#accountability

Now even less time for DXC. The AI bot who wrote the earnings call speech is now the DXC CEO.

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC Established in Compliance with U.S. Regulatory Requirements

Today, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025, now enabling more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses to continue to discover, create, and thrive as part of TikTok's vibrant global community and experience. The majority American owned Joint Venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for U.S. users.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture's mandate is to secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures. It will safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem through robust trust and safety policies and content moderation while ensuring continuous accountability through transparency reporting and third-party certifications.
….
Data Protection: U.S. user data will be protected by USDS Joint Venture in Oracle's secure U.S. cloud environment. The Joint Venture will operate a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program that is audited and certified by third party cybersecurity experts. The program will adhere to major industry standards, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) CSF and 800-53 and ISO 27001 as well as the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Security Requirements for Restricted Transactions.
Algorithm Security: The Joint Venture will retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data. The content recommendation algorithm will be secured in Oracle's U.S. cloud environment.
Software Assurance: The Joint Venture will secure U.S. apps through software assurance protocols, and review and validate source code on an ongoing basis, assisted by its Trusted Security Partner, Oracle.
Trust & Safety: The Joint Venture will safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem and have decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and content moderation.
Interoperability enables the Joint Venture to provide U.S. users with a global TikTok experience, ensuring U.S. creators can be discovered and businesses can operate on a global scale. TikTok global's U.S. entities will manage global product interoperability and certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing.
The Joint Venture, built on the foundation of the TikTok U.S. Data Security (USDS) organization, will operate as an independent entity governed by the following seven-member, majority-American board of directors:
…

Raul Fernandez – Independent Director and Chair of the Security Committee: Raul Fernandez is President and Chief Executive Officer of DXC Technology and a member of its Board of Directors. He brings more than three decades of experience at the intersection of technology, risk, and national security.
…

Full Press Release here: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/announcement-from-the-new-tiktok-usds-joint-venture-llc?lang=en

Just in headend will be contractors based also. They are currently looking at a few potential companies to take over....

Only people to blame are employees for letting this happen.. Chicken sh--s

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of some of these VPs on LinkedIn talking about AI and the impact they can have when they can’t even look away from their monitor and the script that they’re reading from. The chief people officer is the worst offender of all. Cisco is not an AI company just like they’re not a software company. Stick to selling boxes that’s where you made your money.

If they are shifting employee led initiatives like employees are responsible for development efforts and writing their own individual goals. What's the point of top heavy management? We dont need them! They cause more risk to the company by being sloppy.

This should be concerning to U.S. Bank’s CEO:

There is an ongoing concern regarding the excessive number of management positions within EFCC specifically CRT(Grade 14 and higher) within U.S. Bank. From an employee perspective, many of these roles appear to add little to no measurable value to daily operations, production goals, or team performance, yet they command very high salaries.

There is a growing perception that a significant portion of upper management has minimal direct involvement in the actual work being done. Meanwhile, frontline employees and senior individual contributors are absorbing the workload, resolving issues, and driving results—often without corresponding compensation or authority.

The department feels increasingly top-heavy. Decision-making is slow, layers of approval are unnecessary, and resources are being spent on positions that do not directly contribute to productivity, customer experience, or revenue. This structure is not financially efficient and raises serious questions about accountability, role necessity, and return on investment.

At a time when cost control and operational efficiency are frequently emphasized, it is difficult to understand why so many high-level management roles are maintained despite their limited impact. A thorough review of these positions, including role consolidation or elimination where appropriate, could result in substantial cost savings and improved morale among the employees who are actually doing the work specifically the Senior Reviewers.

What is the DX team? Being in sales I find this group as middleware. They have no knowledge and skill sets and pass all opportunities over to the groups that do the work. I was just on a call the other day and I almost lost the deal because of this group!!!!!!stop selling your bloated and expensive services that bring no value to our customers!

