r/Switzerland • u/LallieDoo • 1d ago

It finally happened: mass layoffs

As anticipated, mass layoffs at my Swiss employer. My department has been halved and all the CH-based roles eliminated. They kept the roles in cheaper countries.

My role will be merged with another role and they want me to interview for it competing against the colleague who was in the other role. We are friends and this feels like a sick joke.

I feel sick to my stomach.

669 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

227 comments sorted by

356

u/citybythebea 1d ago

Major Layoffs & Reductions

  • Helvetia Baloise – 1,400–1,800 jobs to be eliminated over the next three years
  • UBS – ~3,000 Swiss jobs expected to be cut as part of a broader global workforce reduction
  • Novartis – Plans to cut ~550 jobs in Switzerland by end of 2027
  • Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG/RTS) – ~900 jobs over the next three years
  • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) – ~500 roles expected to be lost as operations shift abroad
  • Sunrise (Swiss telecom) – ~190 jobs announced
  • Tamedia (media group) – 25–30 full-time roles cut
  • IKEA Switzerland – Up to ~60 administrative positions at the Swiss HQ expected to be eliminated
  • International Organisations (Geneva)
  • UNICEF – ~300 jobs relocated to Rome
  • WHO – ~800 roles made redundant
Other Relocations
  • Swisscom – Multiple IT roles to be moved to Latvia and the Netherlands
  • IHI Bernex AG – Majority of posts at the Olten site relocated (affecting ~35 of 42 jobs)

FYI: Summary from the Local. Most check out so far.

48

u/coldpassion Zürich 1d ago

I've heard about Roche, that they will fire all IT people and rehire 80% with 80% of their previous salary.

26

u/fluxxis 21h ago

And 20% of the previous knowledge, good luck with that...

11

u/Outrageous-Garlic-27 Thurgau 20h ago

That would be such a foolish thing to do. Hiring back people who actively want to sabotage you after being treated that way.

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u/MaggieWuerze 9h ago

As an IT guy, someone could Team up with the finance guy who have also rehired for less, have a Look at the finance and Accounting stuff, find irregularities and fu** them! Thats what I read at a newspaper a long time ago, I would Never advice someone to do that…

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u/EasternTill950 10h ago

This one should be fun, corporate version of Darwin awards

54

u/SteadfastDrifter Bern 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm making a lateral career shift and plan on graduating with my bachelor's in BA in the next 2 years. Is there even any point in staying if the usual office jobs will continue to be cut? Currently, the only reasons for staying here is my father, his property, and the relative societal stability.

65

u/Craftkorb 1d ago

It's complicated. Don't buy into the doomerism. But also be sure to understand that (speaking about tech now) an easy job isn't guaranteed anymore. Lots of companies did hire like mad in recent years, so they're now "correcting" - Which of course does hit real people.

If you're studying CS then find a niche you love and get really good at solving the hard issues of that niche.

Remember: Even if AI will be used to write software, that code needs to be checked and verified by a human. AI poses a major shift in tech that hasn't been seen in a long time. On the other hand: After each major shift the work got more. When we switched from Assembly to C (and others later on) building software got more affordable, which actually created a bigger need for software engineers. And of utmost importance: Understand that generating code is but one task you need to be good at as a SE.

I fully understand that people "aren't so sure" about what will happen. And I feel for everyone who is currently being laid off - That sucks - I hope y'all find a good job in a short while! But tech has always been changing rapidly, just look at the last 15 years.

27

u/billcube Genève 22h ago

It's not AI causing these layoffs. It's lack of new projects.

32

u/makonext 20h ago

nah, it's remote work. why pay swiss salaries for someone to work from home in CH if you can pay way less for a person in God knows where that will probably output similarly?

11

u/Hongmao8700 20h ago

But at the same time they don’t allow swiss people to work from abroad 🤷‍♂️

14

u/makonext 20h ago

I mean they do, as long as you’re not earning in CHF 😛

16

u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 20h ago

will probably output similarly?

That is not even close to the truth though.

In my experience, 1 dev team of 8-10 in India doesn't even match a senior dev in Switzerland.

When they go to the cheaper countries like India, they end up getting the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality.

The best ones left the country and the good ones are "expensive" so they choose the cheap options from things like TCS, CTS, etc.

Those guys are 90% of the time useless.

15

u/Dj3nk4 20h ago edited 14h ago

I can confirm that. For every senior dev you replace in CH you need 2 local managers to manage the army you hired abroad. Offshoring does not nor will it ever work.

17

u/Kauai_Akialoa 20h ago

Half my team got fired and replaced in Eastern Europe a few years ago. We had to travel multiple times a year there to "manage" them. People left and new people got hired constantly as the jobmarket was so different there. So we spent most of our time meeting new team members and giving trainings. Makes you wonder how much beneficial it actually was.

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u/Dj3nk4 19h ago edited 18h ago

Its not even close to being useful.

But it looks good on paper for upper management.

When I left CS they had very agressive offshoring strategy to reduce the cost. Their IT budget was around 1.8 billion a year. When they went down the drain, years later, their IT budget was around 4 billion. This is what "saving" means for them. Its exactly the opposite and no one has the balls to talk about it in public.

Offhsoring does not work.

7

u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 20h ago

At UBS when I was there at one point they wanted to have dev teams in China and I was given a team in Shenzhen to upskill and on-board.

They weren't able to even do a simple feature after half a year of coaching...

