It was majority employee-owned before the acquisition but is now majority owned by private equity firm. The main change I’m noticing is that everyone is being pressured to work uncompensated overtime (we’re all on salary here) and requests for training/professional development have been all but eliminated. They also initially hired a bunch of new employees with no specific work in mind and expected us to find the new people work to do then got rid of a lot of people about 1 year afterwards.
Has anyone else rode out a private equity buyout? It’s not terrible, but it is extra stress on top of an already stressful job. Is it a good idea to get out now? I’ve heard they typically sell after around 5 years of “optimization”. What happens then?
You could ask if you are eligible for a retention bonus. This is a cash award that is given if you stay X amount of time, or if they lay you off before X amount of time. These are commonly given to key employees when a large transition is happening. It should be a significant amount. About 10 years ago I was offered an $11k retention bonus and accepted it. It doesn’t require you to stay working there, you could leave at any time, but it gives you a bit of protection if they part ways with you early, and if they don’t you get a nice chunk of change at the end of the period. I didn’t think I’d say, but things did get a bit better (until they got worse again), but I did get the bonus, and was laid off within 12 months of the payout (so about 3 years later after the retention bonus offer).
If they say “no”, then they’re telling you that you’re either not valuable enough or that they are keeping their options open for laying you (and likely others) off. Brush up your skills and resume and start looking elsewhere. You’re likely not going to be fired/laidoff immediately, but its its not going to get better.