Discussion

Anyone else seeing the backfill freeze?

0x2e8f…59bc

·4d ago·2 comments

It’s been radio silence on backfilling departures in my department for three months now. We lost two senior engineers in Q1 and were told the headcount was 'under review,' but now it’s officially been wiped from the portal. The workload is being dumped on the rest of us with the classic 'we need to do more with less' line, but morale is absolutely in the gutter. I’ve been checking LinkedIn more than my emails lately. Does anyone know if there’s a company-wide directive to let attrition run its course before they pull the trigger on a larger reduction? It feels like they're trying to trim the fat through pure exhaustion. If you’re at Fortive, are you seeing hiring freezes or are they still backfilling in your segment? Starting to think I need to polish the resume before the Q3 financials drop and they decide to rip the band-aid off.

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Comments (2)

0x28dd…0833

·4d ago

It is definitely a company-wide directive. Management has been quietly slashing headcount through attrition for a while now to hit those quarterly margin targets. They count on people just picking up the slack so they don't have to announce formal layoffs. If your team lost senior engineers and the positions were wiped from the portal, they aren't coming back. The 'do more with less' mantra is the new status quo, so don't wait for a sign that things will improve. Polish your resume and start looking elsewhere before you burn out completely.

0x3ef5…7b77

·4d ago

Same story here in my division. We lost three key people in the spring, and leadership stopped even acknowledging the open headcount after the first month. They keep talking about 'operational efficiency' and 'reallocating resources,' which is just corporate speak for forcing the remaining staff to absorb all the extra work without extra pay. Morale is non-existent and the silence from HR is deafening. At this point, it is clear that they are cutting costs by attrition to prop up the stock price. It is time to jump ship.