Thread regarding Thomson Reuters layoffs

Democracy has long ceased to be in TR. And then started its downfall. As a classic example, few yrs ago on Eikonig a mail from a London product mgr was sent out to everyone WARNING not to criticise Eikon in the Eikonig!!!!

Rather than treat the IG group as a fantastic tool to collect intelligence in Eikon issues and fix them, they started stifling voices of intelluligent staff that reported product issues.

This pretty much marked the turning point in culture and TR has been going down since. Around this time i noticed that the dissenting LT members were systematically fired and replaced with a-- l-----s.

From Democracy, TR rapidly moved into Dictatorship and local feudal system. It should be no wonder that it plummeted rapidly.

I was also rif’d a few years back. Such a joke to see that nothing has changed. Anyway as a glimer of hope to everyone, i now work at a company that doesnt worry about -1% growth and i make about 50% more than i did at TR. My advice is get out asap, but be open minded about location, etc.

Oh pls- TR managers and staff are experts at making those reports look very busy. Anyone with any brains is going to quickly figure out whether a person as any direct work on the 3 main products and rif the rest...

But who says anyone has brains? It will all be based on hierarchical a-- kissing

I was one those released at the end of 2016. At the time, I thought that might bring some stability to the company after constant change/re-orgs.

With the deal not closing until later in the year, it leaves a lot of people in limbo, not knowing if they have a job. What is the mood like there are the moment ?

Hi jOE, YES indeed they want to report stuff we do and even log everything so that the person (the go between) raises the same to management. it's business imperative!

Well I think ur right they want to show they are doing as opposed to being a couple of months back.

those with knowledge are making sure not to disclose anything of their MOWs which is fair as they don't want to be ejected and similar approaches are being replicated elsewhere, thats theur only and last card...

Eikon clients are all contractually trapped with a 1Y notice period. Which gives plenty of time for Blackstone to sort things out, even if a particular client is unhappy seeing any impact on service levels etc.

Meanwhile folks, the mgmt here have increased the red tape, and now want a weekly report of all activities, in addition to new micrologging of daily activities. That's brilliant eh? Spend half a day of the week preparing weekly reports and 4 days attending foced meetings, which leaves the remainder half a day of the week for coffee and lunch :D

Presumably the local MD and LT now want to have summary and detailed data to either prepare a firing list or answer Blackstone.

Has your region's mgmt changed anything lately?

I don’t think the cuts will be as drastic as 50%, even if this is the number to get TR closer to Bloomberg.

With the severance package likely to change 9 months after close, some people will have to make a tough decision – jump ship, or ride it out and see what happens. This will not be all wrapped up in 9 months after close, so expect more cuts. They will have to start considering bonus retentions as well.

The reason why many have stayed at TR for so long is because they know they will not be able to replicate their package outside or get an easy ride. Despite the moans about pay/benefits, on the whole TR is quite good – not the best but reasonable.

There are some really good people in TR, but there are many that will struggle if they have to move. Companies no longer have to pay inflated salaries and the city is awash with good quality staff (especially HR, development, technology, project management etc) from large corporations have been making similar cost reductions.

Contract rates have also fallen significantly. Don’t believe all the job boards, many of the roles don’t even exist. There also a lot of people who left TR in Jan 2017 in the last round of cuts, who are still looking.

My advice – start preparing now.

Yes, I agree. Unfortunately that is the most likely scenario.

Yes- i agree, they wont, and probably cant, cut the process monkeys. The org is so a screwed it would take too long. So, as always it will be “across the board” and based on a-- kissing. At least untill the asses to be kissed are gone too

"go way faster and see what happens (my bet is nothing cause most people at TR are process monkeys or do nothing managers)"

You are right - assuming that that 50%/75% percent cut comes from the "process monkeys".

Unfortunately more likely that those RIFs will be equally affecting added value workers as it will "process monkeys", which would mean that 50%/75% of added value workers would be gone - which would spell disaster for the company.

The key here is to RIF the right people (eg "process monkeys or do nothing managers"). But I doubt that they will be able to separate those out.

For that they would need to bring in new management down to team levels and analyse individual roles and individual employees. That takes a lot of time before doing the RIFs - time&money they likely won't invest.

Responding to posts below- Of course they are going to divest. That is what private equity firms do. They cant grow the business- thats pretty clear, or it would have been done already. So they are going to cut it way down. We all agree on at least 50%- but thats actually low because FR does not do all of what BB does, and FR has the droid army.

