I got a call last night from a media researcher (for an investigative TV program) asking me about my take on the recent series of layoffs in the local BPO sector. They wanted to know if I think the job cuts were related to the global financial crisis.
After a series of calls and text messages, the program supervisor called me asking to verify an alleged layoff at Accenture Manila that very day. The unofficial figure was 500 heads! I said I didn’t know where that came from — it could be from another source but I could call insider people and verify it.
A call to my source from the inside verified the layoffs. My source immediately told me “I know what this is all about” right after picking up the phone.
Apparently, the memo went out on the 14th stating that people from the Solutions Division will have to be let go starting on the 15th. The 500 figure is still unconfirmed but they say it is going to be a huge number.
The reason behind was that Accenture Manila has become overcrowded with project developers and consultants with no assignments or have prior projects that have been canceled or indefinitely put on hold.
This development may not be a big surprise as Accenture (like many other multinational companies in the country) has been doing some belt-tightening measures since last year.
Will update this breaking story as I get more information.
Update 1: Memos were sent out Wednesday night for employees to report to the Makati office the following day only to be surprised by a severance package and outplacing support greeting them as they arrive. Employees are very worried as people just disappear from their stations left and right.
Update 2: Employees that were let go ranged from regulars to management positions. They are given option to transfer to the Call Center Division if they wish so and if the skill-sets are applicable. Those left out are given a severance package of 1 month’s salary for every year of service to the company.
Update 3: More job cuts are coming. The Country Managing Director sent a second notice to everyone on January 15. “All affected employees have been contacted via call, email invite and/or SMS. Only a few are still scheduled for notification in the succeeding days…. If you are approached by the media or anyone else with questions regarding the workforce actions today, please do not respond.” They are also arranging town-hall meetings and people hour sessions. The 500 head count is confirmed and they’re shedding more people.
[...] “half-empty” sort of thing to say; still, hard news started trickling in (for example, Accenture Manila cuts hundreds of jobs).And while, indisputably, the industry itself is trying to maximize its potential (see BPO industry [...]
@sikreto – i understand your pain man… i’m sorry to hear that news… sana makahanap ka na kaagad ng work… ang alam ko programmers overseas merong available (pero kadalasan puro KSA eh)
@others – i agree that we should help those people who were layoffed… sana intindihin din natin sila kung dito sila nagpost ng sama ng loob kasi mahirap ung nattrauma ng ganun… ung feeling na hindi enough ang skills mo (pero in truth, wala ka lang project)… tingin ko some of you who were able to keep their work sa accenture should be really thankful at meron kaung projects… pano na lang kung wala diba? baka kayo ung isa sa 500 na un…
SMS?! thats harsh!
so it is not preferable to apply to accenture na?kasi di muna sila natanggap ng hiring?
im currently working at accenture… nakakatrauma talaga yung balita na yan… lalo na para sa amin na kahit may project eh na hired naman thru agency lang meaning hindi kami direct hire ng accenture and anytime pwede kaming alisin… buti na lang kahit papano maayos lagay ng project namin… pero syempre nakakatakot pa rin kasi kung dati every 3 months ang renewal ng kontrata namin ngayon naging 1 month na lang… natatakot kami na baka isang araw palitan na lang kami ng mga naka bench…
Hi may sasabihin lang ako tingin ko off-topic dito pero I just wanna get this out. Matagal ko na itong alam pero since one year na ko wala sa Acenture I don’t care na. Some might be offended pero I resigned because I disliked the management and I have a feeling dati pa lang na maglayoff sila so I looked for a greener pasture. I don’t even care if you think may motive ako for posting this pero just take note of the facts na lang po okay.
I know two people nandyan pa din even now, yung isa taga solutions at yung isa services. Yung services boardmate ko at yung sa solutions friend ko matagal na. Long story short academic honored sa PUP friend ko, but silent hardworker nga lang. Etong boardmate ko inamin nya sakin na all she does is to be nice and close to her lead, you know ‘PR’, then easy lang at work since they don’t have tight deadlines daw and I noticed naman. Eto one time she left her payroll on her desk and computed she earns 30K plus monthly, about 5K more than my friend. Ouch! Knowing 1 year nag JSE and 2 years SE na friend ko, samantalang si services girl 2 years pa lang experienced hire level F (SE din). And honestly on the skill I would say far more madiskarte and ‘detail-oriented’ friend ko compared sa kanya especially in terms of admin tasks. I can’t say anything bad about the personality of the services girl, pero my friend is working herself to death with a client facing project and friendly din naman sya. Does she deserve that lower salary?
By the way, I earn more than them but im on higher level.
