Our company got acquired by OpenText.
* On day 1, Mark Barrenechea (CEO) announced the return to office policy of three days a week.
- Mark and the execs have very little wiggle room in this policy.
- It doesn’t matter how far away from the office you live, or your living situation. You’re expected to be coming in three times a week. (If you can’t do one day in a particular week, there is some leniency for that).
- Thankfully, on the ground, managers and site staff understood the practical realities of such a policy.
* Mark talked about his immense enthusiasm for what’s called the “OpenVerse” (essentially piggy backing off the Metaverse trend of Meta).
- In Mark’s own words it is “about OpenText being reborn in the cloud.”
- He’s even written a published book about it, called Versant (look for it on Amazon). Such quotes from the book include:
- “Clouds can only reach as high as about 280,000 feet above the surface of the earth. We’re reaching beyond that, into outer space. Into the OpenVerse.”
- “We seek gamers. With grit. Who are home in guilds, and embrace growth and goals. Who practice gratitude. The G-Force.”
* Mark did an immediate U-turn during the AI hype in the middle of 2023. The OpenVerse was never again mentioned. The pivot was incredibly abrupt.
- Suddenly, we were an AI company. Everything was about data, and stuffing AI into as many products as possible.
- We even got some "lovely" AI mascots (yes, generated by AI). Google "OpenText ice mascot" and look at the images.
* The feeling of many employees was that the company culture was the "Cult of Barrenechea". Everything revolved around Mark.
* Approval is needed at literally the highest levels (Mark or C-Suite) for any decision that is even slightly outside of normal processes.
* When it comes to UK employment law, OpenText seem to not care.
- Those making the big decisions (C-Suite) will act as if US employment law is how things are everywhere.
- If people cause trouble, they will default to firing them, unless they get persuaded out of it.
* Any HR grievance raised which threatened the status quo was disregarded.
- Many of the people in the UK HR teams seemed like good people, but were hamstrung by the rigid approval required from above them.
* Despite being a Canadian company, the American corporate culture is overpowering.
- There were toxic levels of positivity/enthusiasm shown by C-Suite which were completely detached from those on the ground.
* No meaningful pay rises. OpenText gave us small pay rises when buying us out of benefits of our employment contracts.
* OpenText want to make software as cheap as possible (ideally in India) and sell as much of it as possible. They really don't care about their employees.
* Huge amount of lip service was given for things like environmental policy and diversity. No substance.
* All the C-Suite seem like Mark Barrenechea super-fans who have been put in place because they adhere to his word.
