I thought about titling this post, “Holy Crap, I Got an Official Response from Monster,” but the layoff angle seemed more appropriate. Sources are telling us the company is going through another round of layoffs in light of recent cuts over the past year. It’s been described as “Bloody Monday” via Facebook updates.
“There is a reorganization happening to put the employer and seeker groups together,” said our source, who also alleges to be one of the axed. “A number of people from product and technology are being laid off, including Michael Gray and Keith Landau. I don’t know many other names. I don’t have a count either, but one of my colleagues was given a list of the people being released by title and age, and it was about 8 pages in length, so I’m guessing about 200 people.”
For Monster’s part, basically supporting many of our source’s information, Kathy O’Reilly, senior manager, media relations said, “Over the past several days, we’ve announced internally two important moves that position Monster to meet the changing needs of our customers: the opening of a Technology Center of Excellence & Innovation in Cambridge, MA; and a re-structuring of our Product & Technology organization to support our strategic direction.
“As we have been doing for the past 24 months, we continue to re-structure, re-organize and, importantly, re-invest in our organization in ways that we believe are necessary to meet our ever-growing and changing customer needs. This means that roles and skill areas that are no longer needed to support the business are re-structured so that we can bring in the skills necessary to continue to invest in industry-leading product innovation and in building the infrastructure and organization to successfully grow our business for the future.”
Remember a few years ago when Monster laid off 800 people and what a big deal it was? This year’s looking like it’ll surpass that … Guess I’m just numb to this stuff. It’ll be nice to report on the start-up who’s hiring hundreds of people. What’s Goldberg up to?
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July 7th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Hi Cheesman,
Every Monster type job board is about to get hit hard!
I just left a Fortune 100 technology company and job boards is a HUGE investment or cost depends on which major board is being reviewed and let’s just say ending some major job board relationships saves about 1-3 recruiter jobs for every group with at least 20-25 fulltime recruiters in most large companies technology companies across the board.
So who’s job will be spared if the large tech firm has a say in it ?
It won’t be a Monster, Dice or Hotjobs employee a large tech firm Shareholders care about.
John Polhill – Founder of http://www.cgtpa.org
July 8th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
It is true; I am one of the casualties. Word is it’s about 160 people.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
does this article (see below) mean they’re back-burnering trovix? or just switching the work to Cambridge?
http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2009/07/06/daily34-Monster-cuts-160-creates-80-jobs-in-Cambridge.html
July 9th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Somehow this is not so surprising. Amazing it took this long to happen.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Will this effect their re-launch into the Australian market with Careerone.com.au?
July 24th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Monster has some serious issues, here is a real insight:
– The CIO never show up in all-hand meetings, hardly ever communicates,
why does it matter? go figure…
– Highly volatile management, director/VPs/Manager, no one feels secure,it does not matter how hard u work, if you are not part of the golf club, u could be laid-off anytime -;, I was lucky to survive this time, not sure in near future…
– Trovix + ChinaHR, over 200M spend initially and another 10
to 20 millions to merge/integrate those technologies, ROI? no
body in upper management cares. Every project at monster in last
3-4 years are based on “because CB is doing it we need to do it”,
“need more graphics on site”, “widgets…what a great thing…”
it seems like the word “ROI” does not exist here, zero accountability
“you can spend 10 million on a new look of the site” returns…
“did we project before…so why ask now…”
- So now half ur pocket is empty(220 million from 340 million a year ago), need 20% every year to maintain it, result 1Q,2Q, and 3Q? 30% revenue loss compare to last year, action: layoff people, wait…160 laid-off but 80 will be rehired at Cambridge facility, what a great idea?? not original let me guess because Google just did…copy cat
In my last 5 years with Monster, one thing that’s common between
this management and previous one is, “act first and then think”,
“oh what did I do wrong??”
The CEO no doubt is a great leader, I am big fan of him and a reason
why I am still here, unfortunately from investors perspective that’s not enough, I have seen lot of companies with great leader but are
not doing good because they don’t know what’s happening at the shop-
floor level.
Enough for now…will share more latter….looks like I am the only one still in the office…4 days a week won’t be a bad idea.