Sonatype axes 14 percent of staff, reminds them not to talk to the press

Software supply chain management biz Sonatype has laid off 14 percent of its global workforce, according to internal documents seen by The Register. The job cuts, which started on Tuesday, hit about 100 people across Sonatype's sales, marketing, engineering, customer success and GA teams, according to an FAQ sent to employees …

[martinusher]

Phew!

I'm so glad I'm retired and so I never have to listen to -- or be a victim of -- such corporate BS again.

Its not that I've never been laid off but rather this kind of corporate boilerplate cuts no ice. Its a headcount reduction to goose the bottom line, that's all. (An interesting hobby project might be to trace this kind of NewSpeak back to its origins.)

[Eclectic Man]

Re: Phew!

The level of buzzwords has broken my bingo:

shape the organization

maximize our future potential

success in the marketplace

Going forward

alignment across teams

essential to our success

external inflation,

economic headwinds,

customers' doing their own belt tightening

organizational structure

unnecessary layers and top-heavy teams*

flattened the organization

empower employees

improved speed of decision-making

greater opportunities

grow careers

financial strength

resilience for the company

cloud

customer renewal rate

acquiring strategic new logos

restructure

better position

the best possible

software supply chain

management solution

accelerate Sonatype’s growth

extend our ability

serve market needs

reinvest directly in product development

advance the delivery

platform innovations

deeper integrations with partners

world-class customer experience

We take seriously

impact

our employees

grateful for their hard work and contributions to the company

*Hang on, who was responsible or the "unnecessary layers and top-heavy teams." in the first place?

Seems to me that someone has some explaining to do.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Phew!

For the potential supplier questionnaire

"Send copies of your last 10 press releases on any aspect of your business."

[Stork]

Re: Phew!

What annoys me is that while it is not fun, it’s a normal part of running a business to cut staff in some situations.

How about “times are tough, and unfortunately we have to reduce staff to get the business right. Sorry folks, and good luck.”

The marketing droid sounds right from the B-ark.

[Eclectic Man]

Re: Phew!

How about:

"sorry, the management fu*^%d up and they're not going to sack themselves, so you minion people are getting the chop"?

Oh, sorry, manglement would never say that out loud.

Troll icon, obviously this is pure invention: management never messes up.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Phew!

How about “times are tough, and unfortunately we have to reduce staff to get the business right. Sorry folks, and good luck.”

The advantage of doing it their way is that anybody experienced and valuable, and therefore well paid and expensive to make redundant, sees the writing on the wall and quits. So not only does the next 14% fire themselves, they do it for cheap.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

An Award-Winning Workplace for Innovators

At the time of writing, the Careers & Jobs page...

https://www.sonatype.com/company/careers

states:

"An Award-Winning Workplace for Innovators

As we continue to grow, our workplace has been recognized by industry leaders for its open culture, dedication to continuous learning, and modern approach to software development. If you're looking to make a difference while being challenged to push the envelope, you've found the right place. Apply to one of our open positions today.

Looks like someone forgot to update the website

[MegaSloth]

Re: An Award-Winning Workplace for Innovators

They sacked the guy responsible

[Jamesit]

Re: An Award-Winning Workplace for Innovators

They sacked the guy that sacked the guy responsible for sacking the guy.

[nijam]

Re: An Award-Winning Workplace for Innovators

> Looks like someone forgot to update the website

They're just carrying on the lies they told their employees, surely?

[ChoHag]

Re: An Award-Winning Workplace for Innovators

> open culture

We found out about it already.

> dedication to continuous learning

In or out, they all just got an important lesson.

> modern approach to software development

Spot on going by this article.

[marknzl]

Nothing to see here, everything is good. How are you?

So definitely systemic issues in their business, threats to their vision, and an absence of investment.

[NoneSuch]

Re: Nothing to see here, everything is good. How are you?

"The document also instructs employees to "not engage" with members of the media inquiring about the job cuts and says to "pass them directly" to Sonatype's global marketing chief Katy Hiller."

Show the company the same loyalty they showed you.

[An_Old_Dog]

Re: Nothing to see here, everything is good. How are you?