Anyone else know of groups where you just scratch your head and say why are we paying salaries for groups like this….

I reviewed some quarterly meetings with the ELT and one important question was asked to the CEO.

You have mentioned we have the people to win and emphasize we are a people-first culture.
So, why is cutting people first a yearly action plan for long-term growth and profitability?
After five years of people first cuts, might it be time to rethink this strategy. How about people-second?

Does anyone know if this person was made an example of?

Phillips 66 owns a refining system that should be capable of delivering durable, peer-leading returns. The assets are advantaged, the footprint is diverse, and the workforce is experienced. Yet over the past several years, refining has remained a primary source of earnings volatility and inconsistent performance, rather than a stabilizing value engine.

That outcome ultimately sits with leadership.

Under Rich Harbison, Phillips 66 refining has not consistently translated operational capability into shareholder value. While individual sites often perform well, the system as a whole has struggled to demonstrate sustained margin capture or downside protection relative to best-in-class peers such as Valero.

This is not simply an operational issue—it is a commercial and leadership failure.

Phillips 66 frequently points to favorable market cracks and commercial optionality as evidence that refining should perform well. But market cracks do not create value on their own. Value is created when trading, optimization, and asset operations work together to capture those signals consistently and manage volatility when conditions turn.

That responsibility extends beyond refining leadership to the commercial organization.

Under Brian Mandell and Mark Hughes, Phillips 66 has expanded its commercial and trading footprint and repeatedly described it as a differentiator. The implication is clear: stronger trading capability should enhance margin capture and smooth earnings.

The results do not support that claim.

Despite periods of attractive market cracks, Phillips 66 has failed to consistently convert market structure into superior refining returns. Upside capture has been uneven. Downside exposure has been abrupt. Trading appears unable to reliably translate market opportunity into durable value at the enterprise level.

When trading cannot deliver the value implied by the market environment, it ceases to be a hedge or differentiator and becomes just another source of noise layered onto an already volatile business.

This raises uncomfortable questions about focus and accountability.

Valero’s advantage is not just asset quality—it is clarity. Its leadership team is singularly focused on refining and commercial execution. There are no competing internal priorities, no portfolio narratives to balance, and no ambiguity about what success looks like. That focus shows up in more consistent margin capture and more reliable shareholder outcomes.

Phillips 66, by contrast, splits leadership attention across refining, marketing, a growing trading organization, midstream, and chemicals. In that environment, refining leadership must be forceful and commercial leadership must be exceptional. Instead, the system appears fragmented, with no one clearly accountable for turning market opportunity into sustained returns.

This is not a workforce problem. Refineries run. Traders trade. Commercial teams work hard. The issue is coordination, discipline, and leadership effectiveness at the top.

When refining volatility continues to dominate results, when market cracks fail to translate into value, and when trading is invoked more often as an explanation than as a solution, accountability becomes unavoidable.

Phillips 66 has the assets.
It has the markets.
What it lacks is leadership leverage.

Until refining and commercial leadership are held accountable for profitability, volatility management, and peer-relative capture—not just activity and presence—refining will remain a source of frustration rather than a foundation for shareholder value.

The assets deserve better integration.
Shareholders deserve better outcomes.

If Schwab is serious about expense management, start holding MD levels accountable.
Not sure how many are in STS about 50% can be reduced… they all just enable politics and misdirection as they are not needed…. If we already have 2 MD layers why are 1-2 more layers needed?
Such a wasteful org model, and mismanaged dept that is hindering our firm. Starts at the top.

Anyone else's manager losing their mind and creating insane and unclear and unreasonable expectations they cant even explain? Its like there is absolute no accountability for these middle managers running amuck reeking havok and creating chaos.

Is there a secret department at UCR where job descriptions go to die?

Because after watching this place operate, it is convincing, that a solid chunk of long-tenured personnel have absolutely no idea what their job duties are - despite having occupied the same chair since the Bush administration.

