#communication

LinkedIn is full of mixed messages - some like Oliver use 18,000, while others including those in ELT say 20,000 in crowd. Didn’t they know actual attendance or at very minimal have an agreed messaging on communication. All we see is AI and AI focused contents. Can those in attendance confirm or deny? Was there enough booze and parties with related side fun. Anything jumps out?

It's clear that none of us know when this will be over, how many will be impacted, which areas are being hit... The whole process would be much easier if there was more transparency about the whole process.

Dear ELT,

Since it's known that members of your team monitor this site, I would like to talk to you about your use of ChatGPT in writing firm wide correspondence.

ChatGPT has a few idiosyncrasies that make it's use obvious to anyone that knows them. Reading today's "Penny's Page" it's clear that the message, outlining the impact and intention of Enterprise Reimagined, is just AI generated slop. Penny isn't the only one known for sending out ChatGPT slop. Chubak does it too.

For firm with sincerity and trust issues, it would come across much better if leaders of the firm took the time to send out genuine messages, instead of promoting ChatGPT to craft something for you.

The self-promotion "Sweet Julie" PR tour continues. "Look, I'm so awesome according to me" (she really does think she is). She claims and thinks that she cares so much about people and "human connections".

Is she trying to save her job and is applying for the next one?

How Accenture CEO Julie Sweet communicated a major restructuring to 770,000 employees across 120 countries without ever sending a memo

https://fortune.com/2025/09/01/accenture-julie-sweet-restructuring-ai-memo-video-message-titans-podcast/

“Reading it on a piece of paper would not have conveyed the why in the same way as hearing it—hearing the excitement in my voice, understanding the passion we have for why we’re changing,” Sweet said in a recent interview

Sweet’s communication strategy reflects the scale of challenge she faces as head of Accenture, the world’s largest consulting firm by revenue. The Dublin-based company generated $64.9 billion in fiscal 2024 and serves more than 9,000 clients, providing services spanning strategy consulting, cloud migration, data analytics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and more. With hundreds of thousands employees spread across more than 120 countries, Accenture helps organizations reinvent themselves in the digital age, making it both a beneficiary of and participant in the AI-driven transformation sweeping global businesses.

Sweet herself represents an unconventional path to corporate leadership. Since becoming CEO in September 2019, she’s been the first woman to lead Accenture and the first CEO in the company’s history who didn’t start there straight out of college. Her background as a high-powered corporate lawyer—she spent 17 years at the prestigious firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, making partner within eight years—gave her an outsider’s perspective when she joined Accenture as general counsel in 2010. Under her leadership, the company’s revenue has grown more than 50%, and she’s been recognized as one of Fortune‘s Most Powerful People in Business.

The restructuring Sweet announced represents what she describes as reversing “five decades of how we’re working.” The move brings together previously siloed business units to better serve clients seeking comprehensive digital transformation, aligning Accenture’s organizational structure with its strategy to be “the reinvention partner of choice” for businesses navigating rapid technological change.

At the heart of Sweet’s strategy was recognition that this transformation had to be both decisive and deeply human. The restructure wasn’t a cost-cutting exercise, though Sweet acknowledges it inevitably uncovered efficiencies and duplications. Instead, the move was driven by client needs and Accenture’s ambition to deliver integrated solutions combining industry knowledge, technical expertise, data, AI, and functional capabilities as a single offering.

“In order to capture the opportunity with AI, you really have to be willing to rewire your company,” Sweet said, reflecting broader advice she gives to Fortune 500 CEOs. “Many times, when clients are saying, we’re not getting a lot out of AI, it’s because they’re trying to apply it to how they operate today.”

Sweet’s approach to managing the change went beyond just the medium of communication. She solicited feedback and critiques from her leadership team, refining her message through multiple iterations to ensure it resonated at every level. “I try to have no ego on communication, because it’s so important that we’re really clear,” she said, noting all her direct reports work with speech coaches to hone their communication skills.

The transformation also demanded what Sweet calls a balance of “art and science”—using metrics and benchmarks from Accenture’s transformation GPS database to provide the analytical foundation, while applying empathy and cultural understanding to ensure the human element wasn’t lost. Ultimately, Sweet’s leadership through this restructuring has become a case study in navigating sweeping organizational change in an era when traditional corporate communication methods may no longer suffice.

