I’m trying to figure out what the long-term plan is for the French site post-acquisition, because the messaging we're getting locally is incredibly concerning and honestly makes zero sense.
I’m in a very profitable BU. We have the budget and desperately need the headcount, so we went to put in a job requisition. I was flat-out told that the company has decided not to make any future hires in France from now onward. Period.
This is right on the heels of the recent layoffs where we lost over 60 people on the Ansys France side (around 10% of the local workforce). The layoffs were executed pretty smoothly here, so a sudden, permanent-sounding hiring freeze immediately after feels totally out of left field.
What really baffles me is the geography of it all. France has historically been Ansys’s third largest presence globally, right behind the US and India. We used to easily have 10 to 30 open positions at any given time. We’ve always hired heavily here because we have massive customers right in our backyard and the engineering talent for Ansys products is top-tier.
Yet, from what I can tell, this strict "no more hiring" rule isn't being pushed on most other geographies.
If we are profitable and have the talent, why the hard stop just on France? It creates so much uncertainty about the future of the site. It feels like they are just going to let attrition bleed us dry. Has anyone else heard this directive from leadership? Are they quietly planning to phase out French operations entirely?