The environment is peak toxicity, propped up by a nonstop flex of credentials:

“I have a master’s.”
“I have two master’s.”
“I’m certified in 17 things that don’t apply to this role.”
“I attended a webinar once.”

Cool. So… who’s actually doing the work?

Apparently no one - because whenever accountability shows up, it’s immediately chased off by a blizzard of excuses that have nothing to do with the task at hand:

“That’s not really my responsibility” (it is)
“We’re waiting on alignment” (with whom?)
“Process changes” (none occurred)
“Bandwidth” (translation: vibes are off)

These are jobs they’ve held for years, yet somehow every request is treated like a surprise pop quiz in a subject they’ve never heard of. The degrees get louder, the excuses get stranger, and the actual output remains… theoretical.

Accountability? That left the building a long time ago — probably reassigned to a committee that never meets.

At this point, UCR doesn’t need more certifications. It needs a basic refresher course called: “So What Is It You Do Here, Exactly?”

As a senior woman at this bank, I am appalled at the handling of the bully and harasser Andy Sieg. The HR team here is the absolutely worse. In fact, Sara told us at a meeting of senior women that she knows nothing about HR and is just "fake it till you make it".
Jane, do us all a favor and go hire someone who understands the important role HR can play when led by someone with integrity and an ounce of employee advocacy.

Are they scared of losing their job? It is just horrific these days. Grow a spine and tell the truth and take ownership instead of blaming others.

I see that ex boss of platform X is still in the company after catastrophic failure of her product. At the same time, 200 of hard working people from PX build team were fired. The captain should go down with the ship, but this rat escaped first and now attending conferences across the globe to sell thin air.

It is clear that the ELT is grasping at straws. Retention and Growth are stagnant as our overall service level has fallen to never seen levels of FA disappointment . The promised efficiency of Salesforce and Moneyguide for branches has never arrived.

We are all living the agile worst case with broken systems and products that will never live up to the hype. If this is finding our Rich then count me out.

Truly seems like management is being paid to run this company into the ground without consequences. I can only imagine what investors would think if they went to the HQ to see what is really going on with this company. Such potential and it is all going to waste because the wrong people are on a power trip and they are removing competent people who would replace them and do a better a job. If only the investors knew what was really going on at Estero and Atlanta.

Maybe the investors do know and they are making a profit when we fail? Maybe the plan is for Hertz to fail and this was all done on purpose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTU_hJoByA

Festog and Greed are primarily to blame for the destruction of the company, that’s not in dispute. Have there been any consequences to them? They both walked away with generational wealth, but have either been held to account? Major lawsuits? Financial claims against them? These two vicious, evil sc-mbags need to pay, but it looks like they’re gonna walk scott free. What can be done?

Our Board are directly culpable for the situation we now find ourselves in. It is how corporate governance works.

My question: when will the market, activists etc hold them accountable and force change. It needs to happen.

Head of a BU (L1) appointing his old (kisser) report to be the head (L3) of a highly technical domain which the kisser has no education, training and experience.

I'm not talking about the old head of HR with engineering background moving to a business role in wealth which you may say she just get this extradentary business sense that makes her a perfect fit. I'm talking about the reverse: a leader of low tech appointed to be the leader of high tech which Fido desperately needs some external leadership.

I guess it doesn't rise to the level of unethical behavior on the L1's part, but apparently he either is so d-mb or just doesn't care about the wellness of Fidelity. How can I lodge an complaint? Chairman's Line? As DARN won't work since the L1 is up on my report chain. I don't particularly care about my career in Fidelity as can't wait to get out of here after my fifth anniversary after all things vests.

Mobility for the bottom echelon is a joke at Fidelity I know for a while. Every time those
"leaders" invoke the word "mobility" I chuckle. This appointment just once more affirms that mobility is only for the higher ups at Fido!

Posting anonymously, just sharing what I’m seeing.