2 years sounds a little slow for 50%+ RIF. Frankly with the amount of fat in FR, i would personally go way faster and see what happens (my bet is nothing cause most people at TR are process monkeys or do nothing managers). And I’d cut it by 75%

"20 Billion investment @55% stake (45% remain with TR) whilst the business generates $6 billion we are talking 3.3 ish"

The actual investment is is only $17B, the evaluation of the new unit is $20B.

Blackstone is only investing $4B, the rest are loans/bonds ($13B), which will go on the books of the new company!

So in case of a total loss - they "only" lose about $4B. That is not a big ticket item for them.

Hence my thinking that they will be doing something risky here - otherwise they wouldn't go out of their ways to minimize their exposure so much.

20 Billion investment @55% stake (45% remain with TR) whilst the business generates $6 billion we are talking 3.3 ish so they need to be in the money first prior to divesting the business to ICE which seems to be a potential candidate :-)

It all boils down to how much $$$ they can make fast to repay their debt and improve the balance sheet (via cuts naturally)

The reason why I was guessing 2 years is because there was a rumor circulating that they plan to spin the business off (after doing their "magic") within a few years.

That makes me believe that they want to "turn it around" quickly, which means that they would want to go through the pain fast and then start come up on the other side, so they can sell it as a business with growth value. If they do keep cutting net employee count all the way to 3-4 years, then there is no way they can sell it as a growth business prior to year 6-7, which means they wouldn't already be making plans to sell it.

Obviously this is only guessing, I might be wrong.

2 years that's very fast and very aggressive and very SCOOP news as well.

They will go fast I totally agree with you!!! However, they need to keep the business going and if clients see that there's some instability or service is impacted then THEY WILL MOVE TO COMPETITION VERY QUICKLY and that's what Blackstone are trying to avoid because it hits their investments...

"50% within three years or 4 is very sensible and realistic"

I don't think they will have the patience to wait that long.

I bet after the 9 months is up (which is how long it seems they've promised to keep the current severance policy) they will start cutting majorly, as they will rather do it faster than slower and probably they will be up to the 50% within 2 years.

you're damn right ScrewTR, 50% within three years or 4 is very sensible and realistic. 3000 will be the first batch and I bet they gonna start with the top layer and then drill down.

It's bet, qui dit mieux?

I doubt blackstone is reading this. But 10000 ppl with more profit and better products vs 22000 ppl with worse products and a consultant droid army cant be too hard to figure out, can it? We figured it out, and its not our job, right?

The question is what can blackstone do differently that stupid TR? Can they rif faster and easier, by for example, not having to deal with pork fat labor laws? If legally, yes, then the bloodbath that will ensue is going to be epic- at least 50% rifs.. at least..

Blackstone has to be paying us for all these insights below that can save them millions (read billions in the long term).

I don't think Blackstone will not 'shoot themselves in the leg' as we say because the only driving force behind the divestment is $$$. I understand that they gone be aggressive and reduce the workforce to equal that of BB maybe, they done their homework I bet my 2 cents...

They wont need 2 HRs or 2 Finance departments, they will try as much as possible not to replicate and come up with a new structure, operating rythm, and business model.

Watch this space....

ONE THING I'D SAY TO THE NEW OWNER PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS POSTED BY GENTS HERE AND SACK ALL LTs and MDs, HR, FINANCE AND EXEC SEC

John is absolutely right about Management having no clue of the products their supposedly incharge of selling. Of the 15-20 management people in my region, not ONE of them uses Eikon - NOT ONE. And not one of them has a clue what is in the product - feature wise or content wise.

Yet they have no problem getting up on a dais in SKOs or Townhalls talking about Eikon as if they are experts. And then there are people in the local Quasi-Technology team that exploit their ignorance and take them (and all the other frontline staff as well) for a good ride by brandishing colorful PPTs during SKOs and Innovation meetings.

Bloomies give exhaustive trainings & keep tests for employees to pass before they can become permanent. Oh - that's a good idea - do that here please - fire employees at all level if they fail the tests - that should solve most of the problems described here! Not one of those Ask Learning Joke tests - i mean a real, more serious test.

F&R as of March 2018 has 22,000 odd employees. I'm not sure if this includes contractors, but I think it does not.

Quote below "staff have the accountability but not the authority. They are not empowered to make decisions and there is a blame culture in place, with some working on fear of retribution." is absolutely true! This also explains why every team is all to eager to say "NO" to another team, especially if anything is slightly out of the way -- they don't want to take on any sort of risk. "Collaboration" the company keeps crying out all the time, while actually operating in thick silos. "Innovation" they scream all the time, while doing everything possible to stifle it.