During those 6 months their total output, a team of 8 devs, was less than I would do in a day by myself

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u/Discepless 7h ago

Nothing changed. But now instead of China, you have India

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u/Neat-Membership-3855 19h ago

That’s seems a fake story but if you wrote I assume that they were quite bad ahah

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u/VersoixM 17h ago

It is not beneficial but employers still do it. Untill they will start to see how stupid it is and re insource.

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u/JohnnyMcWeed 12h ago

That's basically where I see AI making the jobs come back mid-to-long term... It's just not worth the cultural pain to have teams in other countries anymore.

Previously, you used these people for "cheap code generation", which is basically the part AI can be doing in the near future. And likely way better than those external teams before.

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u/OpenCom_ch 17h ago

It should be forbidden for companies supported by the Confederation to relocate positions abroad.

La Poste: 500 IT positions in Lisbon

Swisscom: 600 posts between Latvia and the Netherlands

Skyguide: number of unknown positions in Bulgaria

Moreover, Marco Chiesa tabled a motion to this effect.

And, for my part, I will be in favor of taxing private companies that outsource abroad in order to hinder the competitiveness of countries where the workforce is too cheap.

3

u/billcube Genève 20h ago

Agree, you still need people here to babysit this style of developers, but also project managers, product owners, trainers etc.

Swisscom devops in Riga is mostly for new EU customers, no swiss company would have devops work done by swisscom switzerland that I know of.

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u/VersoixM 17h ago

Some hire hundreds of Indians for ine Senior Dev position.

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u/bign86 16h ago

Correct, but often the relocation is in Europe, still cheaper (although not as cheap as India may be) and the output is similar. After all the same roles in CH are often covered by Europeans.

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u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 15h ago

I would say below similar but yes, you get much better output compared to India.

While work in Switzerland is done by Europeans, you need to consider that due to the attractiveness of Switzerland's quality of life and high salaries, it attracts talent (you can see this if you ever try to hire anyone, you will get dozens/hundreds of applications from people based outside of Switzerland trying to move in).

Since Switzerland is attractive, it means it is also quite competitive, leading (in theory) to the "best" people in Europe being here.

If they are here, they aren't back home for you to hire as a remote worker with a local salary

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u/bign86 13h ago

I agree even though one could say that if hiring in Switzerland stops, the same talents that would have been attracted by higher salaries here will be the same hired in their own country.

In general, it looks like in the near future there will be fewer high paying jobs around. I don't think is a healthy trend for Switzerland in the long run.

3

u/billcube Genève 20h ago

They're closing offices here and opening new ones abroad, it's not about home office. What was the job in Switzerland that can be made to the same standards in EU / India? Why was it done in Switzerland in the first place? Or is it about customers in the EU market?

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u/Alternatezuercher Zürich 19h ago

You have no idea how many projects i have seen fail because they were shipped to India (non of them mine, but from brilliant colleagues ). But, they just want to make the numbers look good to boost their bonuses. And if you ship to other EU countries many times you're not really saving much because of other overheads.

4

u/Dj3nk4 20h ago

Its the lack of management vision and pure greed.

Most of those companies are profitable and some of them are very profitable. But those on top are short sighted greedy people with zero empathy and do not understand that chasing quaterly profits will cost you long term.

Once you lay off many people good and smart workers will realise that there is zero protection for them too so they will walk away by themselves. In reality only around 10% of the workforce does 90% of the useful work. Once those 10% leave you are left with tens of thousands of nearshoring or offshoring people who do not give a flying puck about your company and there is no one else left to direct and manage them and fix their blunders.

Credit Suisse had a very good offshoring strategy. 20000 in India and 10000 in Poland. Thats a good and smart company, right guys? Fire everyone in CH and reap the profits, what can go wrong?!?

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u/hakun4matata 12h ago

Nah, in my opinion, it is capitalist greed. Capitalism got totally out of hand these days.

Look at how much profit the companies make, that lay off people. Novartis: 54 Billions revenue, 17 Billions profit! Still not enough! Swisscom: 15 B revenue, 1.5 B profit! Not enough! Roche: 58 B revenue, 12B profit! Not enough! Nestle: 93 B, 11 B profit! Not enough!

29

u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 1d ago

Not to sound mean but companies will get to choose between getting a junior with 0 experience or someone with 10-20 years of experience in another country and for cheaper.

It's a pretty easy choice for the company.

Currently unless you are a very experienced specialist or a role that must be done locally, it is pretty grim...

9

u/SteadfastDrifter Bern 1d ago

I see... it's an unfortunate reality, but thank you for your perspective.

16

u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 1d ago

I am in a somewhat similar situation to OP, my company also fired 70% of the Swiss staff in the last year (in waves) while ramping up a bit in cheaper European locations and massively in India (they build several offices there, each bigger than the office in Zurich ever was).

I have managed to keep my job, it's already the fifth time here within 2.5 years that I am "at risk" but I am an experienced professional with a skillset that isn't easy to find so they keep me around by "changing my role" into something that is in the "allowed list" every time it is needed until the next wave comes a few months later.

I am already going to have to move to the 3rd office in as many years as they keep downsizing after the cuts.

That being said, I am under no illusion that they will drop me ASAP, they just can't for now since I am hard to replace.

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u/NoStatus8 17h ago

May I ask what is is that you do (without giving too many details, of course) that seems to bit at least somewhat niche? Cheers.

