Move on please, nothing to see here...

To anybody currently working for, or recently having left EDS UK (and I'm in the latter category, hence the anonymity) this will come as no surprise at all. There has been a singular lack of work, particularly in the applications development arena, for nearly a year now. The company kept promising that new projects were in the pipeline but little concrete evidence of this has surfaced. I sat on my backside for six weeks before deciding to find myself a new job - before I became an overhead the company no longer wished to sustain.

I don't see things getting better in the short or medium term. The company has a less than glowing reputation with government (it has lost Customs and Excise and Ministry of Justice in the last four years, I expect Prisons to follow suit when it is up for rebid) and has been unable to make any significant traction in the commercial sector during the five years I was there. A few lawsuits have been knocking around though - Sky, Airtours... Only DHSS and MoD are doing 'well'.

However, EDS is really good at deciding that the answer to all their woes is to restructure. I was restructured five times in the last 12 months of my tenure, each time with a new line manager and my pay rise was 'lost' twice. The things that might have made a significant difference to quality of work and retaining expertise (the capability units) were formed with insufficient cash behind them and then disbanded after nine months of inactivity.

Head office management (Plano) doesn't seem to have a clue why things are the way they are, IMHO EDS in the UK is on a hiding to nowhere. Bad reputation, low morale and a complete misunderstanding of the issues by management means the company is in a catch-22 situation of its own making. Many older staff are loyal only because they are in the final salary pension scheme, but anyone who joined since 2003 is in a standard money purchase scheme and hence has a lower degree of loyalty to the company. Last one out turn off the lights please.