I’m writing this because I know that many of my coworkers at DSI feel the same way. As nice as it would be to address this concern with a member of ELT, I'm not comfortable speaking up for fear of repercussions, so this is the best way for me to share this concern. Like many of my co-workers, I was really looking forward to moving into our new building in Basking Ridge in 2017. And like many of my coworkers, I was disappointed when I heard about the decision to go to a “semi-open” layout and to eliminate offices for almost all of the employees that currently have them. There are multiple times each day that I need to close my door at a moment’s notice. Sometimes I’ll get on a teleconference, other times I’ll get a call from my husband or one of my kids, and other times I just want to close the door, have lunch and regroup before my afternoon meetings. In each of these examples, I like to have privacy at a moment’s notice, and I don’t feel like hunting down an empty conference room, which is exactly what we all will have to do in the new building. But what bothers me and everyone that I talk to the most is that this decision is being positioned as one that we the employees lobbied for. What a complete joke! I don’t think that you would find 10 people at 2 Hilton that are looking to sit in an open auditorium-like room instead of in an office. During a time when employee morale is at an all-time low, I expected the ELT to do more to satisfy its workers. Instead, the ELT decided to eliminate offices for its employees while building offices for themselves. ELT keeps saying that an open office environment will promote collaboration and that it won’t limit privacy. If it’s such a great concept, and it promotes collaboration, and it doesn’t limit privacy, then why doesn’t the ELT participate? If it’s such a great idea, then why aren’t the ELT members going to sit out in the open with everyone else? The reason why is because it’s a downright ludicrous idea. Ken and his ELT team wouldn’t be caught dead in an open environment, and I don’t blame them. Asking people to sit in a large room akin to a customer service call center in India is not the environment that we're shooting for. This type of environment is a way to manage children that you need to keep an eye on. We work for a company that has been through a lot, and we’ve worked very hard to deliver the results that we’ve delivered in the past few years, so it’s time that our leaders start treating us like the adults that we are. As we’ve come to expect under Ken’s leadership, all decisions that he and his leadership team make are made to benefit himself and the ELT. Period. This open seating arrangement is one of many examples of this. Instead of using this as the perfect opportunity to start to rebuild trust with employees and show that the ELT works side by side with the rest of the company, Ken and the ELT used the opportunity to show everyone who’s boss, and further widened an already large gap between executive leadership and the rest of the company. And worst of all, they tried to spin the decision in a way that made it seem like this is what we, the employees, wanted!!! How about for once doing something that’s meaningful that the employees want? Even if this decision wasn’t up to us to make, I would have so much more respect for Ken and the ELT if they came out and said, “We need to cut costs and we also don’t trust what people are doing behind closed doors, so we decided to move everyone to an open layout, except ourselves.” Instead, we get the following b.s. “We heard you loud and clear through your survey responses, and the majority of employees want an open environment.” Really? You must take us for complete idiots if you think that there is a single person at this company that buys into that garbage. Oh, and one more small thing. The number of days that people will be working from home next year is going to go through the roof. The number one piece of feedback from companies that have gone to the semi-open or open layout is that way more employees work from home, because the open office environment is not conducive to getting work done. People feel that they spend more time looking for a private space to work than actually doing the work. Personally, I never work from home. But when we move to the new office and I have a full day of teleconferences on my calendar, I’m staying home. It’s so much easier to find a private space at home than to go to work and start figuring out where I need to go in order to have a private discussion that I don’t want my 25 closest neighbors to hear. Ken & the ELT, you can spin this decision however you want, and you can justify how much better collaboration will be, or how much more sunshine will get into the building if we sit at partitioned cafeteria tables instead of in personal offices. But let’s face it - everyone sees right through the b.s.. There are now even more disgruntled employees than before this announcement was made, the division between ELT and the rest of the organization is bigger than it’s ever been, and we know that the ELT ultimately acts in self interest, not in the interest of its employees. You clearly DO NOT have our backs. Thanks for that. This really makes me want to work hard for you. I sincerely hope - as I’m sure just about every other home office employee does - that you reconsider your decision to penalize the organization and take our offices away from us, and that you instead start treating us like adults and professionals, not like school children that need to be corralled and kept a close eye on. If you really care about your employees and value their feedback, please send out a survey asking whether employees prefer offices over cafeteria table seating, and you will see that offices are the way to go. Some of the construction may have already started at the new location, but it will be a lot easier and cheaper to make the corrections now rather than in 2 years from now when the building is completely empty because everyone is working from home.
I highly doubt they are on CP reading the garbage that goes on here, but anyway you answered your own question/concerns, it's all about the MONEY! Plus they are the boss and you are not. Count your blessings that you even have a job. Embrace the change and keep moving forward. Good Luck!
Shut up and deal with it. Your conference calls are a joke and mean nothing to organization. We Bring in the revenue ! Half of you will be gone in November anyway. Signed, Sales force.
Home office people never pick up the phone or return emails - it takes weeks to get a simple reply . I vote for eliminating home office Thursday / Friday day off. I vote for home officd applying for their job every . Finance - run it out of Japan HR- run it out of japan an give the directors and managers the ability re-source our people. Training - easy one it is all reps from the field and a 3party vendor that create content and deliver content. Pretty sure other depts can be sourced this way - all the while HILDA THE HIPPO is nervous about people over hearing her 9 am lunch order and all the gossip she apreads
You want your old office back, show Rob your Beaver and you can get pretty much anything you want including a raise!
Man this just shows again want a dick Ken is, I don't know why some people like him, he flat out sucks and is running DSI into the ground quicker than any one thought. Pretty bad that home office is Bitching about you and the tards from your F troop Elt on cafe fucking pharma, probably your best accomplishment all year. Shit Ken you make John G look like a Rock star. You really want to turn DSI into Spectrum part II. Hey Ken better whip out some more gay cook out's to increase morale, ah Fuck it go watch some more walking dead..
As right as the OP was with her initial post, and as much as people like myself want offices, every home office employee knows that Ken could give 2 sh#ts whether his employees are happy. If building open layout saves him 3 cents that he can then send along to Tokyo, you can rest assured that Romper Room seating will be in full effect at the new Basking Ridge location. God help us all.
thanks KK, what better way to show ur appreciation for ur employees than to take away their offices and put them in a cattle corral…why even bother with an indoor office and just build a shed out back
Gormley has lead this company down the tubes. Not much left to cut. Sad to see this happening to a once great company.