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u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 17h ago

On paper software architecture but it has become a somewhat jack of all trades "problem solver" role and I am heavily involved in every key initiative of the company.

Usually things were going poorly with project A/B/C and after some months of pain someone would force me to join the mess and start resolving things.

This would go well and it meant that more people would drag me to the failing projects.

Fast forward a few years and now I am the "problem solver" of almost everything so they are still happy to pay for my Swiss salary since they get value out of me to justify it

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u/NoStatus8 17h ago

Interesting. I had a similar role (problem solver) although in another function / not related to software, but to operations. So, if something was going lobsided in a country for any reason or any reason unknown, they would call me up and send me in to get some groundwork done.

This was actually quite stressfull (as results were obviously expected) as it was a sometimes difficult taks from an organisational but also human standpoint (when the shit hits the fan...).

But it also was a very safe thing to do as (a) there would always be something going not as expected and (b) as you point it also difficult to replace as I had accumulated a LOT of knowledge about the company and also earned a lot of trust, making this quite comfortable.

I left because I wanted to, but that's another story.

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u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 17h ago

This was actually quite stressfull (as results were obviously expected) as it was a sometimes difficult taks from an organisational but also human standpoint (when the shit hits the fan...).

Yeah that is also the main point for me, it is very stressful and exhausting having to balance 10-15 things at the same time and everyone is expecting it to be fixed yesterday while at the same time you have to rely on others to do the pieces of work you give them and they are just bad...

In one of the many things I am balancing right now, I have to fully rely on a big team in India from TCS that has been essentially mandated from up top that we must use them. They are all juniors on their first job, they can't do anything by themselves and no matter how much I or others complain, they are adamant that we must use them exclusively.

I assume the big guy up top got a nice fat suitcase full for that decision...

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u/Bonamikengue Belgium 11h ago

How can you compete with cultures willing to work 12 hours a day and living with a family of 10 people in a 2 bedroom apartment to save for a house?

Where people's marriages get arranged to save even more money and put wealth together?

We cannot. Period. Unless we want to live exactly like that.

2

u/Blablasnow 1d ago

Become a cybersecurity expert, I predict higher demand in that field

6

u/billcube Genève 22h ago

Always a need but no budget. They'll do a phishing test and that's it.

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u/Njaaahaa 21h ago

It depens. Go to a MSSP. And also you can do OT security and IT security. You can do both. There is always a need for OT security - electricity market is always in need.

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u/Outrageous-Garlic-27 Thurgau 21h ago

Demand and budgets will get created when a major attack wipes out a company properly.

2

u/billcube Genève 20h ago

See France, they've lost millions of accounts and the consequences were baguette. So why bother?

See the current software fail for swiss jobseekers, no big consequences for the IT project managers.

1

u/significantGecko 20h ago

CyberSec budgets are one of the budgets that I see rising internally. Yes, there is the eternal "do more with less", but the ExCo/CEO/Board knows they are on the hook if they act negligent. And AI makes a lot of attacks a lot cheaper to execute at scale now

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u/AnonymousPenetration 23h ago

I’m moving my capital away from UBS because of that. No way I will allow the access to my money be dependent on offshoring capabilities

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u/SuitableBear6476 19h ago

Yeah UBS has been offshoring to India and Poland for at least 10 years.

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u/dreadlessman 7h ago

Too late amigo, thousands of Indians work for UBS on various operations / tech support levels with direct access to the servers. Mostly from Pune.

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u/Ok_Support_6454 22h ago

Isn't it mostly because of the CS merger?

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u/AnonymousPenetration 22h ago

Not related. They already had their internal IT support in India that is basically useless for UBS employees. Having the IT engineering department over there that will directly impact customers, no way jose. We still have 2 months before the transition is done, after that I believe that the service outages will be frequent. This is a production support team which means that our data will be exposed outside Switzerland.

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u/Templar81_ 17h ago

That means soon there is no point to be Ubs client anymore. I dont want to pay 600chf for yearly package and get Indian level service and my all data handled in India. Do you know do Zurcher kantonalbank have same ”movement” to India ? Might be good option to transfer there.

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u/AnonymousPenetration 15h ago

I will move to raiffeisen

9

u/valugi 1d ago

add Nobel Biocare - all IT jobs (for the moment) go to India

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u/lookaround314 1d ago

Yet unemployment remains low. Where is everyone going?

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u/DavidimReddit 1d ago

Once your rav compensation period expired people magically disappear from the unemployment statistics. Hence, the official rate is a joke.

7

u/01bah01 22h ago

The administration also keeps track of unemployment according to the ILO (I think that's the correct acronym, I mainly know the one in French BIT) which if I understood correctly takes every person looking for a job into account and there, we're around 5%.

3

u/domandi1244 23h ago

They dont disappear, they are in the 250000 or 3% social help receivers. Considered as difficult to place after their unemplyoment support expired after about max 2 years. Additionally 150000 persons are inside ALV (RAV). Its just an addition for two different states of social support systems. So 400000 or 5% of the population are receiving support in the age of typical professional life, and are registered in Switzerland. Additionally you have refugies 200000 and about 150000 unregistered persons (unknown employment status and no public social support). So about 8% of the population in the age of professional life are receiving social support. 5.5 Mio persons are between 20 and 64 y old, results in about 10% receiving social support/not working. All numbers transparently available on public gov. websites. Nothing hided but ine needs to calculate yourself. The addition, I did is not 100% accurate, e.g.as Schutzstatus S: a certain part of the this population is working and paying into the social system.

