Lexis lay-offs continue
Lexis Nexis bought up the Michie Company in the early 1990s.FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER
Eight months after a London Daily Telegraph article sparked fears of local layoffs at Lexis Nexis, more than 20 Charlottesville Lexis employees are out of jobs– including 12 who were laid off last spring and as many as nine who were notified just last week that they'll soon be out of work.
A Chicago-based Lexis spokesperson declined to comment but provided a company statement that reveals Charlottesville's Lexis municipal code group has been sold to Tallahassee, Florida-based Municipal Code Corporation. In exchange, the statement explains, "LexisNexis will license existing and additional code content from MCC, enabling us to add more than 900 new municipal codes to our current online library, making LexisNexis a leading provider in this area."
Multiple sources close to Lexis have long said the company is looking to outsource more of its labor. Messages left for Municipal Code Corporation were not returned.
7 comments
Anyone who knows anything about the workplace options in Charlottesville knows to avoid this company and that colossal, green monument to greed just around the corner, managed by a past associate of Ivan Boesky.
Both of these places are sweatshops that would seem to pay decent salaries until you become hip to the fact (and it doesn't take long), that working 60-70 hours a week suddenly turns that decent salary into minimum wage. Hard work is fine, but to perform such banal tasks for individuals who couldn't care less about you and who know there is another pool of fresh young faces waiting to take your place, well, that's just evil.
well i guess it's a good thing they're going down then huh?!
My friend, who had worked for them for 18 years, got her walking papers this past summer. She said she worked OT the entire week trying to finish a large job, then on Friday, they called her in and gave her the boot. Inside sources say most of these jobs are going oversea to India.
From inside the compound.
There will be more layoffs in '09 guaranteed.
The sad thing is that the remaining people who have been there for years have no other skill for another job. Also, they don't have any further education to get another job paying what Lexis pays. They'll have to work 2 jobs to get the same pay and benefits.
I worked there for two miserable years. It's a total sweatshop run by cretins.
Blinded by greed -- Guided by stupidity. The inept management of LexisNexis rolls on. Their slogan "We value our employees" is an empty joke at best. The parent company, Greed-Elsevier, will not be happy until the C'ville facility is up for sale along with most of its properties around the country. I give this location two years - three at the most.
When I went to work there in 1998, it was great company! The pay and benefits were great...better than I'd had anywhere else. But in two short years it had gone downhill...we thought it was because of the Matthew Bender aquisition by Reed-Elsevier that was the turning point. LN used to be great place to work years ago but sadly is just about finished and it's a real shame.