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Layoff Watch ’21: EY Gave Client Technology Staffers a Parting Gift As They Were Being Kicked to the Curb

Before we recently learned what was happening behind the scenes with workplace services staff and on-site technology support employees at EY, we got tipped off from someone in client technology that his/her and others’ jobs were being eliminated or offshored.

After a couple of weeks of not hearing anything else about what was going on with the client technology group, we got another tip recently from someone else in CT who said he/she also was a victim of EY’s cost-cutting:

Two weeks ago about 150 people in “high cost locations” received phone calls from their line managers where HR magically appeared a few minutes later and they were told their roles were being eliminated.

Understanding is this impacts anyone in a high cost location largely the US. Especially project managers and scrum masters.

Their plan is basically that GDS [Global Delivery Services] do it in India – so basically their leadership think it’s 2005 and all the work for EY service lines and their clients can be done offshore, but nobody actually checked to see that in fact large swathes of the GDS work is sent back to the US to be done!

Well it seems Client Technology leadership did not check with much of the business! Now entire teams depending on applications developed across drones, augmented reality and apps have had the rug pulled out from under them and risk having their products disrupted.

These guys in CT are completely out of their depth and basically let a whole team of talent, including their entire drone, virtual reality and apps guys without checking with the rest of the company!

OK, that’s pretty bad. But can it get any worse for these 150 or so people who are being kicked to the curb? Yes, yes it can.

The tipster continued:

The levels of douchery get better

Everyone laid off got this email across CT today [Feb. 4] – announcing they’ve won a “cultural transformation award” and that there’s a competition to win a smart watch if they enter by the compassionate and self aware date of their leaving date ????

And here’s the coup de grâce: Recently, EY sent a busy season “Reset” care package to EYers that included, among other things, a blanket and the New York Times bestseller Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth.

Well guess who also got these care packages? Were they being told by EY that now they’ll have to “reset” their lives and careers?

The tipster said:

Everyone let go got their FedEx redundancy package and then shortly after got a giant “care package” from the US company with a book on “Grit,” a comfy blanket and a tumbler flask with hot cocoa.

So these people from CT are totally alien to EY values and ruining very talented people’s careers including people who were even recently promoted

CT hadn’t checked or told the US to hold off on sending the package, I mean these things are basic.

Nothing like rubbing a ton of salt into a wound, EY.

Related articles:

Layoff Watch ’21: EY Workplace Services Coordinators Apparently Have a Decision to Make
Layoff Watch ’21: EY On-Site Technology Support Employees Were Also Given a Voluntary Early Retirement Offer

22 thoughts on “Layoff Watch ’21: EY Gave Client Technology Staffers a Parting Gift As They Were Being Kicked to the Curb

  1. Hey Anon/Frank, the article clearly states “ EY sent a busy season “Reset” care package to EYers”, not that the 150 just got it – so check your comprehension skills/attention to detail.

  2. Anon/Frank… so does that mean that just those 150 who got laid off should be more thankful for the “care package” (made up from leftover event merchandise) or that this was equal and fair treatment for all US personnel? Your comment is rather petty in the grand scheme of what this article is discussing and clearly shows an element of blindness.

    Perhaps Jason Bramwell would love to hear more about the additional wave of lay-offs happening to cut costs? You know, the ones that involve employing an additional 9,000 staff in India as part of those efforts to increase our global offerings? And by “global”, I believe that means low cost resources to replace existing US/UK people. How many people/leads have already jumped ship knowing they don’t want to be part of what’s coming?

  3. So, I was searching the job ads (because, ya know) and found BDO is hiring for their Tax Performance Engineering group, which seems to be similar to EY’s Client Technology. They have several openings. Maybe some of these 150 laid off people will be snagged by BDO? Not sure that’s an upgrade up at least a job? And most of them seem to be remote – could be done from anywhere…

    https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/home/HomeWithPreLoad?partnerid=25776&siteid=5174&PageType=searchResults&SearchType=linkquery&LinkID=1971457#keyWordSearch=&locationSearch=

  4. Ok so layoffs happen, especially in the current environment, what’s more concerning is transparency by the sounds of it. Didn’t EY just do a Super Bowl ad about asking questions? Seems a bit hypocritical. But yeah, who cares about some crappy gift box, I agree with that being bs

    1. Not just the transparency but the actual business sense (or lack of it) removing skilled people when the skills don’t exist in India and there are projects we need delivered and now they are gone… Client Tech have said they are “partners with the service lines, not just backoffice IT” – that was the whole point of when the old IT org was “re-imagined”… all the profitable and client facing stuff (and people) went to Client Tech. That’s fine but if your our partner please tell us when you’re about to drop the ball and we won’t deliver on time. When the Partner who runs engineering resigns, you know someone has messed up.

    1. How’s that kind of attitude working out for your UK chairman? Maybe you should also join him in calling everyone whiney little bitches? Truly outstanding way to represent your firm

  5. Sigh, Anon001 the article says everyone got a package, Nicola. Tell Frank to READ. There is a chocolate cube that is supposed to dissolve to make hot cocoa. So there.

  6. Didn’t EY used to be known as one of the best places for people to work? Seems like any last bit of credibility they had is being flushed down the pan if this is how they treat people.

  7. Yeah EY has a good culture – but the people running CT are from Accenture – Frank Meerkamp and Nicola Bianzino. They don’t represent EY well, as we can all see…

  8. Frank is well known in EY for not having the best attitude towards how people are treated, its just a numbers game as far as they be concerned. I used to join their staffing calls and from first hand experience, he treats people like s**t. surprised GC hasn’t done an article on him yet!

  9. Since being told my job was eliminated on January 12 I have received two care package. The first one had a Blanket, Book, candle and a piece of chocolate. The February 13 the days after my last day at EY I received another care package with with a coloring book, colored pencils, stress ball, stretch bands.

    Also I received a letter from the out-placement firm congratulating me on my decision to peruse and active retirement. Are you kidding me. I don’t know if the leadership is clueless or cruel. Nothing like kicking a guy when he is down by sending him an EY ReCharge gift box as a parting making this sound like it was my idea to retire when you eliminated my job.

    1. The chocolate is designed to dissolve (a bit like our healthcare now) in hot milk – therefore it is the “cocoa” that earlier commenters think is confused with a candle.

    2. I think in some cases it really is both, the two people at the top, (and I wont mention their names directly as you can already see them above) have no clue about either technology or the kind of leadership that made EY what it was, one of the best places in the world to work. Instead, they have just looked at $ savings which show short term cash instead of long term retention of knowledge and actual “people”.

      They’re laying off (and lets be clear here, they ARE layoffs) people with years of experience, passion and love and trading it for a gain of “low-cost resources/offshore/IBM/Wipro etc.” so they can make themselves look like “legends” to the board at EY… unfortunately for those long-termers at EY, we’ve seen plenty of these flashy-sorts come and go, and eventually, their bs will catch up with them and the clients and even internal stakeholders will see the quality of delivery/development drop substantially and start asking wtf is going on.

      One example that comes to mind, I know a few of the folk who offer on-site support to partners, some of those issues can be as simple as showing them how to set up an i-pad for work email, so they end up having to go to their houses now as people aren’t in the office (and the partners weren’t in the offices most of the time pre-covid), how are you planning to do that from India? And yes, this is one minuscule example, theres plenty more and hopefully those people will also start to find a voice and speak out about this. EY has become a totally toxic place to work within technology.

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