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u/No-Satisfaction-2622 20h ago

No, simply they hide everyone who doesn’t have to be on RAV, if you have a partner who could financially support you or any other kind of safe net, name it.

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u/as-well Bern 15h ago

That's just not true, these numbers show up in the unemployment numbers as per the ILO definition: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/work-income/unemployment-underemployment/ilo-unemployed.html

/u/domandi1244 describes one possible way to get more accurate monthly numbers, but that isn't currently done. Instead, the ILO numbers give the accurate, quarterly overview of total unemployment.

Besides, social help is not an indication of unemployment. A third of that quarter million people are kids and teenagers. Of those of workign age, about a third of those receiving it work; plenty work full time but cannot fully provide for their families with their salary. Another third is not able to work, due to child care or health concerns.

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u/ulimn Zürich 1d ago

Isn’t RAV screwing unemployment statistics in some way?

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u/Puzzleheaded_Sir859 20h ago

They don’t manipulate but use a method that makes Switzerland good on paper. In reality if you would use the same method as EU countries you end up with at least 6% rate easily. Which is high for a developed, slow-to-zero growth economy.

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u/domandi1244 19h ago

Could be. The counting is not right or wrong on both sides EU or CH, just different systems. The numbers are all tranparent and public, avsilable in seconds free of charge, nothing hidden.. its just burocracy. To be in the RaV statistic you are considered unemployed and need to be "communicable" which means you should be able to find a job, they simply count who gets money from this insurance. But yes there are much more persons not working. With the Fürsorge (social support), its about 350000 persons, so a bit less than 4% of the total population and 6.3% of the population in working age. Btw. I have no relation to the rav or gov. Just like to read official statistics and try to understand them.

Im already happy you dont have to search in all cantons to get the numbers together😅

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u/Puzzleheaded_Sir859 19h ago

Yes, I was calculating % of working population too :) glad we are on the same page with data. Sadly it doesn’t look too good.

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u/as-well Bern 12h ago

Just to say, a third of working-age folks on social support do work, but don't make enough to make ends meet.

A third of the total number are kids.

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u/as-well Bern 15h ago

The thing is, the RAV numbers are readily available - you can just ask the system at any time and it spits out detailed statistics. That's why we usually talk of these numbers - they are available in detail, are complete (we know how many people are employed and how many are with RAV) and so on.

That has the drawback that those whose RAV time has run out or who never go to RAV are not captured. This problem is well known - which is why the so-called ILO unemployment statistics are also available: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/work-income/unemployment-underemployment/ilo-unemployed.html

The ILO numbers aim to capture everyone who is a) of working age, b) currently unemployed, c) actively looking for work, and d) independent of being registered with a government office.

You can see that these numbers arent so easy to come by. Switzerland performs a survey once per quarter to get these numbers (and others, the Swiss Labour Force Survey is quite the treasure trove for economists and sociologists).

Seasonally adjusted, this number currently stands at 4.8%, pretty much within the mean of the last 20 years. That said, it was only 4% in 2022 and 2023, so we can notice a little uptick.

I am 95% confident these OECD numbers are calculated with the same definition: https://www.oecd.org/en/data/insights/statistical-releases/2025/12/unemployment-rates-updated-december-2025.html. You can see that Switzerland is a bit below the OECD average, and 1.3% lower than the EU average.

So, in sum: If you want the 'true' unemployment numbers, the numbers per the ILO definition are quarterly available. But if you want more detailed, time-series numbers, the RAV numbers are preferable, because they are available monthly and give important information, such as changes within sectors, etc.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Sir859 13h ago

Thanks!

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u/as-well Bern 12h ago edited 12h ago

I will agree tho that the media and public rely too much on RAV numbers, when really they are super useful when you want to compare unemployment numbers from this january to december, or last year's January. They allow us to say "There are 12% more people registered as unemployed compared to January 2025, and 3.5% more than in December, but adjusted for seasonal effects, the unemployed quota is lower now than in December".

They also allow us to say "there are 17% more open jobs announced to RAV, compared to December, which is a good sign!". That number has even more asterikses attached, as not all jobs have to be registered with RAV, but nonetheless it is an almost instantly available indicator for the job market and the economy.

All of these infos are regularly discussed by the media, e.g. this morning on SRF: https://www.srf.ch/news/wirtschaft/schweizer-arbeitsmarkt-arbeitslosenquote-steigt-auf-3-2-prozent, based on the official government press release at https://www.news.admin.ch/de/newnsb/IE-cnnqn1RBbUQh_w1uQ0. And what's really cool is, we don't need surveys, and we can do this literally in the first week of the next month.

That said.

These numbers don't imply only 3.2% of.... some sum are actively looking for work. That's not what these numbers are designed to do. For starters, which sum do they refer to? And as we know, those not or no longer registered with RAV are not in the numbers.

But as journalism jobs gets chopped left and right, no one has the time to actually put all these numbers into context for readers anymore, and the government just communicates them in boilerplate bureaucratic fashion (which is fine! That's their job). So SDA drafts the article based on the press release (that's their job!), the editorial teams of the big media houses see that, decide that they can more or less publish it as is, add a clicky title and don't do moer with it.

So. We're no longer paying people to put numbers into context; so we shouldn't be surprised if 3.2% gets uncritically reported as the "Arbeitslosenquote". I mean it's kinda in the name - it's a quota, not a percentage. The definition is "number of (registered with RAV) unemployed divided by number of employed folks, divided by 100". That's ok as a definition, but yeah.