My point is being lucky at Acenture depends on who your lead is. I usually encountered the lead of the services girl laging nakangiti pero biased yung guy sa subordinates na likes nya, and so I heard nasa loob daw ang kulo kahit laging happy face. Yung lead ng friend ko sabi nya protects his people, pero hindi nga lang biased. I told my friend about it yesterday..she will resign na this year..I told her to volunteer to join retrenchment instead..sayang severance.
The only reason companies invented (promoted) the idea that salary is confidential and disclosing it is unprofessional..because it gave them the reason to better compensate people ‘advantageous’ and ‘close’ to them while they compensate less for hardworking people they consider ‘useful’ but not of their same ‘class’. They also capitalize the ‘insecurity’ natin that we are being judged by our salary..which is bull obviously dahil sa disparities ng basis even for two people doing the same job in different places. Buti na lang may payscale and glassdoor and the likes so we can anonymously disclose our salaries kahit hindi naman talaga kelangan anonymous. This way we can be informed if we are compensated lesser by our bosses compared to our peers and make better decisions of our precious time and life.
Saka tama yung napansin ng iba dito..parang may backers Accenture ngayon..do they now hire teams of bloggers or commenters to damage control these days? Kasi kahit sa glassdoor yung positive comments almost parang iisa lang theme nung message kahit galing sa multiple posters. Sila din kaya yung backroound investigators? Sigh…
Do you really believe accenture laid off people because of financial crisis? Partially yes..but you need to know their history..that’s not the main reason..yet.
Do you really believe Intel totally closed some assemblies (including Philippines) and cutting 6,000 jobs because of financial crisis? Partially yes..but you also need to know what’s happening at these sites to know the primary reason..especially at Cavite.
Do you really believe Microsoft in process of slashing 5,000 jobs because of financial crisis? Partially yes..but you also need to know the advantage contracting companies provide during times of uncertainty.
Financial crisis..a convenient excuse for house cleaning purposes..why waste it now when it will really affect the company eventually anyway?
wala nman nasagot sakin d2 eh hayyy
Everyone, what’s happening now is a global thing and is not isolated to Accenture. Taking things in the right perspective, the total of 500 employees who were laid off is nothing compared to what other companies have been experiencing:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_bi_ge/economy
Ultimately, it’s really just a painful business decision that companies have to make. In the case of Accenture, simply put, it was just a choice between preserving the jobs of 16K employees versus letting go of the 500 bench people who were idle/unproductive.
This is very traumatic. Most/All employees are afraid na ma approach ng HR para lng sabihin na di na sila makakapasok the next day. We all know that business is business pero sana naisip nila na i freeze nalng yung salary instead of laying off employees na d naman deserving ma lay off. Kawawa naman ung mga nagtagal na and who have contributed a lot to the company.
Naawa naman ako sa mga na lay off na walang matinding reason. Lalo na sa hnde malakas sa management or should I say biased managers/leads. This is happening in real situation.
My only concern is that never say bad things to others lalo na makakasama sa career nila. Just be FAIR enough in commenting your employees to HR or sa sumasala ng employees to be terminated. DON’T BE BIAS.
I’m from Accenture. It was a business thing doing the redundany program. The world is facing such a hard time, what do you expect? And I don’t think the term to be used is “layoff” kasi laying off is terminating in bulk those who are “actively” working, ang nangyari sa accenture, most of those who lost their jobs are idle or cannot be rolled-in ASAP. Kaya hindi naman talaga nagtanggal ng mga taong nagtatrabaho. Doon naman sa nagsabi na may plan magtanggal ng almost 25% ng Accenture workers, you are giving malicious information. You have to confirm that first. If Accenture can do that, matakot na tayo sa Pilipinas, baka yung maliliit na kompanya, tuluyan ng mag-sara…Kasi that’s really worse especially with a company who belongs to the league of FEW which performs positively in this times…
I believe that Accenture is doing well right now. Kung may nawawalang clients, meron din namang nadadagdag like the recent (last december ata) deal na tinalo ng accenture ang IBM…It’s just a matter of tightening belts, which is everyone is doing. Parang sa bahay, hindi naman porke’t nagbawas ka ng paggamit ng aircon, mahirap na agad kayo…
Over the holidays, they have overworked a lot of employees so they can bill clients bigger and compensate for bench employees. So, you can’t blame them for terminating bench employees. Either way, its still BAD MANAGEMENT.
They should also terminate decision makers who made the wrong choice of mass hiring last year. The global crisis started late 2007 and all forecasts reveal that recession is ahead. They should have seen this coming!
So now, they wasted money for compensating bench employees, and on severance pay for laid off employees. Ughh! What a waste!
Thats right, blame those who are in charged for hiring and putting those people in workbench. Pati ako nadamay sa over staffed ng accenture..hehe
WOW! this is scary! Yung friend ko pa nman tinawagan sya ng accenture yesterday for the “Project Management Proffesional” post… I wonder if this postn is affected with the problem? any ideas guys para I can give feedback to my friend? TIA!