All the power is centralized in the hands of the local LT, MD. They form a nice impenetrable cartel, every move is schemed well, and perfectly in accordance with policy (thanks to the connivance of HRs). Not to mention the Corporate Communication liars, spinning out PPT after PPTs of lies. I would call this "Policy Laundering"

Indeed Bloomberg is half the workforce of F&R generating as much as $9 billion... this is in the public domain. Insider, that is so true what you relayed, meetings keep them going like a peacock display. In fact, I have seen it all sales who cant sell a sh-- and a LT who knows nothing about the product and doesn't want to go into the details, he wants soft stuff, .....

F--- them all!

Blackstone, this is your first task when you take over no meetings and no more executive secs ..

One more thing, I know loads of them who went to business schools paying absolutely nothing because they did not have any degrees and the mass has to pay 50% or more

20000 only in F&R??? Does that include the consultant army?? Last i knew all of Bloomberg was like 10000?

I think there are around 20,000 ?

I think there are around 20,000 ?

Insider,

It's long been a problem in TR, and Reuters before that i.e. the amount of meetings and decision by committee because staff have the accountability but not the authority. They are not empowered to make decisions and there is a blame culture in place, with some working on fear of retribution.

This is why is so hard to get things done.

How many people (total) are in F&R?

Meetings, meetings, meetings!!! The curse of TR. A bazillion of those every day, and the #1 time-killer in high-cost centres in TR. It is also a great ego-enhancing exercise for managers & LT members, who get a high off it -- riding on the back of shareholder's money.

And does anything ever useful come out of those meetings? Nopes. Why? Because there are no minutes taken, no follow ups ever done. Oh wait, yes there are follow-ups, which is usually more FOLLOW-UP MEETINGS!

LT members have so many meetings that they have hired exclusive assistants to manage the calendars for them - which also frees them up from the rather difficult task of having to remember why the meeting was setup in the first place, with whom, and what the agenda was.

The usual ending to any meeting is "look I've got to rush to another meeting now", while the usual beginning to any meeting is "sorry I'm late, I was in another meeting" - and here's the best of all - jumping between meetings half way through "sorry i just realized i have another meeting, we'll discuss this later" (i.e. in another meeting next week).

Blackstone - I'm pretty sure you're spying on this thread. Now listen, shutting down meeting-rooms by 80% could be the single-most important thing that you can do to can drive up productivity.

Hi Martin,

based on the LBO amount ($20 billion), I believe Blackstone will thread in very tactfully and a very cautious way because the last thing they don't want to see in the process is losing the client base and ending up having a business that doesn't yield any profit...They will improve things , i.e make sure they keep the cash cow going on with minimum investments (leaner) and cut where they need to (all top notch because they wont be able to do the job instead the people who are oiling the machine are found down the ladder). These guys are aggressive and they will be because they want a ROI and its not by keeping those who failed initially:-) they know it!!!! no need to stress the obvious.

The way I see it: sales will be sacked that's for sure and thats what Bloomberg did as well and all account managers of which half will be thanks as well...

I agree, I feel we're in the same region because I noticed the account managers just read a brochure and go to sell randomly without every using the products they're selling.

The problem is in our region we also have a lot of middle management intervention and useless meetings theres a meeting every single day in the morning and in the meeting you have to share your plan for the day....are we in high school or what?

The managing director has been missing this week not sure if there is an event he is attending or he's making his own plans to jump ship

All these town halls they setup have one answer to every question asked: "we don't know at this point, please continue to work as usual" "we want to get more leaner" "we don't know" "we have to wait"

Lots of the TR staff who have completed over 5 years are resigning because they feel once the new company is set up they won't get the full end of service (counting the years they've worked in TR) that is why many people quit and I am predicting by next week there will be a handful that will resign in my office. Anyways it is business as usual guys, we need to get more leaner :p

I haven't heard of 2/3 rds layoff rumour, it's more like 30-40% I'm hearing. However, 2/3 is very much possible over years. You know why? Bec. F&R as of March 2018 sells 240 Financial products. Yes 240!!!!! Eikon being one of them (believe the separate variants of Eikon are treated separately). Mind you it was 400+ products in 2013. You never know - Blackstone may want to bring it down from 240 to about 20 products over the next 5 years.

I have seen sales people in my region sell products that they have NEVER EVEN seen or used - just read the brochure and pitch it to clients, then after 3 months the clients realise it was a bad fit to their needs and cancel it, and distrust the sales guy and the company.

Someone was talking today about two thirds of the employees being laid off, not sure if anyone heard this rumor or something similar.

