Electronic Data Systems Reviews in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Area

Pros

Early on great company with ample opportunities and real pay for performance (early 80's).
Great culture and some really bright and dedicated coworkers
At time I left it was still a good place to learn business skills and technical skills especially for young first-time entrants to workforce/technology

Cons

Started downward spiral during reign of Dick Brown
Continued into a downward spiral since by continual denigration of management's policy toward employee treatment
Management totally focused on short term gain at expense of long term viability and employee retention
Employee morale very poor at time I left (2005) and appears to have gotten even worse after HP acquisition (from friends who still work there - there number is dwindling).

Advice to Senior Management

Need to seriously examine core management philosophy in regards to employee treatment. It seems that employees are only considered "cannon fodder" to get the job done with minimal levels of quality for the project at hand. Although management appears to say all the right words, their actions do not support those words.

Pros

It was a large company with many resources. If you needed answers to a particular issue, you had the reach of the entire organization to help. We had great customers in many different industries.

Cons

The size of the company was also the biggest issues. It takes time to initiate change in such a large environment and most of the time decisions were not given enough time to permeate throughout the entire organizations. This resulted in major changes every 6 months or so it seemed.

Advice to Senior Management

When making a decisions, stick to it for at least the medium term and not just the short term. Realize that EDS is (was) a large organization and internal results take time to really take root.

Pros

A good number of clients and projects that they can place you on; however it is difficult to a transfer. They would rather lay you off. Management goes behind your back instead of asking you about what you are doing.

Cons

The most political place I ever worked both internally and externally with their clients. At the time they had been working with 7-Eleven for 13 years and they still didn't trust each other.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't know how this can be done, but clean up the political mess. Try being honest with your clients.

Pros

* Great name to get on your resume...EDS/HP
* Global assignments
* Will meet truly nice folks...
* Will meet really talented folks...on their way out

Cons

* "Seniority" is questionable, at best
* 10+ of experience with the company equates to stagnant thinking, ego-maniacal behavior, poor results...yet can "build relationships"

Advice to Senior Management

* Instead of down-sizing the talented, innovative thinkers, who actually produce results...get rid of the dead weight--->folks whom have never worked with any other company and are exceptional in passing the buck, spouting corporate rhetoric and generally taking up space...and oxygen in the numerous meetings they seem to enjoy "leading", which serve as pissing matches, only to leave attendees annoyed, as they will simply have a minimum of 56 email messages (in 60 minutes), upon their return.

Pros

- You are generally permitted to do what is necessary to get the job done - good deal of freedom - leaders trust you to be the expert they thought they hired
- Your decisions are generally supported by management
- Lots of good and interesting jobs

So far, I have had several excellent roles that I have enjoyed - more than at my previous employer

Cons

- Lots of uncertainty in continued employment due to acquisition - it is unsettling
- More than one person has claimed my work as their work (coworkers) and didn't feel any shame in doing so - too bad for you is the attitude
- Leaders are so busy they often don't have time to focus on important details until they have missed the window of opportunity to make an impact

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to point out where EDS brings value to the HP acquisition

Pros

Life at EDS before HP was acceptable. Managers, for the most part, were flexible with time off and work hours.

Cons

Morale is at an all-time low (and this is post Dick Brown years). EDSers all have a target on their forehead. Even though it was mentioned, "EDS will retain its name and operate as an HP Company," that has changed. It is now HP Enterprise Services. All signs of EDS have been stripped from the building. The parking lot seems to get emptier every day. It's depressing.

Every day at work is just another opportunity to flex that target on our foreheads. I used to think highly of HP but being in their environment and seeing how things are done has really opened my eyes.

Advice to Senior Management

I think if HP realized the talent they have in front of them, things would be very different ... instead of capitalizing on this, they are flushing it down the toilet.

Pros

Innovative environment.
Great people and teams.
Limited freedom to try out new ideas. Depends on the area and your leadership.

Cons

Difficult industry......too much being outsourced and beyond employee performance control.
Company run by Wall Street expectations.
Makes it difficult to be consistent in performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest with employees about what is going to happen to them. They see a lot of colleagues losing their jobs and wonder if they will be next. Take the anxiety out of the consideration.

Pros

Benefit are OK,
Most of people has been working in this field for years and years.
Flexibility

Cons

HP has no experience as services company. It will have negative impact for quite sometime.
Processes are chasing processes.
Pay cut 5% was start then addition 10% in second Qtr. Now job code changes are pure way to move salaries from the bottom to the very top. After it is done, I am sure many people will find their compensation below market level. This is pure legal scam and final nail in the coffin. Good people will leave and it is going to be crazy to get anything done for those who stay behind.

Advice to Senior Management

Have some balls and challenge executives. People is your core asset and you can not offshore experience.

Pros

Use to be loyal to employees.
Nice blue cubicles.
Good people to work with.
Good health insurance.
Work from home used to be encouraged.

Cons

Emphasis on solving profit margins through off-shoring and throwing low-priced bodies at projects.
Top-heavy.
Many layers of worthless managers.
Short-sighted pay cuts will drain the company of needed experience, and has drained all goodwill toward the company from the employees.

Advice to Senior Management

You're next.
Customers will see the difference in service, and business will be lost.
When that happens, don't blame your underpaid, inexperienced staff.

Pros

Team members and peers will go the extra mile for you and take pride in the quality of thier work.

Cons

Executive leadership, especially now under Mark Hurd and HP are singularly focused on shareholder value, not stakeholder value, regardless of the lipservice paid to caring about employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Take care of your employees, or they will leave when times get better. Forcing pay cuts, unequally on North American employees but not other country employees due to local laws and telling us it will save jobs, and then resuming work force reductions a couple months later destroyed any credibility. Equally, telling employees in April that there would be a forced shutdown the last two weeks of the year, and that we had to save 8 days of vacation, then performing work force reductions a couple months later and not paying of unused vacation is just plain unethical.