EDS News and Happenings.

Watch out!!! all of you at EDS, Jobs are going to South America and fast. While I worked at EDS Tulsa for United Airlines, we would get phone calls from S.America asking us for help with there equipment problems, course once we realized that we were sending are jobs there, we started to give them the wrong info when ever they called in. I am out of that hell hole !!! and they wave those blue badges at you when it's benifits them, I had been at eds for 9 mo and needed my blue badge to travel, while after they played around for a while it was like boom here are your blue badges "AND WELCOME TO EDS" I quite eds 4 days later. while running you into the ground emotional and financialy, there are people there for 11 mo making 13.00 an hour while I was making 15.62 after 9 mo. I have seen people walk out the door at Tulsa to get jobs at Taco bell and are more happy then being slaves at EDS. I am glad to be outta there and feel sorry for the people that are applying for this crap company

I had an interview with EDS on 08/23 in Rochester NY, I was replacing the guy who had interviewed me. I was offered the job, I was suppose to meet his co worker and I have not heard back from them. He stated that his last day was Friday, he did not state which Friday. He received a job at another company. I emailed to recruiter who set up the interview and I am getting nothing.

Lisa in Buffalo. Your disappointment in EDS not contacting you is minimal compared to what you would experience if you did take that job. While it may not feel as such right now you are lucky to have "dodged the bullet" and have been spared to go on to something much better waiting for you out there. Good luck to you.

People have worked at EDS for more than 3 years before moving from temp to regular employee. I only know that EDS has been having layoffs in groups like International Paper, for example. The company has been reducing its workforce to hire temps so it doesnt have to hire employees and pay benfits.

j in Tulsa, Oklahoma said: Watch out!!! all of you at EDS, Jobs are going to South America and fast.

I thought that EDS was transferring their processes to Pune, India? I believe the majority of their help desk services have been stolen from American employees and fenced off to India. You can't really blame them though considering the Indian Rupee is only worth roughly 3 cents. That means paying some Pune-ain 50,000 Rupees annually only costs the company about $1,250.00. That's basically a single paycheck for an American EDS employee (a grossly underpaid employee) for 2 weeks of work.

Word from my disgruntled connection in the mothership says another round of layoffs are in the hopper across the country. Some account managers have already been given the number to cut. Be paranoid because your cost and worth are being reviewed.

Well, yup. We were told that we cannot telecommute or be out of the office for the next two weeks. And, all of our shady managers are not making eye contact with us. I am sure layoffs are coming soon. We have been through so many here at EDS in Birmingham....

Layoffs are Tuesday, April 22nd. I can say this with certainty because one of our managers accidentally sent out an email to our ENTIRE workgroup saying that the paperwork is due on Monday, and the layoffs would be on Tuesday. Before he could recall it, three people read it. He went around to their desks to ensure those three deleted the email. What a bunch of doofs..they can't even get layoffs right....

Oh man, this made me laugh. I knew the same sort of bumbling in our account. Generally my years were primarily devoted to explaining why one of our "solutions" was late and then why it did not work properly and then why it was everyone elses' fault but ours.....and email leaks essentially followed the same basic dysfunctional process.
here is a funny example, at the Wisconsin Medicaid account EDS recently accidentally sent social sec. #s on the address labels of 1500 pieces of mail (maybe it was more)--got into a lot of trouble for doing it too. Later it was revealed that EDS had already bungled the job because the recipients were not even supposed to receive the mailed info in the first place. :) classic.

Oh, it gets better. Layoffs were supposed to be tomorrow. Today, some people tried to use ESS to log their time and guess what ?? They couldn't enter time past 4/22....EDS is such a smart company. HR ran the proccess to delete them off of payroll before they were severed ! Doh !

And again, thank you for cracking me up. We'd groan every time we saw EDS had won a contract related to Homeland Security. We'd be like "well, Al-Queada should be knocking on our door soon".

Zildo in Manchester, New Hampshire said:
here is a funny example, at the Wisconsin Medicaid account EDS recently accidentally sent social sec. #s on the address labels of 1500 pieces of mail (maybe it was more)--got into a lot of trouble for doing it too. Later it was revealed that EDS had already bungled the job because the recipients were not even supposed to receive the mailed info in the first place. :) classic.

1500 pieces of mail, huh? I seem to recall some rumblings regarding that "incident". Considering that client's population consists of over 260,000 people, I guess it could've been worse. ha ha Talk about shoddy data files, not to mention the lack of quality control. I'm sure the one year free service with ConsumerInfo.com, Inc (an Experian company) to monitor the victim's credit that EDS offered was sufficient compensation. *rolls eyes*

So, it's the 22nd. Any more news about this latest layoff, M Hf?