Soon enough dadami pa ang layoffs. Late lang ang PH on whats happening because we are at the end of the chain. Kung sa America nawalan ng more than 500,000 jobs and still counting what more will happen sa CC jobs sa pinas which they consider despensable. Prepare for the aftermath, consider it as natural.
I am one of the Redundant 500 and naka move on na ako from that horrible experience, after a month long of job hunting, I finally got one. The seminar of DBM did not really help as well as the Job Fair Accenture provided (the participants are all search firms).
This is the first time na na lay-off ako and it really hurts me but I am thankful pa rin because in my 3 months stint in Accenture, I learned a lot.
So sana mag move on yung hindi pa nag move on. Concentrate on looking for another job or mag business na lang.
Hear ye! Hear ye! Latest news from Accenture! Lay-offs another 500 employees! Tsk…tsk…tsk…sad!
[...] BPO company started making job cuts back in January with an initial 500 regular employees. That’s on top of the probationary workforce it has already let go in the last quarter of [...]
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Hay…what do you expect? shempre, management will try to defend the company, Shempre! So, redundancy, or layoffs, pareho lang un sa nawalan ng trabaho!
Share ko lang experience ko, I’m one of those 1st 500. Almost 5 yrs nako sa ACN. Now lang ako na-bench, for almost 5 years, work like a horse ako sa company then bench ako for 1 month then ayun, kasama nako sa naaalis.
Think about it, shempre as for me, masama loob ko. Kasi for almost 5 years, nakinabang sakin ang company, to think, diamond client ang project ko(meaning one of the projects na malaki ang kinikita ng company). Then kakabench ko pa lang, tanggal nako? para bang, kung iisipin mo, hindi ka na kailangan sa ngayon kaya tanggal ka na. Anyway, madami pang pwedeng ipalit sayo na mga bago, fresh legs, mas mababa ang cost. Ayun! I’m sure naman hindi pa lugi, as in, walang ng pera ang accenture para tanggalin ang isang empleyado na breadwinner at matagal nyong pinakinabangan. Kung talagang people company ang accenture sana inisip nila na itong tao na to, pwede pang hindi alisin kasi malaki ang naging contribution at baka pwedeng ihanap ng ibang project. Kaso hindi e, basta wala ka ng pakinabang sa ngayon, ayun ang importante sa kanila. Ayaw nila ng maliit lang na kita, kaya mas maiging alisin ka nila at ipalit ang mas maliit na sweldo para mas malaki ang kita. Greedy ika nga. Hindi marunong magsakripisyo para sa mga tao nya kahit madaming sinakripisyo ang taong yun para sa kanila!
Nasira ang pagkakakilala ko sa kumpanyang yan.
Fortunately, I was able to explore other opportunities, kasi nung nasa ACN ako, umikot lang sa ACN mundo ko, kala ko sa ACN nako tatanda. hahahaha. Pero pag lumabas ka pala ng ACN, mare realize mo na may iba pa palang mundo outside ACN. luckily, na hire ako and mind you, double ang salary ko sa present job ko. TL ako noon sa ACN.
Period!
Things to hate in Accenture.
-Overtime -meron ba
-You’re mother askin what time youll get home
-you’re wife askin what time you get home
-missing the MRT
-them TL fags
-them Senior manager Fags
-DArwin Soriano
-Darwin Soriano Zombies
-Darwin Soriano bithces
-Bleeders Circle (where they make darwin zombies)
-Ratings
-only fags and bitches get apgs
-good programmers dont last except if your gay or pretend to be one.
-them motherf@@@DS chinese senior execs.
-gazillion more…
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Gosh! This is SCARY! I just applied for CSR in ACcenture Cebu and I was asked to return tomorrow for interview.
I dont know what Im gonna do now..
Wow! Lupit!
accenture should do something to clean this up..shame..shame..misleading people with their stable company daw..a fake..i was a part of them before..it was really a pain in the ass working for long hours different from what was stipulated in the contract…it was really frustrating..they should live up to whatever stuff they are saying..walk the talk
grabe dito sa mckinley HELL! sila lang talaga ang nakinabang dito. sobrang hassle pumunta at umuwi, mahal ng mga kainan, at ang pinakamalupit eh BINABAHA!
yung mga natipid ng company sa pagrent nila sa building eh nadagdag sa cost at effort ng mga employees.
nung nasa boni pa kami, sobrang willing lahat ng tao na mag-OTY kasi paglabas mo andyan lang ang mrt at maraming makakainan. di nila inisip yun, mas nakakaperform ang mga tao noon kumpara ngayon.
tsk tsk tsk…