Employee shares how laying off 30% of his team to cut costs proved to be expensive for his boss

Layoffs have been plaguing several sectors for the past couple of years with the tech industry hit the worst. Job cuts have often been followed by employees who were laid off sharing their struggles and the bizarre ways in which they were fired. At the same time, CEOs have also tried to explain their reasons behind lay offs and often faced flak for their actions. Amidst times when employees are expected to follow unreasonable diktats by bosses, an anecdote shared by u/creativenemo highlighted the importance of standing up to supervisors for the company's greater good. The employee started the post by saying, "I work as a senior compliance officer in a large multinational corporation that operated in highly regulated industries." Part of his job was to ensure the company met all regulatory requirements across different markets. "It's a complex job, but after 15 years in the industry, I've seen it all, or so I thought," he added. 

He then mentioned how the company had recently brought in a new CFO, Julia, who was determined to cut costs across the board. "She was a numbers person through and through and in her mind, compliance was a bloated department that could easily be trimmed down," he wrote, adding that it became pretty evident that she failed to understand the nuances of the department and how it really worked.

"One day, Julia called into her office and told me that my team was 'too expensive' and that I needed to lay off 30% of my staff," he added before mentioning how he, at the time, tried to explain to her that each and every person on  the team was responsible for managing something crucial in various jurisdictions and how cutting staff would put the company at risk of "non-compliance, leading to fines or worse," only to hear that they were overstaffed and that he needed to "make it work."

"Seeing no other option, I complied," he continued, before adding "A few months later, our company was bidding for a massive contract with a government entity worth half a million dollars. Winning the contract would be a game-changer." The team lead then mentioned that Julia was in charge of this project and asked them to submit all the compliance documentation within a week.

"Here's where things got interesting," he wrote before explaining how one of the key documents required for the bid needed an obscure regulation in the small market in which they operated. He then added that this regulation was something that only one of the laid-off team members, a guy named Peter, had handled. When he informed the CFO, she assumed this was only a minor issue and commanded the compliance team lead to "recreate them."

"But the process wasn't that simple. The reports were generated through a custom-built tool that Peter had developed over the years," the team lead wrote. After explaining the gravity of the situation to Julia, she became desperate and asked him to contact Peter. The employee was understandably "bitter" about the layoff and was only willing to come back for a higher salary. However, bringing him back and getting him to do the work from scratch was too lengthy and the efforts were futile. The company ultimately lost out on a $500,000 deal to their competitor and the board of directors were furious.

The employee then shared how the company fired Julia, which turned out well for him. "I was promoted to a new role- Head of Global Risk Management, with a mandate to ensure that nothing like this ever happened again." As his post resonated with many, they took to comments to share their views. "I work in the pharmaceutical industry, and quality is so important. From sorting out vendors to quality control of absolutely everything from simple needles to complex wiring tools to our actual products themselves, it's incredibly important and nuanced," wrote u/Unknown-Meatbag. "For a new-hire C-level, I'm guessing part of their incentive package was cost cutting metrics. Reduce X annual expenditures, receive Y extra stock, options, or cash bonus," added ufizzlefist.