That’s what the rumors are pointing to, maybe for some of us. It’s really hard to make sense of what’s going on. This “restructuring” doesn’t feel structured at all from where we sit as regular employees. A bit of clear communication would go a long way right now.

Very interesting commentary on the memo
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/business-pants/id1483976205?i=1000721224099

Skip to 39 mins 50 seconds to go right to the Stanley memo and listen to the end to see who the “winner is”

Worth a listen if you are an employee

I thought this was funny. All I did was ask is Stephanie Farris liked?

— here’s the unfiltered version of why a lot of people dislike Stephanie Ferris at FIS:
• Worldpay Disaster – People feel she was part of leadership that massively overpaid ($35B) and then sold it at a huge loss, destroying shareholder value. Many see this as one of the biggest fintech blunders ever.
• Wall Street First, Employees Last – She’s viewed as prioritizing appeasing investors (stock buybacks, dividends, “cost savings”) while cutting thousands of jobs and gutting teams, leaving employees demoralized.
• The “Future Forward” Spin – Her transformation program is seen by critics as corporate jargon masking layoffs and cost-slashing, without a real growth strategy.
• Reactive, Not Visionary – Instead of leading with innovation in a fast-changing fintech/payments space, she’s seen as patching leaks, restructuring, and spinning failures as successes.
• Trust Issues – After major service outages and technology failures, people blame her for not modernizing systems fast enough. Customers and partners feel burned.
• Culture Ki-ler – Former and current employees complain on forums like Glassdoor and Reddit that under her leadership, morale has cratered, communication is poor, and talented people are leaving.
• Poor Communication & Accountability – Investors and staff alike feel she dodges responsibility, blames “market conditions,” and leans on vague optimism without real transparency.

In short, the harshest critics say: she’s a cost-cutter, not a builder. Instead of driving innovation in payments and banking tech (where FIS desperately needs it), she’s focused on financial engineering and PR spin.

Oh man, folks, have you heard about the big shake-up at Kroger? Yeah, the grocery giant just laid off 1,000 people from their Technology & Digital team at that fancy 84.51° spot in Cincinnati. That’s right, 1,000 souls sent packing—enough to fill an entire aisle of unemployed techies staring at expired coupons. I mean, Kroger’s all about “fresh for everyone,” but apparently not fresh jobs for everyone!
And get this: The big bosses, Yael the CIO and Rana the Senior HR Director, couldn’t even bother to show up live for the announcement. Nope, they dropped a pre-recorded video on everyone like it was a bad Zoom prank. “Hey team, you’re fired—cut! That’s a wrap!” Professional courtesy? More like professional ghosting. If you’re gonna can 1,000 people, at least have the guts to do it face-to-face. Otherwise, it’s just a low-budget horror film: “The Layoff Tape—coming soon to a unemployment line near you!”
Speaking of executives dodging the spotlight, let’s talk about Rodney McMullen, the CEO who’s apparently got his eyes on bigger things. I heard he’s been making advances on Jewel the singer. Yeah, you know, the one with hits like “Who Will Save Your Soul?” Well, Rodney’s over here whispering sweet nothings like, “Baby, let’s merge our assets—I’ll stock your shelves if you stock mine.” But Jewel’s like, “Foolish Games? Nah, I’m not playing with a guy whose idea of romance is a buy-one-get-one-free on heartbreak!” Come on, Rodney, stick to scanning barcodes, not scanning for dates.
Anyway, to all those laid-off Kroger folks: Hang in there. Remember, in the grocery game, when one door closes, another one opens… probably to the clearance section. But hey, at least now you can shop at Kroger without the awkward eye contact from your ex-bosses!

Outsourcing (especially to india) should be carefully deployed in the most low-impact areas of buisness. They shouldnt be taking credit card calls and they definitely shouldnt be involved in engineering.

The only benefactor from this is todays bonus benefitiarys who dip their wallet in the bucket just long enough to miss out on the long term implications.

