- To: phil_gramm@gramm.senate.gov
- senator@hutchison.senate.gov
- tom_daschle@daschle.senate.gov
-
- This is a real memo from a real American suffering under
the current US policy of H1B and globalization. I am a former EDS employee
and I resent the slash and burn management style of today's CEO's. WorldCom,
Enron, the dot com bubble, etc. These are all he result of too little regulation
and no legal accountability of the new Aristocracy, the executive class.
-
- Please step into the fray on the side of the American
worker and punish these corporate criminals. And please pass legislation
that will prevent the export of US technical positions to India and the
import of salve labor in the form of H1B visa into the US. The strength
of this nation lies in a strong middle class and an economy that is independent
from foreign disruptions.
-
- I have removed only the name of the employee who sent
the e-mail to protect their privacy.
-
- Sincerely,
-
- Mark McLeod US Citizen
-
-
- --Original Message--
-
- From: xxx xxxx
- To: Dick Brown
- Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 4:10 PM
- Cc: EDS Americas Employees; EDS Employees; EDS;
- 'presweb@pobox.upenn.edu'; NISC ALL EMPLOYEES
-
- Subject: Memo to Dick Brown
-
-
-
- Dick,
-
- There are ethical ways to cut costs, and then there is
executive greed. Your comment at the recent shareholder's meeting will
be your legacy, like it or not (I have to make that much money, I have
an expensive wife.).
-
- Most of the people were proud to work for EDS and liked/like
what they do/did at one time, but no more. Most EDS employees made personal
sacrifices (eg. worked long hours, traveled extensively, worked weekends)
and that wasn't enough to keep their jobs.
-
- It seems to me that your MBA is not worth the paper it
is printed on. You don't understand that all EDS has is its PEOPLE! It
does not make ANYTHING!
-
- Some clients have good working relationships with certain
(ex)employees and when you have a (mis)manager (that, by the way, couldn't
manage his way out of a paper bag) get rid of a person like that, then
the client is very unhappy - service slips, and bad feelings fester. I
know, you will say the 'dashboard' doesn't show it. It's like the old saying
- Those that can, do; Those that can't, teach; and Those that can't teach,
manage.
-
- You have shown that you care only about short-term gains
(and it ain't happening right now) at the expense of long-term harm to
the company. Some people are being let go because they use the open door
policy. Everyone knows that if you complain about anything going on you're
next in line to be let go from the company. People are let go for 'workforce
reduction' - NOT performance (as you have said in the press), NOT because
their skill sets had slipped (as stated by Jim Daley in the press).
-
- Dick, NO ONE believes you ANYMORE. Your memos are a laughing
matter for 90% of the employees (the 10% are your 'yes-men' you have surrounding
you).
-
- Paydays are so stressful and tense, it is pathetic -
the backstabbing of employees to climb over each other is cannibalistic
in nature - Is this your new corporate culture? Because that is what's
happening.
-
- Talk to some of your former employees - they have nothing
to lose by telling you the truth - if you dare to talk to any of them,
or if they would talk to you. There are ways to save money that doesn't
involve cutting employees - But I will not list them here.
-
- Here are some questions that I believe you should answer
for the employees-
-
- 1) What are your IT contingency plans for third world
unrest?
-
- 2) How can you justify your $55 Million Salary when the
stock price has not consistently been rising and remaining at levels close
to or above IBM? The answer you gave at the shareholder's meeting is unacceptable
and makes a mockery of the company.
-
- 3) Why has EDS not been at the forefront of Software
development? With the talent that existed (and still exists), surely some
revolutionary software could have been produced that would catapult EDS
to household name status.
-
- 4) Why is there no consistency of management practices
between accounts?
-
- 5) Why is it that you can visit Copenhagen, Fiji, Tokyo,
or Bremerhaven for the EDS image yet cannot visit Bethlehem, PA, Fairborn,
Ohio, Richmond, VA, St. Louis, MO, Winchester, KY, or South Carolina for
boosting employee morale?
-
- 6) Why are you so inaccessible to the average employee?
