader where they take questions, it's a Zoom call that has a countdown timer telling you when it will start, they give people an extra couple minutes to join after the true start of the call so everyone is just sitting there staring at the countdown timer in silence (no talking/IMs allowed). Then a pre-recorded video of a leader telling you this plan kicks in, it lasts a few minutes, and then the call disconnects. They give some general feedback on company performance, say it's only impacting leaders, but don't define what a leader is, and then say if you are impacted you will receive a dreaded invite from HR in the next few hours. I was in the 3rd round of layoffs, so I'd been through the process before but this was the first time I received the invite. In the first round there were many glitches, some people didn't get the email but actually were on the list, some people couldn't meet with HR for a full 24h because HR was so backed up with calls. Can you imagine knowing you're laid off but just waiting a day to hear them actually say it? The invite says you cannot tell anyone or talk about it or you will violate the terms of your severance, so you have to stay silent. You wait around for hours just to have the call with HR, and then you find out your package. While I was frantically waiting for my meeting hours later, I was thinking I'd get what past laid off people had gotten, I had a few friends laid off in the first round and also had scoured Fishbowl that day looking for answers. Instead, they cut those packages in half, so rather than 8 weeks + 1 week per year served, I got 4 weeks + 1 week per year served, no rounding. 6 weeks to find a job in the current state of things is nothing, and I have been without a job now for 9 months. It sucks. I hate that Slalom so dramatically over-hired in 2020/2021 when the healthcare market was booming and then so harshly over-corrected with layoffs. I hate that delivery people got cut because sales were down, even though that is a failure of sales as well. I hate that I didn't have any bad performance reviews, feedback, or a PIP and was still cut. I hate that decisions are made at such a high level that no one who knows your actual work can save you from the lay-offs or make a case for you. I hate that they didn't try to re-purpose me in a different geography, reduce my pay, offer me part-time, pivot me to sales, or make any attempts to use me elsewhere before resorting to layoffs. On a personal note, I hate how the team handled getting my laptop back, and how once you're laid off they treat you like you have the plague. It's a crappy cultural environment, and that is most evident when times are down. If you have Fishbowl and want to see what I mean, just read some Slalom discourse between employees, it will give you a sense of the disgruntled versus lifer mentality, and it will help you better understand that empathy is dead at Slalom. To make things even more upsetting, leadership is quite wealthy, as you'd expect, but when they film little videos to talk to the team, they do it in the most tone deaf places. In front of the vineyard you own? Perfect backdrop for a video! Giant personal collection wine cellar? Why not film a holiday message there! The displays of wealth are WILD considering how badly the company has done several years in a row and considering how many staff they've let go. The layfoffs have been going on since 2023, but the PIP-to-Termination pipeline has been going on the whole time, so even if the layoff #s don't seem crazy, you've got to factor in the PIP folks as well, some of whom have only committed the crime of being on the bench. That's not to say this isn't how a lot of firms work, but Slalom has always used their "never done layoffs" and "people first" culture as their differentiator, so now their image is rather confusing. I understand in the current market taking a job here if you have no other options, but please know that if you are on the chopping block, the layoff package will be a joke, so be sure to keep your options open while you are there.
