After being acquired by Constella Group two years ago, the former Futures Group, its contracts and staff will be sold again to SRA International in July. The renamed Constella Futures is part of the wholesale sale of the Constella Group to the large defense contractor. We are stunned by this development especially in view of the tortuous transition process that has disrupted many aspects of the company's work since the original sale - not to mention the wholesale reduction of benefits and remuneration. Now, we will have to endure another transition which management has said will go very smoothly. Of course, that is what management said two years ago before the real troubles began!
SRA International largest market is national security including the the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of Defense, Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, other intelligence agencies, and other federal organizations with homeland security missions. They are heavily into data mining in these endeavors as well as in the provision and oversight of IT systems such as e-mail. Given Constella's practice of reading employees e-mails (see below), the two groups will be a good fit in at least one regard.
Various SRA press releases and published articles detail the expected benefits that will accrue to SRA from this purchase. Here is one of the clearer statements justifying the acquisition made by SRA Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Stephen Hughes:
"Constella's health market credentials address a key element of our long-term strategy. We expect this transaction to be accretive to earnings in Fiscal Year 2008, with significant cash tax benefits. We believe the strength and stability of our cash flows provide ample borrowing capacity to make further acquisitions in the near term." http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/BREAKING%20NEWS/565577/
An SRA spokesperson chose not to comment about potential layoffs at Constella. Given the layoffs that occurred after the Constella purchase of Futures Group, and the subsequent departure of scores of top staff, who knows what to expect.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Friday, June 1, 2007
E-Mail Not Private Anymore - Beware!
In a recent court case against the company on an arbitrary firing of a key staff member on Christmas Eve, the court stated that the firm "presented only vague and unsupported testimony" and that firm "failed to offer sufficient evidence in the record to establish the Claimant was discharged for misconduct..." (See DC Employment Court Decisions, May 2007)
This was a clear case of the demoralizing atmosphere that has existed since the take-over and has resulted in so many departures. Critical to the case that the company tried to make in the court hearing were a series of employee e-mails. The reading of employee e-mail is denied by management in the hallways, but yet they presented personal staff e-mails as evidence in court. It is clear from the court records that they sifted through staff e-mails trying to uncover 'evidence of disloyalty.' The reaction to this has been predictable. Many employees shifted to their private e-mail accounts for any communication that could possibly be construed as critical of the company. One former senior manager resigned after the gross privacy infringement and wrote the following letter to this blog:
“I understand the corporate reality is that your employer 'owns' your company e-mail address. We would all be well advised to be aware of this and have private address for personal matters. However, I was and am still troubled that the company felt that it could exercise its 'right' to go into email exchanges between employees are a way of drumming up proof to unfairly dismiss an employee. This action was NOT discussed at any senior management meeting and therefore, there was no opportunity for the leadership team to participate in this decision. This action yet again undermined the company's leadership team and made employees even more suspicious of us. Given, in our technical work we where we advocate for human rights and transparency, it strikes me as terribly inconsistent that they don’t practice the same values.”
It is this atmosphere that contributes to the staff defections that are still occurring at the firm.
This was a clear case of the demoralizing atmosphere that has existed since the take-over and has resulted in so many departures. Critical to the case that the company tried to make in the court hearing were a series of employee e-mails. The reading of employee e-mail is denied by management in the hallways, but yet they presented personal staff e-mails as evidence in court. It is clear from the court records that they sifted through staff e-mails trying to uncover 'evidence of disloyalty.' The reaction to this has been predictable. Many employees shifted to their private e-mail accounts for any communication that could possibly be construed as critical of the company. One former senior manager resigned after the gross privacy infringement and wrote the following letter to this blog:
“I understand the corporate reality is that your employer 'owns' your company e-mail address. We would all be well advised to be aware of this and have private address for personal matters. However, I was and am still troubled that the company felt that it could exercise its 'right' to go into email exchanges between employees are a way of drumming up proof to unfairly dismiss an employee. This action was NOT discussed at any senior management meeting and therefore, there was no opportunity for the leadership team to participate in this decision. This action yet again undermined the company's leadership team and made employees even more suspicious of us. Given, in our technical work we where we advocate for human rights and transparency, it strikes me as terribly inconsistent that they don’t practice the same values.”
It is this atmosphere that contributes to the staff defections that are still occurring at the firm.
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