At last!

Finally someone who understands what CGI is all about. It’s not easy to find someone outside the C-suite who understands this, but I found one on RateMyEmployer.ca who reached that level of wisdom by himself/herself. Maybe this person actually read our annual report and was hit by a powerful bolt of insight, who knows.

Like any company that is accountable to the shareholder, CGI's focus is on making money. Period. It's not on delivering quality management advice or automated systems. It's money.

YES! It’s so good and refreshing to hear this, some many people have this fear/disgust of money, like it’s a taboo or some shameful disease you’re not allowed to disclose. Yes, CGI is about making money. Period.



CGI is very good at exploiting it's position as an approved services provider for the Federal Government. In many cases, the govn't has no choice but to give work to CGI and they know it. Quality of work is barely above unsatisfactory - but that doesn't matter. CGI's culture is that of entitlement. They're entitled to make money hand over fist. Ooops, is our project late? Oh well, read your contract; it says that it's your fault and now you have to pay us more. Hahahaha! (p.s. not an exaggeration).

Doing business is sometimes about banging the client and explaining to him that it is for the greater good. I like those situations where the government has practically no choice but to give us the contract because our people have been on-site for a couple for years and they are the only who know who their shitty system works. Internal employees are just sitting there until retirement. What happens if we get out of this client? All hell breaks loose because their copier has more functions than the average employee. So the client extends us for another 5 years. This is great, I don’t see the issue here. Let’s continue.



I witnessed many unsavoury practises during my years working for the Ottawa branch. I've seen companies bought by CGI only to have each and every last employee fired once the clientèle was secured. I've seen coworkers with lots of experience replaced on projects by less experienced ones and then let go. I've seen our once generous benefits disappear entirely (not unique to CGI but it was sold to us as "temporary" and then never reinstated). I've seen people laid off and then given no severance (each employee had to fight for it).

When we buy a company, what we look for are the financial assets (i.e. money in the bank) and their customers. A consultant is just a consultant, it's like a screwdriver they are easily exchangeable. Don’t give me that crap about “lots of experience” replaced by “less experienced” because it’s a legitimate way to boost your earnings. Replacing a $80K consultant with another one that makes $60K means that you pocket $20K at the end of year. The end result will be the same. 20 years from now it won’t make a single difference if John or Mike or Susan or that Chinese guy whose name cannot be pronounced did the job. What will matter is a strong balance sheet.

I’m currently reviewing the salaries at Stanley, I can tell you right away that at least 40% of them are overpaid and will have to sacrifice themselves in the name of profitable growth. They probably drive BMWs, so by switching to a used Chevy they should be able to keep their job and be proud of it.



All in all, this is to be expected when you work to make someone else rich.

Here the wisdom ends on a sour note, as this employee figured out that wealth does not exist in the employment universe unless you screw clients at an investment bank. What can I say? People are groomed to be obedient and docile and sometimes their behaviour change over time, when they realized that their CEO is making 50 times more money than they do.