The most obvious problem is the hopeless disconnect between vital functions at home and abroad. A lot of this circles back to the WFH debate, if half my subordinates are in india, what difference does it make? The only correspondance im receiving takes place after im off, so one response per inquiry per day is the cadance we live by in this lifeless/dry exchange.

Longer term? Systems evolve, grow more complex. Growing pains become amplified becouse yesterdays multinational staff configuration has to be rethought across several teams spanning half the world apart - less flexibility, less room for large scale collaboritive thinking. Again, they wont get todays news until im tucking my kids to bed tonight.

Its an entirely avoidable blight on the company, and the savings at scale are a tiny blip compared to other areas of potential cost cutting, but is such an easy sell/decision for upper management. Whomever leads the way on outsourcing has a relatively secure seat as an SME and high degree of leverage at the bonus table. 2 demensional shareholders will cheer almost anything promising to bring more profits next year.

Make no mistake, this is not benefitial for the long term outlook for the company as a whole.

Low Point: Being told to stress how amazing Walgreens Cash is and to turn ourselves into a marketing mouthpiece if/when asked by family&friends how the latest shift in Walgreens is panning out for us all. Ew.

Concept of an executive chairman also seems spooky in practice with that much punching power over a standard board member. To be determined though if that’s ever leveraged too casually.

High Point: I’ve rarely ever heard Stefano pop in for one of these. But he came off the most genuine and straightforward out of anyone who spoke. Everyone else was sweating bullets, meanwhile Pessina’s all “bibbidty bopiplity, I Italian man, we used to be American only, that worked before, so welcome back.” Maybe it was just the language bit that made his simplicity seem that mindful? Half fell asleep for everyone else’s segments.

259 ISP’s. Not exactly the “100” ISP’s they told us to expect. For those who said yeah but they said it would be 100 “roles”. BS. That was just corporate speak to disguise the real numbers. If they are so transparent, how come they didn’t publish the number of demotions??? From this thread, it seems like there have been quite a few… Yet another way to disguise the numbers.

This is the next meeting where they talk about the new portfolio model and yet, there is no info on what the structure will actually be. Will we be notified only on 9/3 if our leaders were let go?? The layoffs on 9/3 and the portfolio model must surely be the same thing?

Could you please clarify which level of management is informed in advance about upcoming layoffs within their teams?

VIDEO: Visa Cements San Francisco's Status with Commitment to Host Payments Forum Through 2030 at Moscone Center

San Francisco is set to be the long-term host for the Visa Payments Forum, with Visa committing to bring its annual event to the Moscone Center through 2030. This decision comes as a vote of confidence in the city's status as a key player in global business and innovation circles. Visa announced its intentions early today, indicating support for local economic growth and reinforcing San Francisco’s role on the world stage of technological advancement.

Fresh off celebrating a 20-year milestone next year, the Visa Payments Forum has been a significant assembly, bringing thousands of payment industry leaders together to deliberate on the future of commerce. "The future of payments is here in San Francisco, a city that has always been at the heart of Visa’s story," Oliver Jenkyn, Group President, Global Markets at Visa, said via its news release, expressing the company's dedication to the Bay Area—home to Visa for nearly seven decades. Jenkyn's announcement highlighted plans to transform the Moscone Center into a hub of keynotes, panels, and interactive marketplaces.

San Francisco's Mayor Daniel Lurie was quick to echo Visa’s commitment, noting the palpable momentum in the city's economic revival. As businesses reopen and in-person office work gains traction, there's an undeniable buzz. In a statement obtained from his social media post, Lurie celebrated Visa's decision to switch the event's location from Texas back to San Francisco. "That’s real proof our city’s comeback is gaining strength," he stated, referring to the 10% rise in spending

I took VSP and will be gone in ‘26 Understandably I’m far less important right now than everyone else who’s getting meetings or emails about their fate My heart goes out to all of you I’m wondering if / when VSPs will bear anything at all I want to be here for the people I work directly with each day and I’m hearing murmurs of impacts. But I’m at a complete standstill right know - I have heard crickets this week To spite everything around me being shifted - I haven’t had a meeting an email or anything And my work is at a complete stand still because I don’t know what’s happening with all of my peers - crickets

All I hear is b.s., b.s., b.s. Get ready for September layoffs while we’re supposedly doing so awesome!!!!