The recent cuts in the T-Mobile Technology org were deep. In some parts of the org, reductions were around 20 percent. Some very strong performers were caught up in it, including people I respect and consider friends. I’m not happy about that, and I genuinely hope those folks land somewhere better quickly.

At the same time, if we’re being honest with ourselves, this wasn’t random chaos, and it wasn’t just about cutting costs.

For years after the Sprint merger, the company carried massive overlap, silos, and layers of ambiguity. When an organization grows that quickly, some people inevitably disappear into the gaps. High performers noticed. Morale suffered. Accountability blurred. That kind of rot doesn’t fix itself.

This round feels different. It looks like a baseline reset, not a cosmetic trim.
Does that mean every remaining employee is suddenly a top performer? Obviously not. Anyone still inside can look around and name a few head scratchers. That doesn’t destroy the credibility of the reset. It actually explains it.

Structural RIFs come first. True performance sorting comes later.
With fewer people, fewer layers, and less cover, it becomes much harder to hide. Coaching gets real. Expectations get explicit. Outcomes matter. The next phase will not be about headcount targets but about contribution.

The message from senior leadership afterward was clear: this is an all-in moment. I took that as both a rally call and a line in the sand. This is not a season for quiet quitting or waiting things out. The bar is being raised, and everyone knows it.

For those who remain, this is an opportunity to help shape what comes next. Don’t get pulled into the constant negativity or the doomsday narratives. They’re loud, but they don’t move things forward. This is a moment to show up with integrity, collaboration, and execution. Those qualities are always in demand, and they open doors whether you stay at T-Mobile or move on to something new.

Painful resets are sometimes necessary to restore accountability, clarity, and forward momentum. And for those who instinctively roll their eyes at statements like that, assuming they are just another round of talking points, I’d encourage you to read the room. This one feels different. The actions so far make it believable.

I’m not celebrating layoffs. I’m acknowledging reality.

Support each other. Stay professional. Keep your integrity. The story isn’t over yet.

Verizon downfall can be easily summed up. Cant post work emails here but 90% of these foreign born directors (guess what country?) cannot spell basic first grade words right. Do they forget that VZ has gemini built into google workspace for a few years now??? Its as simple as hitting autocorrect. Who is hiring these lazy directors.

End H1Bs now!

Did Rich Baich engage in conduct that may constitute a conflict of interest? Rich Baich serves as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Senior Vice President at AT&T. Rich's daughter, for reference, serves as Director of Product Management at SimSpace, a cybersecurity training platform.

• In November 2024, Rich Baich hosted SimSpace’s Cyber Cup competition at AT&T's HQ, in which AT&T placed first in the Cyber Cup Defensive Challenge.

• Rich and his daughter presented together at RSAC 2025 in a session titled “Nurturing the Next Generation of Cyber Defenders” on April 28, 2025. https://www.rsaconference.com/experts/rich-baich

• Rich Baich hosted the 2025 “Telecommunications Cyber Cup Challenge,” involving 13 global telecommunications carriers in Washington D.C., with SimSpace. https://www.attconnects.com/working-together-to-prepare-for-tomorrows-threats-today/

Do these activities represent a potential conflict of interest, abuse of position or authority, lack of objectivity, breach of fiduciary duty, or violation of corporate ethics policies?

AT&T Code of Ethics https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR-V2/governance-documents/att-code-of-ethics.pdf

Remember it’s not us vs each other. It’s the have vs the have nots, or top vs bottom.

The execs don’t have to badge in, they have dedicated offices, they don’t track hours, they negotiate their pay, and the list goes on.

https://fb.watch/EPm6kmUn3N/?

Hold them all accountable.

IDM 2.0 was never a bad idea. In fact, it was necessary to save the manufacturing side of the company. But Pat’s mistake was investing in fabs before fixing yield and before we could reliably produce competitive chips for our own products again.
Lip-Bu Tan is doing all the right things to right-size the ship and inject discipline back into the company. I expect we will soon see changes to the focal process to align with that expectation from employees. But none of it means anything if yield does not reach industry-leading levels.

