Paycom Sheds 500, Paradox, and More Muse
Happy Friday Job Board Doctor friends,
I’m writing this jet-lagged and already missing the Portuguese sun, but looking forward to seeing many of you soon at RecFest USA — while also missing those of you headed to Job Boards Connect and Unleash World including my incredibly talented eldest child.
If I could split myself in three, I’d happily be face to face with all of you, especially you, Kennedy.
Last week’s newsletter sparked a lot of discussion, and I loved to hear so many of your thoughts on the role of recruitment agency advocacy groups and of the large agency players in our space. It was nuanced, sometimes angry, and 100% engaging.
This week, as I wake up in America for the first time in nearly five months, I find myself focusing a little closer to “home.”
On tap for this week:
Paycom Layoffs
Layoff via sms
Paycom laid off 500 employees at its Oklahoma City headquarters via text message and follow up mass layoff call this week.
On Wednesday, October 1st around 5 a.m. local time, soon to be impacted Paycom employees received a text telling them not to come to the office and to instead join a mandatory department-specific online call.
Based on publicly available information, it appears most employees were from two departments: QA and Dev.
Once they logged in, they were told they no longer had jobs.
They also learned their personal items would be shipped to them, they could return their Paycom equipment (free of charge), and would be eligible for severance as long as they follow the rules.
A partial copy of the dynamically read recording was obtained by The Lost Ogle and posted on X and TheLostOgle.com.
WARN NOTICE
Local OKC station, News 9, reports Paycom did file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice, but as of October 2 at 4 p.m. EST, it was not listed on the Oklahoma Security Employment Commission (OESC) WARN notice site.
As a reminder from the CareerBuilder + Monster WARN saga: companies with more than 100 employees (with some caveats) must provide 60 day advanced notice for mass layoffs or plant closures. You can read more about the basics of WARN Notice Requirements, if it suits your fancy.
Paycom, which terminated 500 employees, fits the parameters of a company required to provide employees with a 60 day advanced WARN notice.
The U.S. Department of Labor does, however, allow companies to effectively bypass the 60 day part of the WARN in two ways:
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Pay in lieu of notice. It’s technically a violation, but if a company provides 60 days’ pay and benefits, it often offsets potential damages impacted employees would be able to recover.
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Waivers. Employers can condition severance on employees waiving their WARN rights.
And as always, feel free to share your stories with me.
Paradox and Workday deal closes; roles impacted
On October 1, Workday announced it had completed its acquisition of Paradox, first revealed in August. The deal closed as expected and within Workday’s fiscal Q3, which ends October 31.
Unfortunately with acquisitions, there are both big highs and low lows. The Paradox team experienced both.
With the growth and evolution of Paradox under CEO Adam Godson, coming to another pinnacle with the completion of the acquisition, there were also a number of employees impacted as roles were eliminated, assumedly after role reviews revealed redundancies between the two organizations.
As I try to do when learning about job loss in our industry, there are a few incredibly talented folks who are now looking for their next adventure, I want to share with our readers who may be on the hunt for the kind of talent that builds a $1.5B master class.
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Eileen Kovalsky: Formerly Global Head of Candidate Experience at GM and Paradox’s Senior Director, Client Success and Advocacy.
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Melyssa Bernstein: Channel Marketing Manager, Strategic Partnerships for both the Workday Alliance and Agencies Alliances.
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Erik Schmidt: Director of Content and Brand. If you know Paradox, you know, they lead the market in thought leadership and messaging.
While I don’t know the total roles impacted, these are certainly a good representation of the talent back on the market.
Update: The Muse Pays Its Invoice
Following last week’s story on The Muse, Steven Rothberg shared with me that after reaching out to former CEO Dave Bethoney on LinkedIn, The Muse paid the overdue invoice (singular) owed to College Recruiter.
This is good news for College Recruiter, and I want to acknowledge Dave’s role in helping resolve it. Certainly, this is more than the current CEO of Randstad and the former CEO of Careerbuilder + Monster did to help right the industry players they left hanging out to dry.
Yet, it is still warning lights for our industry.
We are still awaiting the public announcement of the new investor who has acquired the Muse and their respective properties. What are their plans? Keeping my ears and my DMs open for any intel to share as soon as I can.
Until Next Time,
Julie “The Doc” Sowash
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