Thread regarding Xerox Corp. layoffs

Cutting the people doing the work, never turns a company around. Xerox has had a pervasive cultural problem for over a decade. Managers direct people to do things their way, and then blame the person doing the work when things aren’t going well. I have never met more chicken sh-- managers, than at Xerox. Bar none, the worst culture imaginable. Highly disfunctional.

All I have to say is... WOW. Looks like the cuts are being made somewhat intelligently.

I am a seasoned software developer who has always used Rapid Application Development (RAD) to quickly create stunning (customer's words) Graphical User Interface (GUI) prototypes to accurately ascertain and gauge the customer's requirements. Once the customer saw his/her program come alive - albeit with limited functionality, requirements were instantaneously created because the customer can SEE what they will get as opposed to an elephant in the room mentality of requirements gathering where everyone sees something differently. I hated countless, mind-numbing hours of useless meetings to flesh out and document "requirements." Agile was my middle name. So many times I came up with a creative solution visually to show everyone in a fraction of the time, and so many times there was discernible silence in the room because it didn't fit the XIM modus operandi . It infringed on their "bread and butter."

One little prototype I created - on my own time - was an amazingly elegant solution to something the multi-million, multi-developer Business Intelligence (BI) endeavor could not pull off. But the little program could. At a demonstration meeting, Management did not want to pursue it and actually told me to stop working on it - even though it was my own time. Why? Because it endangered their bloated staff and budgets. After 10 years of trying....I finally gave up and instead quietly made automated utility routines to make my life easier so I could coast for 39 hours a week reading a book, balancing my checkbook, and surfing the web. And use the remaining 1 hour to deliver tangible results for my manager by clicking on the "Run" button of my program(s).

Do I feel guilty? No. I handed them solution after solution and time and time again was blown off. Should have left for another company, but I guess creeping age and family obligations made me get cold feet. I'm sorry folks. I tried to do my very best to help bring Xerox into the 21st Century....multiple rejections took its toll on me.

I brought 3 client projects to XIM. It took 2 months to learn that they had a 1 year backlog. Customer said, go pound sand. When clients seek help, field now says sorry we don’t know how.

XIM only ever really looked after or supported the head office and central IT functions instead of supporting the real parts of the organisation which delivered the revenue to enable the employment of the hundreds of IM staff needed in the first place! I think the term is known as the tail wagging the dog. Ironically the mention of the word requirements, (a favourite word of XIM) “tell me your requirements.” So when the actual customer facing part of the business decides to use XIM, guess what? The process takes hours and hours of pointless meetings, the requirements always came back nothing like what was asked for, to be delivered in an unreasonable timescale and for exorbitant costs. Even worse after all that work just simply the response “No we don’t do that so we can’t help you, you’ll have to do it yourself as we can’t support it!” If that was how Xerox had acted with its real customers it would have not won a single piece of business or would have been kicked out at the start of a contract for being incapable. Most of the employees there have only ever worked one job - working for Xerox, so had no clue about the how the outside world works or even what Xerox does for its customers. Shame the good people who did get this or tried to help have now gone and you are left with the politicians, the managers who pass the buck, simply don’t get it, are too busy to help, or are just plain out of their depth. As it’s been said already the ship has already sunk, and the vultures are ready to circle make their money by stripping what is left. Good luck!

I worked in XIM there, and I absolutely have to give the IT department a large share of the blame. Want to know why the "kludgy" solutions are still there? because nothing the IT group (XIM) could produce was as good or satisfied the requirements as well. That should embarrass anyone working in that group, and it certainly embarrassed me when I was there. If the business does not use your solutions, it's a good sign that they are not good solutions, or at least do not add value to the organization. And for me, it was also a good sign to leave...

You are describing my day today verbatim.