Update:

I just got wind of a few layoffs in the Chesapeake, VA office.

Happy Earth Day!

Have heard that 4 people in the Tulsa office have been let go this morning. A guy in another dept tried to call a programmer for some help. The programmer answered and said he couldn't help because he just got let go. So now there's no one to take his place. Brilliant!!

I'm hearing in my org at least 100 people have been let go.

So now there are positions open for all the new hires....

Chops in the midwest and northeast as well.....what a sublime concerted effort!

Apparently EDS laid off 1641 IT professionals today throughout the US, meaning that 1641 IT professionals can now go find themselves a real job.

EDS talks a good game but they really aren't very good at what they do, which is why other firms are eating their lunch.

You know getting fired from EDS was the best thing that EVER happened to me. I am with another company I love. I have been reading all the post and shaking my head. It's sad but whats even worse is, is a company that to me doens't give a damn about there employees or the customers...

This was an excellent means of verifying a rumor!

The office that I am in just laid off close to 60 people, mostly BPO. People that I worked with and have been good friends with for years are now gone. It's so weird. It was horrible around there yesterday. They closed the front lobby entrance on Monday night because they said there was maintenance on the front doors on Tuesday and no one was to go in or out the lobby doors on Tuesday. Well, I never saw any maintenance work being done all day. Then once the layoffs were over strangely the maintenance signs were gone. It's a crazy company to work for.

Does anyone have any theories on how EDS can lay off 1000+ employees in a single day and it not make it onto any news source?

The same way that they did it last January. I didn't see anything about that layoff and it involved more than 3000 people.

And a few years ago-just weeks after a very famous loss of data due to a stolen laptop from some gov. agency(non-EDS)---lots of bad press coverage---an EDS employee also had their laptop stolen, private data was lost, etc...the story could have received as much negative attention (as the previous story) on the basic theme of IT security risks "How Safe is your Data? asks Brian Williams" but only one or two newspapers bothered to report on it--and it was gone in a day or two--remarkable. Their ability to stay in the shadows is disconcerting.

I have such mixed feelings about being let go from the Chesapeake office on Tuesday. I was with Towers Perrin/EDS for 7 years but I was very unhappy. I had horrible managers who allowed me to do their work and yet they took all of the credit. I did not advance within the BPO organization so I moved to the ADU organization. Evidently that was the beginning of the end for me. Lowest man on the totem poll was let go on Tuesday. I truly do believe everything happens for a reason. I am glad to be out of there and I am going to enjoy some time off while I look for work. I already have several leads so I don't think I will be unemployed for long.

I was one of those thrown to the wolves Tuesday the 22nd From Woodcrest office in NJ.

I knew something was up, no work for 2 days for me.

The team leader who had the news for me (totally unprofessional way) was in tears, I was fine. They give you tons of paperwork and I did get a severance for the brief time I was there (yippee---coffee at Starbucks)

Was not allwoed to go to my desk- another leader went and got some stuff I mentieond, and the rest was mailed to be overnights (DHL of course) took 3 days.

I am wondering who else in the area got the boot, and hopefully will find out eventually. Just curious

This was not a job to me but a paycheck. I am a professional and well respected in my field, healthcare, and was told I would utilize that, but I was a data entry person-- What a waste of my time and knowledge.

I wish those who stayed the best of luck and they will need it.

To "MIrrors in southern, New Jersey"... I believe that roughly 100 or so people in Woodcrest got the hack.

It was pretty much across the board... people from Raytheon, WAMU, BPO, HW7, and Production Processing, as well as one higher-level manager were amoung the many others taken out to dry. I could give you a few of the names, but I feel uncomfortable doing so here. It wasn't just on Tuesday, they were still laying people off on Wednesday and on Thursday, as well.

They actually had the nerve to send out an email to those still employed on Thursday talking about the "better than expected Q1 revenue" ($5.3 Billion, if I'm not mistaken) and the stock price was also up $2/share between yesterday and today on the news. Of course, no mention of any kind regarding the layoffs seems to be found anywhere else on the web other than here in this forum. My small, close-knit group lost two exceptional employees that day. They both had families to support. But I managed to survive for the time-being... hoping to hang in there until I can find a job somewhere else.

