Thread regarding FactSet Research Systems Inc. layoffs

Letter to Helen Shan

Dear Helen,

Thank you for visiting our office. I noticed you looked visibly happier. I didn’t have the heart to ask this during the town hall, yet I believe you’ll get this through your Marketing team or HRBP gossip.

  1. How do you manage your morale knowing your decisions, most of which were taken without taking your team in confidence or having any actual sales experience, have shattered trust in the ELT?
  1. How does it help your perception that you shop for and wear high end luxury, make time for favourite meals during your “work” trips while suggesting to the team that they should be happy to have a job, focus on efficiency despite knowing that high performance gets them a 1-2% increase?
  1. At the investor conference, you said you learned the sales cycle was long. Did you also learn that you botched up the process further by being closed to your team’s understanding of what would work and their suggestions?

You, in tandem with Harding have destroyed the culture and performance with mindless, half baked initiatives. The leaders I looked up to have left and I am actively interviewing as well. You have shown me what being an educated illiterate means.

I hope you someday have the courage to treat people with dignity, respect and humility.

Happy shopping on your next work trip! Please make sure to send Phil/ FactSet the invoice so they can add to the millions you make.

Yours sincerely,
Soon to be ex-FactSetter.

by #Hownottolead
| 2665 views | | 7 replies (last 11 days ago)
Post ID: @OP+1jpg5rt7s
Comment! It's anonymous!

7 replies (most recent on top)

Fascinating that even Trump had the sense to pause and deliberate on tariffs unlike Snow/Shan who massacred a high growth company with their stupidity.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @4st+1jpg5rt7s

Trolls hiding behind your keyboards?

Has the ELT given another option? Offered a listening ear? Focused on anything other than their own paycheque? Doesn’t the lack of repercussions of their poor, self centred decisions make them the bullies?

The worst bullies I’ve encountered in my life are in leadership positions in the ELT/L3. How they can wreck teams, underperform and still keep their jobs is a mystery to me!

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @1dw+1jpg5rt7s

Y’all are bullies, trolls hiding behind your keyboards. Please, please leave FactSet. And try to find some happiness elsewhere because if you’re posting this stuff here, you’re really not going to find it at FactSet.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @wy+1jpg5rt7s

Don’t think HS has any of the substance RS did though. RS inspired in ways beyond her jewellery. She was quite plugged in with how people on the ground felt. The reason this is being raised for HS is because it is akin to “let them eat cake” . HS bulldozed L3 in Wall Street manner only to have it backfire in terms of results. Was she a scapegoat? I’d rather see it as her being naive that she could handle people dynamics of sales. Looking at numbers is very different from managing sales, people and emotions. Can’t believe she got away with all of it with a sizeable bonus.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @gt+1jpg5rt7s

Agreed not a fan of Helen, we have to ask about L3s that completely failed to execute on detail and strategy. They seem to still be around producing the same old highly unimpressive results.
Perhaps time to clear the decks ?

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @f3+1jpg5rt7s

Funny that HS is known for her high end luxury. I guess with RS leaving someone had to get that title. Used to drive the younger employees crazy being told that they too can aspire to dress like this and wear jewelry on trips to India worth more than 5 years of pay for average employees there.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @ed+1jpg5rt7s

To be fair she might have been a puppet or got used by Phil and other more scheming folks. She became the most hated person for the restructuring, but who actually benefited from it?

The ETL who successfully had a layoff and remove the excess fats without taking much hit, only Helen facing the brunt of it.

It took FactSet a long time (more than half a year if I remember correctly) to “find” an CRO successor back then.

Helen took over in 2021, apart from her credentials as “Asian woman” which was quite a big topic back then, what else did she have to offer?

Was FactSet truly unable to find a capable CRO? Or was it FactSet unable to find someone who can be a SCAPEGOAT and be a yes-man to the real culprit behind the scenes?

Helen just seems like a greedy person who wanted higher pay (not necessarily an evil thing), and probably naive enough to fall into Phil’s/ETL trap. Either this or just too much ego to have any empathy.

For one, it’s not worth being toxic because of FactSet, reading bedtime stories is more worth it than this. If you really want to, direct your hate to the correct people guys.

I’m not a supporter of Helen but as the wave retreats, we should have a clearer vision of who won this. It should be on the actual leaders accountability if they had assigned someone incapable to a position of influence, just like any sales or managerial position.

But then again, these days leaders only like to surround themselves with people of similar mindset to them, and remove or demote those with different opinions.

Go ahead then, you these narcissistic people. Let me do my job and knock off to enjoy fun times elsewhere.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @cx+1jpg5rt7s

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