The downfall the last few years has been hard on all of us, from all corners of the Earth that Xerox covers. None of us wanted this or chose the leaders in charge at this point. Most of us gave our hearts to this company and wanted it to excel, only to see what we envisioned torn down through corporate greed.
Take the next few days to assess the company priorities, focus and initiative and if it doesn’t fit with your career goals, focus on changing careers in 2020 to provide you and your family a more relaxing daily life. Anyone working at Xerox brings home a tremendous amount of stress each day that is carried out directly or indirectly on family members. Life should not and does not need to be that way.
Make the new decade and that of your career better.
Good riddance to 2019 and the best of wishes to you all for the 2020’s!
9 replies (most recent on top)
Getting into services was the right idea, the company chosen was perhaps the wrong one. The main issue was that ACS had historically won and supported US based business with little multi-country or global clients or support required for US clients in their facilities in other parts of the world. They had no experience of supporting large global corporates where the other major outsourcers were playing. They thought buying ACS would make them an instant major player to the likes of IBM, Cap Gemini etc. The second issue was Xerox was then in bed with Deason pulling the strings and look how that’s turning out now.
Ursula had the right thought. But she (and whoever helped make the decision) were id–ts when they bought ACS as they didn't do their homework on the company. It was a mismatched bunch of companies, with no core technology or product, and every time they spun up a new project they did it from scratch with new people.
Services was, and still is, a business we should have gotten into. But not the way she did it. How much money did we waste buying ACS, trying to incorporate them into Xerox, before we decided it was a failure and split off? How many people lost their jobs when revenue was allocated improperly to ACS organizations? How many people lost their jobs when they moved from Xerox to ACS thinking the grass was greener, only to be booted shortly after Conduent was spun off?
Now it seems JohnV wants to get back into some of this business. Not a bad idea, but I don't have confidence in our management's ability to do it properly.
I want to throw up every time I think of Ursula and what she did to this company while enhancing her own wealth at the expense of others ..mainly the entire Xerox workforce.
Ursula's move toward services might have been the right move (we'll never know) but ACS was a dog of a company. Once bought she was stuck and no amount of Accounting manipulation was going to fix it. My favorite Ursula story, was when she sold her mansion on East Ave in Rochester and moved to Manhattan the transaction was dubiously put through Xerox relocation. So Xerox bought it at her asking price of $900k. It took yr to find a buyer at $700k and Xerox took the hit. That's how it's done folks.
Totally agree with @12MN11IF-2rzi. Xerox was still a great place to work under the leadership of Anne Mulcahey as late as 2008. I met her in person on one occasion and she struck me as a thoughtful and confident CEO who loved this company, yet without an ounce of the arrogance that typically accompanies executive at this executive level.
Her only mistake was appointing her successor, Ursula. Ursula, also a lifelong Xeroid, took a huge gamble by acquiring ACS. She thought that a merger would return Xerox to greatness - what a colossal misstep. As the merger of these 2 companies gummed up both businesses, she elected to punish employees by making the following proclamations:
- Halt all merit increases. Salaries were frozen for the masses and increases were restricted to only a handful of employees.
- 401K matching was paused for a period and then restored to only half the original rate of 3% annually.
- RIGP valuation was frozen under her watch in Dec of 2012.
- Healthcare subsidies were significantly reduced and open enrollment medical options were cut sharply from a half dozen or more to perhaps 1 or 2.
- For the 1st time in history (which continued over the years to come), severance pay was targeted and reduced by 33% (originally 1.5 weeks per yr of service, down to 1 week/yr). Today it stands at 12 or 18 weeks maximum depending on job classification.
The result of of these cuts (and much more) impacted employee moral and there began the mass exodus of our best and brightest. I knew then that the employee was no longer a valued asset but a financial burden to this once great company. Ursula did not suffer the same fate as her employees however. She retired an extremely wealthy woman (millions in stock options, severance package and a RIGP pension annuity in the realm of $500K per year).
The cost of her massive windfall is notoriety. Her legacy will forever be remembered as establishing the downward trajectory and the eventual demise (possibly this yr) of this once great company.
I was able to get out after several decades of a truly great company and a fabulous career. We need to remember that it was Ursula that put the company into a nose dive and crashed. Everyone has suffered... employees, customers, suppliers and more. I try, but cannot recall anything she did that helped anyone..... but herself. Wish all of you the best. There is a lot more out there when you are ready. Cheers!
Happy New Year to you as well. It is very sad what Xerox did to Global and they will regret it. The year end close was a disaster as overseas still has no clue what they are doing. Sadly, the majority of our rebadged employees' last day will be monday the 6th. So many people that have worked hard for this company, some for as long as 30 years. One of our selling points was that our admin was local. It will be interesting to see how many customers we retain in 2020. Best of luck to all
"Last few years"???? LOL. Where have you been for the last decade-plus? Yikes.
Agree, time to ride the wave of change or get off the boat. Still lots of opportunity to make money and sell. It’s a sad time for XBS / Global to watch our company get torn apart and our friends jobs get out sourced. Horrible. We bragged for years about how proud we were to work for an American company. Just a shame. 2020 will be a very different year and we still aren’t sure what will happen how this will impact us. I guess we have to pray for the best. Best of luck to everyone whose jobs are being eliminated- it will get better. Stay positive! Cheers to 2020!