Those laid-off were not laid-off due to performance in any way. Instead, it seems the company single-handedly weeded out all individuals from each of the groups who were making more than their other teammates (due to having more years of service under their belts) under the excuse that they were being paid more than their counterparts for performing the same job duties and that the ratio between their work contribution and their pay rate made them undesirable. Age and years of service also seemed to be a primary selection criteria... the majority of layoffs were of employees age 40+ which had multiple years of service (many going back to Towers Perrin days). These were usually individuals making higher salaries than the others, as well as those who were nearing their 20-year mark, the mark at which I believe they would be entitled to early retirement through the company. In short, it was ALL about the money.

I know someone who lost their job after 22 years. I think that you are right, they do look for the highest paid employee in a division and cut them to save money. It happened to my spouse last year. When asked the criteria for the layoff, the division manager that had laid him off said, "Well, I had to cut somebody." What kind of response is that to give an employee who has lost his job? Bunch of idiots.

Weesy, your "bunch of idiots" is the perfect phrase to read about EDS first thing in the morning. I must have said that same line (with a few more 'Fs' thrown in) 1000s of times in my years with EDS. In our account the big fish that went was a known critic of the firmly entrenched account leadership. The cut manager came from outside the sick culture of the old account and had been vocal about fixing chronic problems and attempting to tackle deep rooted dysfunction on the account-the person was a champion of the reasonable and rational employees who were daily kicked and belittled in one way or another. Though the account had many many others who could have been cut with little impact to the operation it was, of course, the outspoken manager with 25+ years of global service to EDS that was axed. Anyone who had been there for a while knew that the significant factor in the cut was the criticisms of the stagnated and bumbling leadership who can not handle being questioned. The leadership (kills me to even write that since it is so misleading and incorrect) essentially operates along the rule of "this is how it is done here and if you do not like it there is the door."

I know some of you had decent managers at EDS but what I experienced was appalling-utterly appalling ugly and ignorant behavior/treatment of those "fortunate" enough to work with these archaic authority figures who had managed to keep their rickety, jerry-rigged assembly line (also humorously described as an automated processing system) chugging along. You might imagine a place where it is permanantly 1985; cold war still going, command and control-style management is followed, and siloed, inefficient organization and operation is the only thing they know--a very military-based culture carried out by a bunch of back-water hacks. Decades pass and EDS is more global than ever except at this place where time forgot. Pong anyone?

to brokenrevisited

Thank you for the comments.

I know it was closer to 100 but did not want to give anything more specific.

I have tried to e/mai lsome of those I thought would still be there to comment "it has been fun, NOT" but no one is responding.

I know of one mid-management level who is still there and this person was talking to a mutual friend and commented heye thought they would be shown the door. I am not close enough to drop them a line.

As for the age/longivity, salary I know I did not come under those criteria. I just think there was a personiality thing and that was the easiest way out of it.

But it makes ense get rid of those that will cost big bucks, even though they paid their pound of sweat for it, before they can do it it to you

I figure it is their loss, although I will miss the bi monthly money for a while

MIrrors in southern, New Jersey said: to brokenrevisited

Thank you for the comments.

I know it was closer to 100 but did not want to give anything more specific.

I have tried to e/mai lsome of those I thought would still be there to comment "it has been fun, NOT" but no one is responding.

I know of one mid-management level who is still there and this person was talking to a mutual friend and commented heye thought they would be shown the door. I am not close enough to drop them a line.

As for the age/longivity, salary I know I did not come under those criteria. I just think there was a personiality thing and that was the easiest way out of it.

But it makes ense get rid of those that will cost big bucks, even though they paid their pound of sweat for it, before they can do it it to you

I figure it is their loss, although I will miss the bi monthly money for a while

I just don't know.... the people that I know lost had all the personality in the world... they were very hard workers who never rocked the boat and who everyone liked and respected. Got a deadline that needed to be reached? They were always there. Someone have an emergency that necessitated having someone else work OT on extremely short notice? They were there. The only commonality (at least in their case) was their age/years of service, and their amount of time before hitting the 20-year mark. I understand keeping those making less money and performing essentially the same job functions.. but these two were TOP performers... meanwhile we still have others who aren't worth their weight in salt who got to stay. Someone needs to tell management that if you want your company to succeed and for your clients to be happy you don't achieve that my removing the must useful elements of your workforce.

Someone needs to tell management........ Wha a laugh

Management is non existant at that location.
]During hiring it qwas all over the phone, orientation was a joke, as wqas the completion of documentation and duplication of items they already had.

Lower down in the area I was in and able to observe,. there was no training sit and wait until someone decided to tell you to do something. This went on not just for myself but for those who came after my group.

I knew then this was not a lie time position for me. as as I said it was a paycheck not a job.

I am sorry that the workers were let go and the fools are still there.. Someone might knowe someone which was another glitch in the company- Neoptism runs rampent and is not under wraps as in many companies, blatent to say the least.

