and assorted problems in Sweden, Germany, France and the rest of Europe ... you clowns did elect Hussein Obama to President of the World didn't ya?

EDS? Public sector will suffer? Oh yeah, really?

AC

Obama is god. He will solve all our problems. As good Christian he will have the lord on his side. He has been ordained my god him self to be the leader of America. Obama will usher in a new area of piece prosperity . He will be the second coming and all will be right with the world. He will excise this land from the wicked ways of the republicans. He will cast out the heathens known as the republicans from out capitol. When he speaks their heads will explode, for his voice, is the voice of righteousness and truth. Some thing the evil republicans not except. They are the cause of all our suffering. They are the reason god allowed the world trade center attack . We have elected an unholly lot know as the republicans and must repent for that . Electing Obama will change all of that and show that we are truly repentant for our sins.

Yeah and if you followed along this far you should know I'm being sarcastic towards webster phreaky

The best way to cut costs would be to get rid of duplicate Management structures - you only need one set of "executives" making crap decisions to cut all costs, at all costs. The worst thing to do is to reduce the number of "productive" staff - from Programmers to Infrastructure Support, neither HP nor EDS have as many as they need to service the Userbase they have.

So guess which lot will go?

Thank (insert Deity name here) this lot don't support me any more.

Paris, cos you don't mind so much if she f***s you over.

I feel sorry for my ex-workmates. Many try very hard to do the best they can inside a less than ideal organisation. The place always needed picking up by the scruff of the neck and giving a damn good shake but reducing the headcount by 25%? I never saw that much slack in the place and I went through several accounts in the five years I was there.

I don't think this will improve the company at all. In better times the bright guys and gals would move on to something better instead of being asked to take up the additional workload. Now though I fear that morale will just drop through the floor.

Hello? Relevance? WTF?

Sorry, my poor clown-like mind cannot see the connection...

EDS Hatchet men have just spent the last couple of years preparing for this sale and, like the bank fat cats who milked millions, they have done the same. Just look at the millions that the likes of Ron Rittenmeyer and his band of merry men/woman on the board and VP's have paid themselves as part of the sale. Some of these people have retired, but the real badasses who planned the whole thing are still there about this time to sink the nail into the coffins of the hard working EDSers who have already lost their employment rights and most their pensions.

Its become so much harder in the past few years to sack/make redundant anyone in mainland Europe that the UK has become the place to make the savings. Thats why up until the sale to HP EDS was targetting the UK employees for cuts through Voluntary Redundancy and other means.

They had already trimmed down the workforce on major UK pieces of business that they were having to recruit contract staff by the arm full. They then impossed bans on such recruitment right up to the point of sale.

Problem is, that a lot of this was done on the basis that they could 'best shore' (off shore to most) a lot of the work. UK Government however has blocked most of this which has given them a major problem in that Accounts such as DWP and others are now short of technically skilled individuals as India is no longer an option.

So Ron sells the company that was built on the goodwill of the employees to HP and then says F**k the employess. Now HP is looking to cut the workforce to make substantial savings. They announced at the sale that it would be a cut of approx. 7% globally and across both HP and EDS. That was a lie - and a big one - made to the analysts.

The majority of the 7% are coming from EDS not HP.

Do the maths - in the UK its between a 25% and 33% cut in staff. Its also not taking place over 3 years as HP and EDS stated, they are now saying its two years - another lie, the VR's had to be in by this week and people are exiting by the end of the month. This then enables the compulsory redundancies to be made before XMAS.

The 3500 UK jobs are being cut from a UK workforce already cut to just above 12,000 not 15,000 as the papers say. This is approx 1 in 3 jobs in the UK being axed in the company that, like it or leave it, runs most of the government systems and systems for our UK financial institutions.

A lot of readers love to stick the knife into EDS.

Lets not forget that most of us working for EDS actually were not recruited by EDS but were sold to them by Tory and Labour governments. We did a good job for our government employer and have made the best of working for EDS despite successive cuts over the years. we have kept ailing systems up and running that are crying out for modernization. HP arnt going to do this any better than EDS did or whoever the brand is. In fact, if the cuts take place as expected, god help all of us.

Can we also not forget where most of these employees are - they are in some of the lowest paid areas of the country where there are already high instances of unemployment. Reason they are here is that in the 70's and 80's the government moved their hi tec to those areas to help with the unemployemtn and skill crisis. What future these areas now! Before anyone says that these employees have TUPE and protected redundancy rights - most havent - through successive squeezes and contract changes - forced through with no appeal rights over the past 4 to 5 years - EDS's way of telling you your employment contract was changing was to annouce it on the internal intranet - with continuous redundancies going on and people being put on the 'bench' before losing thier jobs you were afraid to say or do anything. So there wont be big payouts to people losing thier jobs. Anyone with morgages and bills is going to really struggle. With the markets in crisis what chance will people have of obtaining new employment. What future in those town for their children?

So Gordon Brown - you are pumping money into your mates institutions - the banks. How about a closer look at whats happening to government systems - maybe its time for some re-nationalisation in that area. It would be a dam sight cheaper and will also save the taxpayer paying for 3500+ new unemployed.

Christ, I haven't felt so nauseous at learning a new buzzword since I was first exposed to 'right sizing' (although 'follow the sun model' came pretty close).

/" the VR's had to be in by this week and people are exiting by the end of the month. This then enables the compulsory redundancies to be made before XMAS. "/

That's your "consultation period" right ? Last time this happened at a shop I was at (US service company, cut developer headcount by 50 percent over three rounds, bastards), we all applied for VR because it was the fastest way to find out if you were still going to have a job. We figured they would only allow VR to people they were probably going to CR anyway. Made for some interesting all hands sessions.

Whatever my feelings about EDS as a corporate entity, you have my sympathy, I've been there, and it really, really sucks.

Funny how they make all employees do 'ethics' courses. Where were the ethics when Rittenmeyer announced he 'Recommended to the share-holders the sale of EDS to HP' and was getting a nice $48 Mill dollar backhander for it?

Now the dreaded 'R' word which is coming around with more and more regularity. The UK Govt would be best rid of this IT menace - kick 'em out and take back the staff that was 'sold down the river' when 'outsourced' - why they think it saves money is beyond me, when EDS has lost, corrupted, and sent data overseas, despite Govt telling them not to! EDS are pirates of the worse kind. Roll on redundancy! -BRING IT ON.

From what I recall, senior EDS management knew nothing about what most people call ethics. For me ethics related to morals and doing what is right.

For EDS, ethics meant not breaking the law. If what EDS did is not illegal, then, to them it is ethical. So Rittenmeyer getting $48m was not unethical to EDS.

I hope HP now have a better definition of "ethics" to apply to those that joined from EDS.

However is the problem with what US companies in general mean by ethics?

EDS has more. HP inspired new laws on the books.