back to article Deck the halls with ... oh, no. DXC tells staff they may not have a job in the New Year

With Christmas around the corner, DXC Technology have warned yet more frontline techies - the feet on the street that support customers - they might not have a job in the New Year. Peter Hands, DXC veep of the UK and Ireland Deliver organisation, sent a memo to staff on 23 November that The Reg has just seen. In it he said the …

  1. K

    I swear to god, some HR teams take pleasure is misery... or they do this to discourage demands for pay rises!

    1. Miss Lincolnshire

      It felt that way sometimes

      I often sat very close to a HPE ES (now DXC) HR team at Fullwood in Preston

      The conversations they would have were remarkably indiscrete and all within earshot of people that could well come into scope for their axe. I lost count of the number of times I heard laughter when they were discussing the numbers for a particular round of layoffs or callous comments about how individuals had reacted. It was not unknown to overhear individual payoffs being discussed along with inappropriate commentary as to how deserved they were.

      Fortunately most of them were disposed of in the same casual way. What goes around come around.

  2. steviebuk Silver badge

    STOP IT!

    With the bullshit speak! I can't take it any longer! Why do people in companies insist on it.

    You get "Agile"

    You get "full stack developer" WHAT?!

    Then, when being told they need to let you go they say

    "digital journey."

    COCKS!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: STOP IT!

      Especially as DXC doesn't seem to have a clue what "Digital" actually means...

      1. Stevie

        Re: STOP IT!

        Doesn't it mean giving someone the finger?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    India?

    Surely you mean Israel.

  4. Stephen 24

    After 10+ years of these emails every quarter I find you become pretty inured to it all.

  5. disgruntled yank

    digital journey

    "transforming our operating model and structure to better align and optimise to support our client base on the digital journey."

    Or, in English: Giving you suckers the heave-ho.

    [Back in the days of telephone books, there was a commercial in which somebody sang an invitation to "Let your fingers do the walking/Through the Yellow Pages." Now, there's a digital journey for you.]

    1. Fading
      Boffin

      Re: digital journey

      Digital journey = from a "service on" position to a "service off" position.

  6. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Outsourcing Giant?

    They are well on their way to become a Minnow if they keep shedding staff like this.

    I full expect that many existing customers are jumping ship when their contracts come up for renewal simply because there are not enough DXC staff left to offer even a partial service.

    I really do pity anyone left.

    Don't forget to pay the leccy bill when the last one of you leaves...

    On second thoughts don't, just leave.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Outsourcing Giant?

      "Don't forget to pay the leccy bill when the last one of you leaves..."

      Why? DXC haven't paid other bills (TMC, Specsavers, licensing... etc) so I'm sure the leccy bill will be no different!

  7. Stevie

    Bah!

    Better than the likeable boss I had who confided to me he *wasn't* going to tell a guy he was going to lay him off after Christmas. I begged him to reconsider. The man had a family and needed to know that he would be light in the paypacket come the New Year *before* he splurged on Christmas in the American belief that he could pay off the resulting bills over the next three months.

    No, it was "kinder" to let the man have his Christmas unspoiled.

    There were a couple of us that were "need to know" and we each had a go at the boss, but his word was final.

    After the fact, everyone in the department told the likeable boss what a dick he had been to do it that way.

  8. Roger Kynaston

    I have no idea what this means

    "Within Deliver in the UKIIMEA* Region we are continuing the rolling programme of transforming our operating model and structure to better align and optimise to support our client base on the digital journey.

    OK. so they always use bullshit bingo as much as possible when doing something evil so I get that there is something nasty about to happen but:how on earth can they think that aligning and optimising can be done without doing it to something. My bullshitometer needs recalibrating as it keeps exploding these days. Poor buggers at DXC though.

  9. timothywgray

    Honestly, if you work for that company....get out now. Trust me, you will be much happier once you work someplace else. I left a decade ago from the original HP, and I haven't looked back.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      When I first moved to HP from EDS, the company seemed ok. It went downhill fast, especially after HPE, then ultra fast under CSC, sorry I mean DXC.

      Fortunately I have now escaped this dwindling circus!

      1. G4FUJ

        It became one heck of a toboggan ride! :)

        EDS from 2000 - 17 years of deteriorating employment standards. But I excaped in the end.

        I got out of the industry altogether.

        Part time as a tour guide at a small sports car manufacturer is very enjoyable.

    2. Gerhard Mack

      I just interviewed there

      2 weeks after I interviewed, the first round of layoffs were announced. And now this is the second round of redundancies I've heard from them since then. I don't think I've ever been so happy to not get a call back after an interview.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reap What You Sow

    Word has it, that one of the chief redundancy henchmen, is now under immediate threat of redundancy too

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Reap What You Sow

      one of the chief redundancy henchmen, is now under immediate threat of redundancy too

      I doubt he'll be going under the minimalist terms offered to the proles.

  11. Melanie Winiger

    A slow death

    Just leave.

    Than me later

  12. Erik4872

    Get out now, because you'll be kicked out later

    I'm assuming at this point that anyone still working there in the US or UK has seen the writing on the wall...but in case you haven't...it's time to pull the emergency cord and get out while they're still offering better-than-statutory redundancy checks.

    After they're done offshoring everything, I think the plan is to just sell the corpse of the HP/EDS/CSC Frankenstein to one of the big Indian outsourcers. Especially in the old EDS, there are some very critical systems and data centers being maintained for governments, banks, airlines, etc. Anyone left outside of India is going to be gotten rid of systematically over the next year or so in my opinion.

    At least trhey didn't lay everyone off before Christmas...but spending the entire EOY period worrying about it isn't fun either. Sorry DXC people...

    (Oh, and BTW you're not digitally transforming fast enough.)

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: About to TUPE to this crowd

      Yep, lots of layers of management but it is basically an autocracy. Mike Lawrie (CEO) makes all the decisions, And yes, even relatively trivial things need VP approval.

      It REALLY isn't a good place to be, or to be TUPE'd into...

    2. LucreLout
      Pint

      Re: About to TUPE to this crowd

      I'm about to TUPE over to DXC

      It's been a while since I read the regs, but at least you probably have two years of income security to look forward to and that'll give you plenty of time to train up and ship out ahead of what I'd bet now will be an unpleasant third year.

      Beer, for all those soon to lose their jobs, and best wishes to find something better soon.

    3. Oor Nonny-Muss

      Re: About to TUPE to this crowd

      Yep - VP approval to acquire anything from a biro upwards.

      I supported a customer in Ireland from the UK, regularly needed to speak to them face-to-face - total cost per trip was of the order of £200 (which the customer was happy to pay) - still needed VP approval... And by the time it was granted the airfare had gone from £50 Inc taxes to £500... And the hotel from available to unavailable.

      Ended up the customer simply paying my airfare & booking the hotel himself (side effect he didn't pay the 40% uplift that (then) HPE added either.

  14. Cartimand

    DXC's favourite 'Knock, knock' joke

    Knock, knock.

    - Who's there?

    Not you any more!

    Took redundancy from the HPE cocoon just before the ghastly parasital DXC hawk moth emerged last year on fairly generous terms and found a better paid and more secure role within a couple of months - not that I'm gloating or anything!

    Odd thing is, I look back now at those quarterly warnings of impending redundancy with a sort of misty-eyed nostalgia.

  15. Cyclades

    Lost my email. What were the email addresses I had to apply to in order to volunteer. Quick answer please since deadline day is tomorrow and my manager is on holiday so can't ask him.

    Thx

  16. Phil_McKrackin

    Gosh that's a surprise, Mike Lawrie loves to give everyone the Xmas thanks for all your hard work now F**k off.

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