"This workforce restructure does not reflect systemic issues in our business, threats to our vision, or an absence of investment going forward," Sonatype president Alex Berry said

When I see or hear things like this from management, my knee-jerk reaction is to think the truth is completely opposite of whatever they wrote or said.

[Doctor Syntax]

"gave employees strict instructions not to talk to the press"

If you don't want anyone talking to the press it might be better to keep them all as employees.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Also ... "Well, I hadn't intended to, until you told me not to."

[Cliffwilliams44]

Those instructions were for the retained employees, which is normal policy for most corporations.

They cannot tell ex-employees who to talk to.

[Alistair]

..."Top Heavy" teams.

i.e., they let the 'spensive folks go. Saves more munny. Mind you, I'll bet that this company will suffer from the "expired certificate fallout" in about a year or so.

[Aitor 1]

Fire experienced engineers

Keep engineers based on salary.. lower salary you are retained.

Looks like they want to keep the lowest performing ones plus young people.

Perfect way of dooming the company.

[ecofeco]

Re: Fire experienced engineers

What's the old saying?

"It's good to save money in business but you CAN save yourself right out of business."

[Woodnag]

Re: Fire experienced engineers

Two basic choices to explain badly managed layoffs, which destroy molare in remaining employees:

1. Poor management, in which case the company is surely at risk of failure because poor management is rarely siloed.

2. Deliberate policy, to encourage others to resign before the next wave of let-goes.

Either way, wouldn't want to be an investor.

[Anonymous Coward]

Their public API of software vulnerabilities did already break last week.

[Potemkine!]

Sonatype is now officially added to the Bastards list.

This list becomes very long, doesn't it?

[The Oncoming Scorn]

& very quickly!

[Snowy]

Shorter and easier to update keep a nice list?

[ChoHag]

/dev/null comes with the system already.

[ecofeco]

I've not had a short list in decades.

[CowHorseFrog]

America pretends they dont have blue bloods but they do....they are called leadership.

[ecofeco]

America has always had a hidden caste system.

[CowHorseFrog]

Better tell that too all the downvoters on my original post above ?

[Anonymous Coward]

re: America has always had a hidden caste system

Hidden you say? I beg to differ.

If you have the right class ring on your pinkie then all sorts of doors will open to you.

If you are female then a lot less doors will open although there are many males who would prefer if all women stayed at home, had babies and kept the hell out of business. Those Golfing Weekends are so important to male bonding and the clubs that this crowd belong to won't let women play unless it is a wet Wednesday morning.

If you are of color or LGBT. Then all doors will remain firmly closed. Those AR-15 pins mean something understand!

The USA has become so screwed up it is regressing fast. I don't think that it will be long before laws are passed that will erase Obama from the history books. As for the current VP? [redacted]

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: re: America has always had a hidden caste system

Its always been screwed, just look at tv shows and movies, the colours and resolutions may have changed but the stereotypes are the same.

Mexicans are always cleaners, leadership are always giving money to charity and everyone loves them, blue collar types - well watch them they are the worst always trying to con or steal and they never help anyone.

[sitta_europea]

"acquiring strategic new logos"

Huh?

[Stork]

I liked that too. B-ark!

[JamesTGrant]

What this means is: ‘trying to win business from new customers’

It’s a really simple way to make it clear to the audience that the person speaking/writing is a wazzock with no real skills who is somehow in the high earners club.

[TimMaher]

Cowardice

Not only are they obviously incompetent bullshitters they are also obviously gutless cowards.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Cowardice

Isnt that true of all leadership ?

[Felonmarmer]

"We take seriously the impact this decision has on our employees - as well as their families - and are grateful for their hard work and contributions to the company."

I assume the first thing they did after making this statement was make sure none of the affected personel could get to arms length of anyone in management.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh i would be so talking to the press

And telling them where the "bodies were buried".

[Neoc]

Funny how most American companies' first move is to sack the people actually doing the job, but not the managers whose bad decisions led to the problem in the first place.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not the worst I have ever seen by a long way.

That would have been a company I worked at in the pre-internet era. On the Friday they laid off twelve people. On the Monday the CEO rolled up in a brand new custom-built sports car, parked it in the visitors' bay and sat there revving it up.