The fixed costs of underutilized fabs designed for future yields and future customers are ki-ling our bottom line and shortening the runway to get us there. If not for the investments Intel received last year, it would be over already.

This is actually becoming pathetic. You can’t get the data on time, never mind right. People’s employment is tied to this stupid report, Jay. Get it right.

My laptop seemed to find its way behind my cars rear tire parked in my garage. So as you expect, leaving for work, I backed over the laptop with both rear and front tires. I picked up a loaner laptop from IT, telling them I got to travel soon. Eventually I’m going to have to bring my broken laptop in to IT. What can I tell them when they comment the laptop looks so much thinner and ask me why the laptop lid will no longer open?

Look at the super senior, very expensive roles thay have created just in the last 3 months. one or two levels just below Stephanie

Chief Tecnhology operations Officer
Head of commercial finance
Head of Corporate Finance
Global Talent, Learning and AI Work Enablement
global head of pricing
Head of incident management
Client success for strategic accounts
Market Engagement leader

each will build their own new army, duplicate costs and add confusion to respoinsbility and accountability

APLA has been for a long time the best example of how things should be done. More hands on, comparatively less BS, the priorities are the priorities and not what some lousy global leader asks for this week, do more with way less (sometimes 4 to 1 same function versus NA).
Happy to see leaders with APLA past going to other geographies.

BlackRock must be held accountable for its recent layoffs of American workers while retaining H-1B employees in similar roles.
These decisions raise serious concerns about whether BlackRock is abusing the H-1B program—by laying off qualified U.S. workers instead of redeploying them internally, while continuing to sponsor visa workers for comparable positions. This directly undermines the purpose of the H-1B system, which is meant to fill genuine skill gaps, not displace American employees.
As a result, multiple complaints have already been filed with various government authorities, calling for investigations into BlackRock’s labor practices and H-1B sponsorship legitimacy. Regulators must closely examine whether these layoffs violate federal labor and immigration rules.
American workers deserve protection. BlackRock misused the H-1B program while cutting U.S. jobs, it should face consequences.

Execution is offshore.
Accountability is onshore.
Answers are expected instantly — from US leaders — even when the work is “handled” elsewhere.

So if leadership asks a question and you don’t know because the team is offshore? That’s your problem. Which means US folks quietly become backup, escalation, translator, and babysitter… on top of their real jobs.

Meanwhile:
• India and Mexico are on holiday (again).
• US teams keep things moving (as usual).
• Offshore teams won’t engage unless you’re senior enough.
• And somehow there’s monthly travel to the US with no agenda, no outcomes, just vibes.

But don’t worry — it’s “saving money.”

No one seems to track:
• US leadership overhead
• Context switching and rework
• Travel costs
• Decision delays

If the US is still accountable, always on, and filling every gap…
are we actually saving money — or just calling it offshoring and hoping no one does the math?

Fidelity National Information Services agreed last week to pay $210 million to settle a lawsuit brought against it by investors over its $35 billion-dollar purchase of the merchant services firm Worldpay, according to a spokesperson for plaintiffs’ lawyers at the firm Labaton Keller Sucharow.
Under terms of the Dec. 17 legal agreement, the recovery is expected to be about 42 cents per “damaged share,” but that amount will be shaved to 32 cents on average, after taking into consideration up to $47.5 million in fees and expenses, plus interest, for the plaintiffs’ lawyers, according to a legal document provided by the spokesperson. The agreement is contingent on court approval.

Dan, you have taken the pledge, have an obligation, thus to be resilient and NOT RUTHLESS.

Outage, valuable 2026 lesson(s) learnt, difficult as-is, thus formulate a to-be "savvy and realistic" turnaround strategy.

Mission (make it better): Customers first and then employees second!!!