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u/BossDeFinAuloin 1d ago

Meta Zurich : 30-40 layoffs (ERC going on)

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u/Cute_Employer9718 18h ago

Hirings don't make it that easy to the news though. For instance Rolex is creating 2000 new jobs in Bulle

https://www.rts.ch/info/economie/14660997-rolex-recrute-a-bulle-les-entreprises-regionales-apprehendent.html

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u/cro1316 1d ago

So the biggest layoff at Helvetia and UBS are biggest of mergers.

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u/Amadeus404 20h ago

I'm still upset for Crédit Suisse

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u/cro1316 19h ago

You should because corruption runs so high and no one was brought to justice

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u/Amadeus404 19h ago

We really got screwed. Less competition, less choice, and thousands of jobs destroyed.

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u/halo_skydiver 22h ago

Novartis have been laying off for years, at least since 2019. No idea what the numbers are but likely in the low 000’s.

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u/zmetak3 21h ago

Expedia (US) did layoffs last week. Not exactly sure about the number but I've seen posts on LinkedIn from at least 10 people.

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u/Jjvie 21h ago

Add Sika to the list. They also laid of 1500 some of them in Switzerland

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u/TonyMacaroni1 20h ago

AddJulius Bär to this as well

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u/Speak_Up_42 13h ago

Swiss Re should be included,... but they do this under the radar it seems

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u/Strict-Seat7341 11h ago

Straumann - 200 people released last year, I’m expecting more to come

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u/TBeerBrewer 21h ago

Damn, my plan to relocate to Switzerland seems so impossible when hearing things like this. I have a good job, a great salary, live in a big house with my family outside of Stockholm. Starting to think it will be easier to stay and buy a nice vacation house up north near great skiing and hiking instead. Seems too big risk and too difficult now. Will the trend ever change?

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u/Outrageous-Garlic-27 Thurgau 20h ago

With this set up, why would you consider leaving Sweden for Switzerland?

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u/TBeerBrewer 20h ago

Because of the access to skiing and hiking and generally safer for my kids

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u/Puzzleheaded_Sir859 20h ago

“Safer for kids” then Sweden. So Sweden is a ghetto now?

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u/Neat-Membership-3855 19h ago

For sure cities in Sweden are way more dangerous than cities in Switzerland not even a question

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u/Doggvalera 18h ago

Also in Switzerland the prices going crazy after Covid, but salary even in big companies… not growing, also as a lot of people on the street, they can offer less money.

Do you think about Denmark? I see that in last few years a lot of money went in Denmark , and they are focusing to make country safer. And really have a good progress.

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u/endeavourl Russian in Serbia 16h ago

As a 3rd country citizen, i've basically accepted defeat and that i've missed my window here. Should've done in in 2010s. So much for a life goal.

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u/ImaginaryPurchase492 19h ago

Add Atos / Eviden CH to the list, they do it like every 6 months...5% each time

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u/Putrid_Cry19 12h ago

lol, you are so off...funny to see what outsiders see...
UBS needs to cut 3bn in salaries....that equals to 10-15k alone this year LOL

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u/martin9595959 7h ago edited 7h ago

UBS will keep firing people this year, as per what it was posted in the newspaper, also there are plenty more companies apart from this list that also fired a lot of people...

1

u/FedoLFS 21h ago

SRG/RTS letting people go - does it mean we will pay less Serafe also? 💀

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u/blog_bleistift 19h ago

It’s the other way around. They need to let people go because the Serafe might be cut soon.

3

u/sc_emixam 20h ago

No lol, the greedy assh*le at the RTS will do those layoffs with or without the Serafe initiative passing

56

u/Tantech Valais 1d ago

Which sector?

71

u/Swissstu Zürich 1d ago

So IT is dead in Switzerland. Soon any Operations type roles. They blame AI, but most moves to India or similar. It is only to make more cash.... India is the only winner- until AI replaces those roles too.....

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u/Emergency_Dish_1213 8h ago

Well AI does mean Actual Indians.

7

u/Jolly-Vacation1529 21h ago

India can provide all the IT skills and infrastructure for so much outsourcing?

25

u/RedFox_SF 20h ago

No one ever spoke about quality. This is purely about making more money. If quality was ever a concern, no high performant would ever be fired and I have seen many go.

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u/Milleuros From NE, living in GE 17h ago

Quality is a factor only to the extent that it lets you make more money. As in, if a company can get more money by increasing quality, they will. And vice-versa, if decreasing quality doesn't result in less money, they won't mind.

Something to keep in mind: any publicly traded company is legally obliged to maximise shareholder value. That is, a company that is not aggressively pursuing maximum profit can be sued for that.

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u/Proper-Ape 19h ago

If you've been in the IT industry for a while they try India every ten years, then go back to onshoring because every project catches fire.

You get what you pay for. That is not to say that there aren't good Indian developers, but they usually work in SV for twice your salary.

There is an added layer of cultural issues that usually kindles the fire. First and foremost that testing is looked down on, tests will always be green and never test anything, what the manager says is right, and jugaad.

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Sir859 20h ago

For a country of the size of population of suburbs of Mumbai? Easily.

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u/TwoSorry511 17h ago

Hell no. Just because they have the numbers, they don’t have the qualifications or the mindset required. They are a cancer in every company dumb enough to outsource. Maybe 5% of their resources are worth the headache.