Oh well I stil lsay better off gone.

If anyone else fot hit with Tuesday Massive RIWF get their paystub and find their direct deposits are not right I Was going to file mine until I realized there was a check attached.

I had two financial institutes getting direct deposits, this was the smaller of them.

I did not get two paystubs with checks attached, only one- That other direct deposit better be there- And what about the next check which would be for 7 or 8 days according to payroll schedule,

This makes things much worse

you can bet first call Monday AM will be to payroll-- then to the financial institutes

What EDS will do, as I went through this last year. Your last paycheck will usually come in the mail. So instead of giving you a direct deposit you have to get in your car drive to your bank and deposit it. The old fashion way.

Thank you Eric

This is NOT my last paycheck This is the next to last and the amoutn is shor t the amount fogoing to the primary financial institute.

Monday AM will come fast enough for my phone calls BIG TIME

Thanks for the prompt response

Yes, you definately want to get to the bottom of that first thing Monday morning... any delay and who knows when you would receive your remaining entitlement. Also, according to the EDS severance plan (which I made a copy of two weeks ago when the rumors first started circulating) I think you should also be receiving a payout equal to one-month's worth of COBRA coverage... gained-up to reduce any tax implications associated with the lump-sum payout, as well as two weeks of pay for each completed year of service. That is, unless they decided to alter the severance policy "the day before" the layoffs, as they have done in the past. Sneaky SOB's

MIrrors in southern, New Jersey said: Thank you Eric

This is NOT my last paycheck This is the next to last and the amoutn is shor t the amount fogoing to the primary financial institute.

Monday AM will come fast enough for my phone calls BIG TIME

Thanks for the prompt response

Eric

Again words of wisdom

They did offer a severance package, which included the direct to person, payment of one month of COBRA and I am accepting it. Nothing in the documents that would make waves and I figure they are just testing my integrity

I will follow up after I speak with some folks on Monday-- the financial institution should have the notice if they have the money and then Payroll of my former employer (sounds so good to say that)

I was on the phone with Payroll and my Fiancial Institude first thing MOnday AM.

Financial Institute (first call) told me the payment was there, i nthe amoutn I knew it was, and will be posted last night. THe payroll was due today so that worked. It did post

Then my call to payroll~~~~

I got avery nice young lady-- she told me I am getting one check and when I told her the amount she almsot called me a liar (there I was sitting with the check in my hand). I told her that my primary financial institute told me the funds were there. She again told me they do not have it, it is a hard check (no little c? on her records).

Then this gal, tells me the amount i am giving her is incorrect. (again I have the pay breakdown in my hands). She is trying to tell me the amount I should have is from the last week I worked (I have a ballpark on that and she said it was correct). I proceeded to tell her, very calmly that I need the amount due in my hands this morning. Finally I asked for a call back from a supervisor. She very willingly took the phone info and said I would get a call back.

I got the callback (shock of shocks, not the 48 hour lag like the call cnter is told to give) within an hour. The supervisor did research and said they made a mistake ( WHERE IS MY MONEY?). The money was sent over as electronic payment ( as I told them) and it was in error! Should have been one check to me. She muttered something about timing--- The next check, which will be out the middle of May, hard check not electronic, is for the last week worked (Which I already knew). Then the severance check, hard check, should be out the end of May. YIPPEE

EDS if you are reading: make a note DO NOT DO MASS LAYOFFS THE DAY PAYROLL IS FINALIZED.

One happy fella

(not happy with this method of ending an employee/employer relationship

I have worked for EDS for 3 years. I developed a medical condition that the doctors have not been able to solve that causes me to have to take frequent bathroom breaks. I was told by my supervisor at the time to get Doctor's note saying I needed to take extra breaks. I was told this would not make me exempt from the extra breaks affecting my "adherence" on my scorecard, but that it would protect me from getting in trouble if anyone asked why my "adherence" was bad. Now, after them being ok with this for several months, they come back and say that I cannot take extra breaks even though that is what my Doctor orders. I can take my breaks when I need to and not necessarily when they are scheduled, but I still have to have only the same amount of time off of the phone as everyone else who doesn't have a medical problem and that my only option is to split up my breaks into shorter breaks. I already spend much of my scheduled breaks going to the bathroom, plus extra breaks. There is no way this could work for me. So, even though I am one of their top performers and have been there for 3 years, they are unwilling to accommodate me. They don't care that I have a doctor's note. They say that they will only accommodate someone with what they think is "reasonable." How is it reasonable to expect someone with a medical issue to sit there and hold it when they have to go to the bathroom? They would rather lose a top performer to meet their business goals and profits than to allow me to take a few extra breaks per day per doctor's orders. I will be giving my notice and quitting as soon as I find another job. Do not work for this company. Everything they do is based on their business needs and not the needs or concerns of their employees. Every time I have ever had an issue with one of their practices, all they have to say is why that is best for the business and your opinions or needs do not matter.