Anyhow I think Blackstone will be aggressive in their cuts there is no need to state the obvious, if they just come to spend one day in one of the regions (not US or Europe) they would see how much time is being wasted by middle managers. They threaten staff with "You will lose your job if you don't do this" HR is useless as well, they try to put a lid on the issues.

They spend thousands of dollars in "off-site" meetings then come back to the office to do cuts. Some staff punch in overtime and come to work late and leave early, but they "work at home"

my department spent millions of dollars on hiring consultants from BJSS. what they are doing is making thing more complicated, wasting money, and no productivity or business value at all, and BJSS team pretend to very busy to organizing all kinds of nonsense meetings, wasting time.

Firing BJSS will save millions of dollars. Keep the employee who are really hands on doing work. the truth is, once there's a meeting, 2 or 3 people doing the actual work, 6 or 7 so called management team members are standing there, talking b---s--- to prove their existence and gaining some visibility. What a joke!

also, my department has too many so called architects, who are talking about 'big words' everyday, but has no ability to solve any actual problems; every bottom productive employee dislike these architects, but what can they do? those bottom productive employee are real assets of F&R.

blackstone, as what other posts said, don't layoff people based on feedback from F&R management team who are bureaucratic and ineffective team.

blackstone, please be down to the earth, listening the voice of bottom employee who are really contributing for the company.

Reference the comments about severance pay. There was always a 2 tier system for pay off's in the UK. The ex-thomson's package was capped and was no where near as generous as the ex-reuters severence package.

Rest assured, these generous packages will change. It is not written into contracts and they only require to go through a consultation. In hind sight, all of those caught up in in the Dec 2016 cuts, who have since secured new jobs and moved on are probably quite happy now.

Sorry, but some of you guys are funny, and its so obvious who is in Europe just counting on those fat layoff benefits. I do feel for you, but you need some tough love. As someone who has dealt with American labor practices, for their whole career, you sound really entitled. You rode this sinking ship into the ground... you knew it was a dead horse. You held on, knowing that when the rif came you would get a fat check. You didnt count on something like this, though.

I know the leadership is totally terrible, and they should go first, but we all know they wont! And you know all of this is correct!

Listen, an American private equity firm is about 100000000x smarter (note I am not saying nicer) with money than every single person Europe. These are people who know how to make money. They are not there for social welfare (one reason F&R got so fat in the first place). There is no way they would buy the fat bloated benefits laden s-show that F&R is if they knew they had to pay all the huge benefits that if, oh dear, that someone got laid off.

What are tou going to do? You arent going to do jack. You arent organizing or anything else. Please. As below, you have 9 months to find a new job. It may not be your personal fault, but you are going to be made redundant and you need to leave.. If blackstone has any brains, and I venture they do, F&R will be a 300 person conpany when they are done (which is what it should be).

And you know they are not going after the top guys first.... so stop it.

Depends on the region where you're working (and how pro-labour the laws there are) I think..

Assuming you are working in a pro-employer region, gooooood luckkkkk. That's the thing, in old TR at least we had a gentleman's agreement that for every 1 year in service you get 1 basic pay, in addition to the gratuity etc as reqd by local law.

And all the old timers who gave a big chunk of their lives working for the company were lulled into a false sense of security... that they were "safe" ... and are now suddenly faced with the classic problem in Finance: the RISK OF DEFAULT.

TR keeps preaching everyone about "Trust", "Ethics" etc etc ... Where did all those sermons go now? How is evading responsibility to your loyal employees "ethical"? How is it an act of "Trust"?

Hi Martin,

Unless they give us 5x or more our basic salaries??? not sure though, I know in Germany they give 4x

Hey guys! i found this excerpt from a Hub answer on this, written by I presume the chap that was in charge of this M&A, quote:

"For clarity on the public filing and what is outlined in the agreement with Blackstone in the event of redundancies, for the 9 month period following the closing date, employees who are transferred to the new partnership who are involuntarily terminated by the new business (other than for cause or poor performance) will be eligible for the greater of (i) the severance benefits they would have been eligible for pre-closing under applicable Thomson Reuters plan in accordance with the terms of that plan, or (ii) the severance benefits required under applicable law.

After nine-months post-closing it will be up to the new business to determine its applicable policies and undertake consultation where required."

Well?? what do you think?

Agree, we got to get key Blackstone guys reading this - via this forum or twitter - we can tell them the situation like no one else can, potentially save at least some jobs in the process, hopefully. But I wouldn't bet on it though - it's hard to change the world!