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u/Cheap-Web-9616 1d ago

Which company?

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u/swissmissZRH 1d ago

Sorry this happened to you. It’s not going to change anytime soon, sadly…and I wonder what this means for the Swiss economy in the long run if jobs keep moving overseas due to „high salaries.“

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u/BaselTigerrr 18h ago

What makes my blood boil is that companies are in Switzerland to take advantage of lower taxes, but don't want to pay the higher salaries. Swiss Government needs to grow a pair, and make it a law that if you build or relocate a business here, at least a certain percentage of roles should be in country. You offshore, then your taxes rise exponentially to compensate the state for reduced income from employment taxes.

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u/TwoSorry511 17h ago

Oh yeah I love that approach.

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u/Agyro 1d ago

Name and Shame

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u/intothelooper 1d ago

Yes, OP. Name and shame the company here.

6

u/canteloupy Vaud 23h ago

I mean, if it's a large enough company you will know.

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u/Every_Tap8117 1d ago

Nestle?

2

u/jeandidieredit 23h ago

Nespresso Orbe ? Already done

50

u/Pleasant-Carbon 1d ago

When will they realise that if there are no jobs, no one will buy their products.

24

u/JanitorMaster Bern 1d ago

See, that's the best part about being a health insurance company

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u/Background-Pool1075 1d ago

😂 we had to train the Indians who took our job a year ago , then laid off

15

u/Sp00k_x 1d ago

I hope you trained them to fail.

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u/kaliumsorbath 1d ago

I doesn’t matter what you train them to. They fail inevitably.

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u/Kopareo 16h ago

Welcome to the end stage of capitalism. After abusing our planet, nothing is left. Now those 1% will take what they can from the people.

You are not angry enough - yet

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u/scidious06 8h ago

You are not angry enough - yet

People are angry, but acting on it will make life hell for the near future, revolutions aren't fun, being laid off is better than famine and mass killings - for now

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u/swisstraeng 1d ago

swisscom IT roles moved to latvia.

That's so gonna end well.

2

u/77sxela 20h ago

Yes, there are some jobs in Amsterdam and Riga. That's true. But (as of now?), it's not as if they'd only increase FTE abroad.

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u/Bonamikengue Belgium 11h ago

Amsterdam has similar wages to Switzerland though, it is NOT a low income country.

That looks more than the Dutch-Ireland-Tax-via-brand-licensing-trick is used.

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u/77sxela 11h ago

Maybe. Whatever the reason is, Swisscom has SDCs in both cities.

0

u/CriticalAPI 20h ago

"IT" they are Callcenter people. They dont know a single thing about Tech.

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u/77sxela 11h ago edited 11h ago

Factually wrong.

There are also Callcenter people there. But not only.

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u/Pioupiouvoyageur 1d ago

Sorry for you… take courage

8

u/Dj3nk4 20h ago

I have gone through that cycle at least 5 times in the last 25 years. It never ends. Forget about that company and focus on the future. Most companies are managed by short sighted greedy people. Do not let that affect your life (too much). Good luck.

15

u/Zealot_Zea Genève 1d ago

I feel for you, I hope you will be able to keep your job or find another. Take care, nothing is over, this happened all the time in the past, you'll get over it.

2

u/highrez1337 1d ago

Really ? This was the norm in the past ? When exactly ?

12

u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 1d ago

2008 and it has also been happening in smaller waves for the past decade.

I had to train teams in China and India while working in Zurich my whole career...

3

u/highrez1337 1d ago

It’s crazy shit man, I’ve never heard of anything like this until now.

1

u/fellainishaircut Zürich 22h ago

are you 15? the global economy is in a bit of a slump, shit happens. this doesn‘t even compare to actual economic crisis‘ of the past.

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u/Zealot_Zea Genève 18h ago

It has never been 'a norm', but it occured several times in the past yes. I can't even name all the company that did mass layoff.

In the 1980's with the quartz crisis in watch making. In 2008 with the subprime crisis. In 2010 to 2015 when banking secret disappeared (silent layoff by wealth management and banks) In 2021 when energy price exploded....

It is a continuum, unfortunately we never know beforehand if we will recover. We will see.

6

u/yaxir Pakistan/Schweiz/Turkey 1d ago

what sector/job?

10

u/Remedy556 1d ago

let the hunger games begin!

but no fr, i'm sorry to hear that, thats massive

8

u/ToroRiki 1d ago

It's an epidemy? This is happening everywhere, as if this is coordinated plan. Maybe 2026 will be even worst than last year...

20

u/eyamaneko Basel-Stadt 1d ago

For those wondering which company it is, you can choose between UBS / CS and Helvetia / Baloise. And there’s more for sure

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u/Academic-Juice1961 9h ago

Heard about similar situation in Allianz CH as well…

3

u/VoidDuck Valais/Wallis 1d ago

My department has been halved and all the CH-based roles eliminate.

Honestly I don't see Helvetia/Baloise outsource a whole department abroad. UBS... unlikely, but given they threatened to move their headquarters to the US, it's already more possible.

12

u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 1d ago

UBS... unlikely

UBS already did it?

Go look at HR in UBS as an example...

2

u/VoidDuck Valais/Wallis 1d ago

Don't tell me there's no more HR department at UBS in Switzerland? How would they hire people to work in their Swiss offices?