It is not over in the Jersey office by any means.

Stormie in Oklahoma said: It is not over in the Jersey office by any means.

Hi Stormie, please elaborate

Fed Up w/EDS in Des Moines said: I'm in agreement with you too. I have 15 years HR experience and have never had a response from them EVER.

I'm sorry, and my intent is not to be rude; but, since you have been in HR for 15 years, how many people do you think your previous departments never replied to. I'm just shaking my head that "any" HR person would complain they weren't replied to. I hate to tell you, but from the rest of the world, let us tell you, it's the norm. HR DEPARTMENTS DON'T REPLY!!! PERIOD!!!!

This is just tooooooo funny hearing HR people complain they didn't get a reply.

Stormie:

Can you elaborate--- "it's not over in the Jersey Office..."

Thanks

HP close to deal to buy EDS for $12-13 billion: report

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080512/bs_nm/eds_hewlettpackard_dc

It's official..EDS is now HP...Hopefully it can only get better for us here in Jersey...It sure as heck couldn't get much worse. Maybe HP will treat us like people rather than dogs.

I really hope so EDS was/is the WORST company ever, however with the CEO staying NOTHING will change.. Culture is changed from the top!!!

I have to be very careful in how I word this reply Broken and Mirrors... I'm still employed but I know time is growing short.
If your group has not been hit it will be, if it has been hit your likely safe ( for the time being) but it's going to be "The bottom of the barrell" thats going to get wiped out..

Eric is 100% correct as well with Rittenmeyer as CEO everyone is still up a creek with out a paddle.
I am however curious if the "Golden Handcuff" rule will be applicable to him?

"As we complete this agreement, I ask each of you to stay committed to your work, performing at the high levels of service we expect for our clients and from ourselves. I know I can count on you to deliver.
We are – and will remain – EDS.
Ron Rittenmeyer"

And yes Ron we can count on you to continually screw the workers.

Here's a little snippett off from Yahoo...Layoffs more layoffs

SAN FRANCISCO - Hewlett-Packard Co. is buying Electronic Data Systems Corp. for $13.2 billion in a deal that will create the second largest technology services provider behind IBM.

Under the terms announced Tuesday, Palo Alto-based HP will pay $25 per share in cash for EDS, which pioneered the concept of running computer systems and providing other high-tech help for large companies and government agencies.

It's a field dominated by IBM Corp., which generated $54 billion in revenue from technology services last year. HP's technology services revenue will more than double to more than $38 billion with the addition of EDS, which had $22 billion in revenue last year.

The deal is expected to close during the second half of last year and begin to boost HP's profit in its fiscal year ending in October 2010.

Once the marriage is completed, HP estimates it will have about a 7 percent share of the technology service market compared with IBM's 10 percent share. The deal will enable HP to leapfrog Fujitsu and Accenture in the niche.

To make sure the EDS takeover pays off, HP indicated it will make significant layoffs as it eliminates overlapping jobs and other expenses. In Tuesday conference calls with media and analysts, HP Chief Executive Mark Hurd and EDS CEO Ronald Rittenmeyer declined to estimate how many workers might lose their jobs.

"There are obviously going to be some changes," said Rittenmeyer, who will run the combined technology services unit and report directly to Hurd.

The combined services business would have 210,000 employees and operations in more than 80 countries. It will retain the EDS brand and EDS' Plano, Texas headquarters.

Hurd hailed the EDS deal as "compelling."

But analysts sounded less sure on Tuesday's conference call as they repeatedly grilled Hurd why he was willing to pay so much for EDS, given that the company's stock price had fa

I worked on the Xerox account and a new contract was signed earlier this year. HP and Xerox are direct competitors. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Xerox would not even allow HP equipment on their networks. What are they going to do with all these new HP employees embedded in their IT infrastructure?

THanks Stormie-

My unit got hit- in April... Namely ME!!!! I am not going to say which client I serviced but it was one of the big ones.

I am thinking of applying to HP- nothing lost, andi do kknow a few of hte systems inside out.

That would be a hoot- going back as an HP employuee making lay off decisions-

My resume will go out in the AM

I wonder if they will keep the NJ and Philly office-

sorry for the typoes--- I hit send before spell check