RSSResponse from Rita Foumia, HR Director at BNP, Regarding Stagnito
Last week, when complaints to me from Stagnito employees were at a fever pitch, I thought it prudent to call the company and, first, assess the veracity of the claims, and, second, make them aware that I was hearing a lot of complaints if they were somehow unaware of the unrest. I ended up speaking with Rita Foumia, the HR director at BNP. Here’s what she had to say:
“We aren’t setting up new rules. What we have in place as company policies and procedures we have to enforce for all employees. We’re not going to set up special rules and implement them for Stagnito employees.“
Regarding the abolition of all unofficial telecommuting agreements between managers and employees:
“If they have a telecommuting agreement in place, that’s the way it’s going to stay. If we have someone that doesn’t have a written, formal agreement, then we don’t know about it. We don’t have any documentation on that, and it’s my responsibility to follow up with everybody. Until then, they have to come into the office. The problem is that we have a loty of people working from home whenever they want to, and we can’t have that.”
“Ascend had said they were not going to pay out the vacation days of its Stagnito employees. But now, Ascend is paying the unused/accrued vacation. They got their checks today [this was last week], with a letter from Ascend. We gave them an additional five days for the rest of the year.”
“Our manual is on the intranet. And they all have access to it now. What we didn’t want to do is overwhelm anybody. The biggest concerns they’d have is employment and benefits. We all wanted to make sure that they all got paid the same way they did before the transaction happened.“
And, in summary:
“We’re trying to make it as smooth as of a transition as possible. We have to implement our policies.“
This may all be true, but the fact is, I’m still hearing from my sources that there is widespread unrest at Stagnito. I’ve heard that many employees are actively searching for new work. If so, that’s bad news for BNP.
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When Ascend paid us the missing vacation, BNP took the 5 days away
Also as of Friday the layoffs have begun, an important person in the structure of Stagnito was let go.
Who?
Sue Ravenscraft, was told there was no place for her in the company.
Sue was VP of Circ, has been with Stagnito for 8yrs. She was also responsible for all classified, list rental, and reprints, along with office management and sales support. With all of these responsibilities seems rather odd to me that they could use her talents. I heard in a meeting that she was given a position in the sales area. Funny how that went away?? She is currently Pres of the Midwest Circ Assoc, sits on the BPA Advisory Board, is certified in 2nd class.
I am glad to see that Rita is once again saying that she has given all of the employees 5 vacation days to use, it was my understanding that she gave them and then took them back, but we now have it in writing from her so this one she wont be able to double talk about.
Seems to me there is a race for the door. People cant wait to leave and start with a new company that cares about people.
Jeremy - It seems that those of us who have been sending your information may have ruffled feathers at BNP Corporate. An update to the employee handbook was recently sent out. It says that any talk to the media/press about BNP business is unacceptable and is subject to disciplinary action up to termination.
This doesn’t surprise me. I’d feel the same way if I were them. It’s the job of the corporate communicator to talk with the press. When there is significant news at a company, however, and key or affected employees see that it’s not getting publicity, there is pressure to leak information to the press. As far as I know, BNP doesn’t have a corporate communicator. Companies of comparable size in this industry reach out to me all the time with stories and information. In addition, when there is a negative story about the company, the corporate communicator is my liaison and makes sure that information is conveyed quickly and accurately, so there are few mistakes.
BNP is certainly right in not wanting employees to talk with me about what is going on at the company. At the same time, they’ve done a poor job of communicating to you (the employees) and to me what is going on at the company. My guess is that much of the anger and confusion that is coming out of Stagnito wouldn’t really exist at this point if they had done a better job of communicating.
I think what they should have done is made clear the policy changes and given you the employee handbook at the outset while also explaining to you that you were now part of a great B2B media company and that you are going from a company that was not focusing on you as a core business to a company determined to grow your business. Perhaps many of you would still have been upset about the new hours, the vacation policies, or other stuff, but I think the amount of anger would have been less, since it wouldn’t have been a surprise. Things like this happen. Companies are bought and sold, and lives of employees are disrupted. But it does not need to be a shock as well as bad news.
People are beginnning to leave. Just a heads up