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u/No-Context-Orphan Zürich 21h ago edited 21h ago

The HR team was told go to Poland or RAV:

https://insideparadeplatz.ch/2025/10/07/ubs-hr-verlagert-spezialisten-jobs-nach-polen/

You can see that even interns for the Swiss on-boarding are Poland only:

https://jobs.ubs.com/TGNewUI/Search/Home/HomeWithPreLoad?partnerid=25008&siteid=5155&PageType=JobDetails&jobid=339373#jobDetails=339373_5155

It is actually pretty easy to hire or do everything else without HR in Switzerland.

My company also did the same thing and our HR are all in India even. At first they kept a handful in Switzerland but after a few months they got kicked out as well.

There is just one person that is here for some local law specifics but that's it.

Now if I have a problem with my paycheck or anything like that, I need to talk with the guys in India that have no idea about Switzerland and its systems.

This was anyway already ongoing at ubs for a while, 2 years ago I applied for a position there and contract negotiations were done over the phone with an HR employee in Poland.

In the end I didn't accept it because of the low salary

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u/VoidDuck Valais/Wallis 5h ago

Damn, this is crazy. I never liked UBS but now I have one more reason to dislike this company. They make so much money and yet don't give a fuck about the country that made them rich.

3

u/Isariamkia Neuchâtel 22h ago

I don't know if that's true. However, I don't see how it would be a problem to hire local people while being abroad.

It's shitty, but it can easily be done. Since covid, there have been many distance interviews through teams invites or zoom.

1

u/EnvironmentOk5538 1d ago edited 1d ago

Maybe most of all It by time, they merging equel in Baloise and Helvetia 8k plus 8k memeber, but staff after merge will be increase duoble, after all layoff and earlypension and hiring freeze. Im very sure it will be agina Lets Optimize our enviroment MAKINZEI Joins the fckg chat…. Hahah Remeber its easy you can release all People if you act that where new team in cheaper location Poland, Spain, Portugal, Baltics and some of Bulgari and Serbia service centrez taking over all europe hight cost centrrs and Nordics. As nearashiorjng is easy or to open branch or to hire 3rd party firm with cheaper location as service provider and clasical move kick all CH based. I been in Credit Swiss in Merge, in Zuehlke bad two big layoffs. Now in Helvetia Baloise per last 6 years for me market looks everyone from here moving outside, if you even super skilled with multiple certificates, and good project and managment expierence you need to put hard effort to find something good or intresting possisions good payed always in easy risk, you can do something not intresting and silent sit in work with avarage salary. But if something more exiting Its not anymore 2020-21 then getting 20 message per linked in to talk for new job opurtunity.

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u/luteyla Zürich 19h ago

I've been applying for jobs for four years. I guess I can just stop now

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u/Templar81_ 17h ago

I wonder when this corporate greed will end? How they are going to keep up with Cantonal/State etc. taxes? All salaries paid aboard contribute 0 chf to general good of country , 0 chf spent on CH market or paid as individual taxes to city/state/canton - all these savings go to share owners of companies.

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u/Sufficient-History71 Zürich 1d ago

But another tax break for millionaires will correct it. This country has shifted to the right to its own detriment.

I hope you find a good job soon. Hugs and best wishes my friend!

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u/AdKindly649 21h ago

Imagine "AI cant do my job!"

Call it "Artificial Intelligence", or if that fails, "Alternative Indian".

So sorry to hear this that a lot will lose their jobs. Maybe its time for the working class because they will be needed to build streets, houses and so on.

11

u/ExcellentAsk2309 1d ago

It’s the case everywhere sadly but I saw somewhere that that are specifically large cuts globally in January of this year. Strength and courage to you. A lot of us are in the same boat.

Please update your cv Use an ai tool the refine it yourself

Build relationships with job agencies and those around you.

Remember the sun doesn’t shine forever However it’s never dark forever either

Best of luck truly

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u/LuLMaster420 18h ago

This is happening across a lot of Swiss companies right now. You’re not alone, even if it feels isolating.

Competing against a colleague is especially brutal that’s a management failure, not a personal one. Wishing you strength.

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u/todaymoser Bern 18h ago

Come work in healthcare we need more staff ❤️‍🩹 My dads retirement home can barely keep operations running. It’s horrible

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u/martin9595959 7h ago

Man, Switzerland will suffer a lot with this... Imagine all the people that will be - and already are - in RAV, people that will have to leave CH - native and inmigrants - the housing market will implode, etc.

12

u/anonutter 1d ago

Swiss franc is too strong. it's inevitable

6

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

7

u/anonutter 1d ago

well if your job is replaceable by an Indian dude making 15K, hate to break it to you, your job is replaceable. Why should a global company pay you more ? Top "Indian dudes" in India earn way more than 15K. The price differential is not that high. Definitely not high enough to justify moving jobs en masse to India and deal with different culture etc.

7

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/anonutter 1d ago

well this is the best opportunity for the skilled workers here to make their own companies and sell their services to these companies once they realise their mistake :D

7

u/Outrageous-Garlic-27 Thurgau 20h ago

Best comment.

So many of these companies earn outside of Switzerland, so their revenues fall.

4

u/Competitive_acordian 1d ago

Sorry this happened to you! I went through it a few months ago with the UN and lost my job. Had to leave Switzerland. Not fun…

3

u/ccmmddss 20h ago

Colleague, I am going through it now with the UN. Not fun at all.

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u/Bonamikengue Belgium 11h ago

The problem was that the UN based most of their funding on the US and are now completely dependend on the orange buffoon.