Goal (image is everything): Do not allow the competition to eat and take Verizon's lunch.

Irony (sorrow): Wednesday's Outage, formerly Hans the network SME and also formerly Shank (Shankar) the IT SME, causes and effect??

It is long past time for accountability in this sinking ship. Whatever loser or losers and their incompetent management team and/or cross functional teams internal and external should be made known. This place reorganizes so much that nobody knows who is in charge of what. It’s a complete disgrace, glossed over with constant empty buzzwords and kickoffs by talking heads. Everyone just blames someone else - the project team, the outsourced team, whatever and then reorganizes again. Somebody is responsible including their leadership and yes they are responsible for governance of outsourced work too. Just disgusting this clown show has lasted for so long. It’s one thing for a string of failures like blue jeans and finance transformation to continuously take place, but now gross incompetence and neglect has severely tarnished our basic service. Just pathetic. If they need savings then fire the people that can’t manage or do their basic jobs for once!!!! Fools. Happy new year Verizon. What a way to start it off.

Verizon's massive nationwide network outage on Wednesday may have been caused by a failure in just one East Coast state.

Officials believe a network server in New Jersey going down was the likely trigger of the day-long network crash, according to an initial investigation by law enforcement agencies on the East Coast searching for signs of sabotage.

New York State Assembly member Anil Beephan has called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to open a probe into the outage, but no signs of tampering or hacking by cybercriminals have been found so far.

However, James Knight of DigitalWarfare.com told the Daily Mail that cyberwarfare experts are very suspicious about this outage being able to spread across the entire US within minutes.

'True single-point failures shouldn't cascade this way in a properly engineered system, and the silence on exact causes only heightens doubts,' Knight explained.

Knight added Verizon's 'built-in redundancies,' including spread out data centers, constant system tests, and multiple routing paths for signals, should have prevented this kind of long-term and widespread service blackout.

'That said, there are no credible signs or evidence this was cyberwarfare, a cyberattack, or foreign interference,' the cyberwarfare expert noted.

'Everyone I've spoken to is either tight-lipped or suspicious,' he told Daily Mail.

Despite the timing, no groups or nations have claimed responsibility for any kind of potential attack on Verizon's server, which Knight said would have been typical for disruptive actors seeking visibility for a major hack.

The telecommunications giant has yet to provide any details on the exact cause of the mysterious blackout, leaving customers without the ability to make calls or send text messages.

On Thursday, Verizon told Daily Mail that all customers affected by the outage would receive a $20 credit to their account, which they will need to redeem using the myVerizon app.

Can we please hire some good sales managers. Why are we paying 4-10m a year in GP payouts for a job that we could get for 300k. They would actually have the skills to do the job other than being "a nice guy". Where is enterprise reimagine when you need it? They are the low hanging fruit.

Our network is our product. Schulman maximizing profitability at the expense of our product will quickly drive customers away in mass.

He doesn’t understand how the network really works, and everyone in the room with him is telling him want he wants to hear to stay off the chopping block.

Dangerous game we’re playing here

When growth fails under Mike G, ‘follow the sun’ becomes a slogan not a solution.”

While support teams is getting axed, engineering is facing even more unethical layoff where all old timers are being humiliated and left with no choice but to resign. RSUs were already gone and now bonus will be majorly given to new people who are lured with big promises. Even time offs are being reduced every year and old timers are made to work like dne** with no accountability to the new people. People who some how trying to see through this are put into impossible situations. Brace for more mad stuff friends if you are still there !!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/boeing-reaches-11th-hour-settlement-over-deadly-737-max-crash-to-avert-trial/ar-AA1UeklM

Boeing accepted full responsibility for the senseless and preventable
loss of these innocent lives, and this corporate sc-m has now been
held accountable to this family, especially to this good man who lost
his dear mom, dad, and sister," said Robert Clifford.

True accountability would be prison for life.