-
- 7) What is your corporate plan - In specific detail?
I'm not talking about the weekly Science Fiction newsletter that you produce.
I'm talking of YOUR Goals. Where are you leading this company? Where do
you envision EDS to be 5 years from now?
-
- 8) Are you aware of the discrepancy between your vision
and the vision and attitude of middle management? When will you get them
on the same page as yourself (provided you have a plan in place)? If you
don't realize, middle management has a feudalistic approach to their employees
and accounts they manage. Many of their practices go against EDS corporate
directives.
-
- 9) If some accounts warrant H1B employees and outsourcing
to places such as Mexico, India, etc. why don't you discuss them with employees
and let them know what is going on (status of contracts, terms, etc)?
-
- 10) How is it that there is no coherent retraining policy
within EDS? If someone is currently on the bench, they have to fend for
themselves via EDS University with no clue as to what is available - what
projects are upcoming, what technologies are needed to make them billable
once again. For Example, an employee comes on the Bench. He/She is mainframe
oriented. There is a project coming up somewhere else that requires SAP.
Shouldn't management and yourself be responsible for guiding that employee
in the right direction so that they can get onto that SAP project and become
billable once again rather than have the employee slog their way through
online courses with no direction whatsoever.
-
- 11) You maintain that the IT industry is a very fluid
culture. Why is the company still adhering to IDP's? In the example of
#10 above, the employees IDP may not list SAP as a personal goal. However,
if it were a difference between being employed and not being employed,
the employee would definitely make the sacrifice and learn SAP. This makes
the IDP useless.
-
- 12) Why does EDS still adhere to the "Bell Curve"
for ranking employees? This forced ranking is a failure and has proven
such in many school systems.
-
- 13) Why is it my Director has the autonomy to make significant
business decisions nationwide, yet a .50 cent raise request has to go to
3 levels above him to someone who has no clue regarding the validity of
the request?
-
- 14) Why are we, "the leaders in global technology
solutions", still using such as antiquated system as CAS?
-
- 15) Why does a staffing request to replace an entry-level,
$8/hr employee have to go all the way to Paul Chiapparone?
-
- 16) Ah yes - the forced ranking system. So - you have
5, highly tenured, highly skilled leader-level employees. However, based
on the "rules", somebody is going to get screwed.
-
- 17) Why is it that we repeatedly hear the rhetoric of
how valued our employees are, and how we reward the top performers, yet
a "1" employee's raise request submitted 30 days prior to due,
ends up getting approved 3 month's late because it sat in multiple Upper
Management's "to-do" list too long.
-
- 18) Isn't it fraud (to your customers) to sell a contract
using a domestic model, then shifting processes (using personnel not involved
in the development of those processes) offshore, where work ethic and fundamental
service ideals are radically different from those sold as part of a contractual
obligation to a customer? (In traditional manufacturing industries, the
aforementioned practice is known as bait & switch)
-
- 19) Isn't is also fraud (to the stockholders) to form
a shell corporation (namely EDS Resource Management Corporation) for the
sole purpose of masking compensatory losses by way of transferring personnel
without their knowledge to this corporation prior to laying them off, thereby
operating that business at a loss, so as not to impact the stock price
of EDS?
-
- 20) Isn't it fraud (to your domestic labor force) to
harness talent and resources only long enough to construct process framework,
only to leave them high and dry without severance, then tie up their 401Ks
(that in some cases are propping up your stock price) for weeks on end?
-
- 21) Isn't it fraud (to your remaining domestic workforce)
to tell them that their jobs are secure, provided their performance and
production is up to EDS's "high standards (until you have their functions
documented and shifted to cheaper labor)?
-
-
- --- If you have answers to any of these questions that
would pass as anything other than doublespeak, please feel free to address
them in future "letters from Dick" internally. Please be sure
to quote the above questions verbatim when responding, so as not to diminish
the intent of the question.
-
- Please also free to address these questions (again VERBATIM)
with your Board of Directors who, if they are not yes-men and woman, may
take a dim view of the direction of your 'leadership'.
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