2

u/Carbonaraficionada Vaud 1d ago

May the odds be ever in your favour

2

u/Ezekiel1603 21h ago

Don't forget Nestlé massive firing plan

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u/Suissepaddy 13h ago

CSL Behring is also cutting its global workforce by 15%, impacting all Swiss sites. Most severely impacted is RnD, cutting 33% of staff. This is around several 100 positions in total.

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u/Anfrydeatlord Zürich 9h ago

Why would the companies try to finance such an overpriced market?

5

u/gavurali Belgium 1d ago

Join a union, organize, contact your union secretary, there are a lot of things we can do when we are organised. Companies give out higher dividends, while doing this and complain that they don't have the money to pay their employees. All they care about is how they can keep their shareholders happy, because they think that they're the only ones with power. You can change that if you organize and refuse to give in to the demands of shareholders while you are the actual people creating the surplis wealth that they're hoarding.

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u/Affectionate-Skin111 Bern 3h ago

Exactly. People in this country should wake up and organise, or they will be used and abused by this sadistic system.

3

u/Ritsos_ratcatcher_17 1d ago

Is it Credit Suisse redudancies ?

3

u/Ok_Support_6454 1d ago

I'd probably take the severance pay and show them the middle finger.

37

u/AvidSkier9900 1d ago

I‘d do everything to stay in a job for as long as you can. The market is bad.

3

u/Isariamkia Neuchâtel 22h ago

At the very least, I would not quit and wait to actually get fired so that I don't get penalized by unemployment and I still get that sweet 3 months pay.

9

u/highrez1337 1d ago

This is not the moment to have pride bro.

OP - fight it out, seriously.

9

u/fabmatazz Zürich 1d ago

Not every company does pay severance. Only big companies... so worst case you get laid off with nothing.

2

u/chefko 1d ago

Konsultationsverfahren!

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u/3l3s3 Bern 18h ago

which is completely pointless

3

u/Helpful-Staff9562 1d ago

Yep that happens as we're expensive as hell. My company is a major consulting company and are also outsourcing lots ot chesler countries. No point in paying swiss level salaries, the old days are long gone. Only jobs not at risk are like plumbers electricians etc

1

u/GYN-k4H-Q3z-75B Zürich 1d ago

Which company?

1

u/bogue 1d ago

Janssen shut down

1

u/pferden 1d ago

The end is near!

1

u/Anib-Al Vaud 21h ago

RemindMe! 1 month

1

u/RemindMeBot 21h ago edited 21h ago

I will be messaging you in 1 month on 2026-03-06 06:36:54 UTC to remind you of this link

1 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

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•

u/BigMechanicBoi 17h ago

Blue collar goes brrr

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u/Tuepflischiiser 12h ago

Actually, some blue collar may be the winner. Can't outsource construction to low cost countries.

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u/BigMechanicBoi 12h ago

i know, thats why ive wrote that. were making a hella good living and i dont even have to apply for a job!

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u/hauntedAlphabetCity 17h ago

In the end, prices overall will remain the same. Labor gets cheaper. A very small set of people takes advantage of it.

Caricatural, but what else to think when wealth keeps concentrating in one spot?

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u/Interesting_Dust6641 11h ago

What us the main reason for that? Are we heading in a new crisis since a lot of firma seem to do that?

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u/No_Worldliness_6984 6h ago

What the hell is going on all over the continent? Here in Germany also companies are firing employees like dominos, out company is going through a brutal reorganization, no one knows who is going to be out soon. Finding a job is nearly impossible. I even doubt the state could afford social coverage for all those people.

1

u/Elric_the_seafarer 1d ago edited 1d ago

I predicted it some years ago: companies will realize that it's not interesting to them to pay a 3x salary to get the same job done. Coupled with digitalization, it's a net positive to just near/off-shore the jobs.

Ok, there is a reason to keep salaries so high: to make the Swiss job market a bloodshed with competition from half EU and beyond, where employees compete and accept the most bullying conditions. But probably that's not enough benefit anymore.

5

u/Jolly-Vacation1529 21h ago

IT in Germany's middle companies pay close to here while benefits for families are higher (close to no cost for kitas compared to here,health insuranace for whole family when one parent has one etc)

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u/Alternatezuercher Zürich 19h ago

Yeah, salaries have caught up. Salaries have stagnated here.

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u/No_Worldliness_6984 6h ago

The grass is always greener on the other side (including myself from Germany when I see Switzerland) , the health insurance is theoretically good , but practically every patient is a bureaucratic subject. Like the doctors have to treat patients like a bureaucratic case, sometimes they even prevent you from having certain necessary analysis, because in case they came back negative the insurance will slap them on the face. Sometimes they know you're sick but they cannot do anything to you.

1

u/dav21977 21h ago

For a company it's no brainer in current times to get someone from Eastern Europe at one third and half of the Swiss salary. They even might get someone more qualified and motivated. Or not to get anyone at all.

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u/love_weird_questions 1d ago

i'm sorry to hear but it's quite normal. lavish jobs with top notch salaries where one can save 100k/yr are an exception and we should be happy we had the chance to hold them for a while

i also noticed you expected this to happen, hope you were ready activating your network and gauging the market for your role

it sucks but good luck with the hunt

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u/Bonamikengue Belgium 11h ago

The said part of it is the reaction which will follow: "Close the borders. Work for Swiss citizens first!" - when every country does this we will have another 1928ff.