Our group in CX is 22 Red Badges and 4 Blue badges. All the red badges were called onto a Webex about 3 weeks back and told the groups numbers are down 60%. If on conclusion of your current project there is no new project to start, you have to either leave, Or If you do stay on you will only be paid for any billable work going forward. I have since heard of cases in CX where other red badge staff, were told their contract rate was being cut in half, even though they were still engaged on ongoing billable projects.
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PTO says nothing about payment. It’s personal time. Contractor means it’s unpaid. There’d be little point for the numbers if it was paid. Yeah, I know annual leave is accrued and come from a different bucket.
Most contractors have unpaid holiday, so no.
No kidding. I was being sarcastic when the previous comment said that CX red badges were being "required to take 3 weeks PTO before the end of Q4 in order...".
It should have said contractors are being required to take 3 weeks unpaid time off.
However, the comment did include "Of course, for contractors, it’s basically zero-income furlough." I was trying to poke fun at the misnomer between PTO and unpaid furlough.
Most contractors have unpaid holiday, so no.
...that CX red badges, [...], are required to take 3 weeks PTO before the end of Q4 in order to “make the numbers look better”. Of course, for contractors, it’s basically zero-income furlough.
But if it's PTO, isn't that paid time off? :-) I'll gladly take 3 weeks of paid time off during any quarter. It's the unpaid time off that I don't like. And, yes, I'm sure you meant to say 3 weeks unpaid time off.
I don't know what the job market is in Europe, or how easy it is to change jobs, but if CX did that to me in the US, I'd spend that 3 weeks looking for a new job and not return. And if I get to schedule my 3 weeks, I'd wait until I found a job, schedule my furlough to coincide with the start of my new job, and then give them my notice when the furlough ends. I had a company in New Orleans, LA give me a two week furlough, then when I was supposed to return to work, they emailed me to say that I was being terminated and that I'd be paid for that two weeks in lieu of notice. But, really, since they informed me at the end of the two weeks furlough, don't they still owe me two weeks? I didn't bother to argue, I'd started looking for work and found a new position that started a week after the paid furlough ended, so I was only out one week's pay and happier at the new company to boot, so it was a win-win.
Just been told that CX red badges, at least in some parts of a Europe, are required to take 3 weeks PTO before the end of Q4 in order to “make the numbers look better”. Of course, for contractors, it’s basically zero-income furlough.
Im curious what parts of CX this is affecting. On my side I've heard of no red badge reductions but it seems like there's little pockets of CX where big cuts are happening.
Probably better than other places we outsource to, like China, parts of India, etc.
Many of these emerging countries speak excellent English.
For example, much of eastern Europe.
I’m not so familiar with all of LATAM, but many folks from that part of the world also speak it very well.
They speak English in Columbia?
CX Red Badges in RTP were terminated yesterday, told positions were moving to Colombia, despite good numbers stated the week before. Same thing happened to LPMs a few months back. Cisco managers unwilling to discuss until after the holiday weekend. Seems like the contract company was blindsided by the news as well.
I'm hearing reports of many red badges in CX being placed on unpaid leave, having hours cut, rates reduced or simply contracts being terminated.
There was a joke around in the nineties “How do you know you work for a telco?”
The answer was that you have worked for three different companies in the last five years and are still sitting at the same desk. In my case, that was absolutely true. By the time I left I carried two other corporate badges besides my own - outsourcing.
Cost of living increase? What’s that?
I know, right? It's sad that in today's corporate culture, you have to leave a job to get a raise. It ain't my daddy's era where companies had retirement plans and wanted to keep good workers for 15, 20, even 30 years. Outside of the Navy, my Dad only worked for 3 companies. Five years at the first one, 15+ years for the second one, and 11 years for the last one before he retired.
I had worked for 3 different companies in the first 5 years after leaving the Air Force.
Cost of living increase? What’s that?
Ain't no way anyone is cutting my rate. Cisco is notorious for not raising the rates when you've been there for years, so if you're not giving me a cost of living increase after two or three years, then you sure can't just cut it because it works for you. I know red badges who've been with the company for 7 yrs still making the same wages they started with.
It may have been an above average wage to start with, but after seven years, it's below average.
I don't understand how Cisco can think it's ok to freeze red badge rates at the starting point and not bump it up a couple of percent every 2-4 years. If you don't increase it, the person will leave for better pay and they'll have to backfill them. No one, qualified anyway, is going to take a below-average wage for a job, so they'll have to bring the price up and train that person on how Cisco works and bring them up to speed on the team's processes. The loss of productivity, the cost of recruiting, the on-boarding time and the ramp up time all costs money. Wouldn't it have been cheaper in the long run to just provide a cost-of-living increase and keep the person in that role if they were a good fit? I mean, if you've kept them for 2-4 years, they gotta be doing a good job.
I left a company when they wanted to cut my rate 10%. Found out some of the others who left at the same time were being cut 20% or more because they were making more than I was for the same role. Once all of us qualified workers left and they backfilled us with people who'd take that lower wage couldn't cut it, the client bumped the rates back up to an industry average for the area in order to attract qualified talent again. But by then, I'd discovered what the average rates were and left for Cisco making better than average (at that time) rates and didn't look back.
I heard that CX in ANZ is currently undergoing a structure transformation putting all HTOMs and HTE's under the same umbrella. With everyone in the same pool they can now easily distribute the accounts to blue badges. Expecting red badge culling to start in the next couple weeks.
Not gonna take a 50% rate cut. No way.