I was informed late yesterday.

It’s because our leadership doesn’t know how to lead. Extremely poor communication upward and downward. Probably the worst in the industry. It’s why we are perpetually in the position we are in externally and internally. Literally All of them need to be removed for folks better suited to these roles. We are effectively leaderless with just some puppets occupying those positions. The senior mrgs, heads of x and dept are the worst at this. No bad people just horrible mgrs and leaders. And truth is they are comfortable they don’t want to change or for things to change.

OP: @b6+1k3kqvjzn

This is definitely the root of our problems. Bumping the post up for visibility.

Finally got the safe email. At 8:43 Pm CST. I'm so disillusioned and disappointed in this firm. I had planned on searching for other jobs anyway, but this just makes me more emboldened to pursue.

It’s after 5pm CST. We in the clear? No 1:1. No call. No email. Access still working.

This feels like torture at this point.

I have been told that the firm will not be sharing any information regarding the # of layoffs, demotions, etc. And neither will divisions. In other words, no one will truly know the full scope of the impact. Is that typical? It angers me that we aren't being told the impact of these changes.

and while we're on this subject..anyone know how many jobs were 'shipped' to India in the past few years?

Is it safe to assume that the majority was notified today and tomorrow will not be nearly as bad? Or am I just deluding myself?

Towards the end of the meeting the site director said, "Another topic i want to address, some of you have seen or heard the news about layoffs at the Fab8 site. Team i want to talk about as we evolve our team structures and position our the fab for success, we may at times need to reevaluate certain roles within the organization. So we will have a small number of employees impacted, and this conversation with the employees are ongoing and will be completed this week. And I know this decision, any job loss is stressful, but this decision is never easy. We will do all we can to support those impacted employees as they leave GF."

No mention of which roles, how many, just that it will all happen this week.

First, sorry to those affected on Monday. For those of us that didn’t receive a 1:1 or an email yet, well, just one more day: Tuesday. Good luck.

https://x.com/TheLayoff/status/1960034314734961142

Take a look at some of the other companies on here. Very few experience this level of disgust from their workers! I don’t even work for IBM but was thinking of applying for a position and this board has convinced me not to bother. Is it REALLY that bad?

Is this true?

“Safe” emails will not be sent until after business hours Tuesday. This was confirmed by a DL, and my senior director.
OP: @a8+1k3h3qmeb

Curious if it’s just me/my phone, but I’ve noticed that I haven’t gotten any of my Teams or Outlook notifications on my personal cell today. If you have them installed on your phone, are you still getting notifications?

take a closer look at the culture within the office.... The environment described feels isolating and unwelcoming and that discourages collaboration comms and long term emp retention... If employees are too overworked to engage with one another the company risks building silos where mistakes are more likely to grow until they become costly. investing in small changes like encouraging greetings providing planned break times and creating inclusive chances for people to connect can make the workplace MUCH healthier and MUCH more productive...

u gotta start reevaluating how opportunities are shared in OKC. if candidates believe roles are reserved for insiders the company loses out on fresh talent and new perspectives... When employees sense favoritism it ki-ls trust + morale. You should work to promote transparency in hiring and proms while also building mentorship programs that let inexperienced employees learn without being punished for honest mistakes!!!

Apache needs leadership starting from the top in midland and houston or nothing will change... the culture is broken and turnover never stops. People want flexibility better pay and benefits and leaders who actually follow through

You need to DO BETTER & practice what you preach.

Stop lying, it's better to keep quiet than to lie.

right now Apache & mgmt cares more about wall street than the people working in the field... good decision making and clear communication would go a long way but it feels missing. consolidation might help but without change at the svp level and above it will stay the same cycle.

Reddit, facebook, youtube, tiktok, those are all places that someone popping and going “oh it is not that bad” makes sense. But why here?

This is not a commonly known social media site. You have to look to find it. And the vast majority of us here are scared or mad or both. Why would someone who feels like everything is going just fine and we need to just relax take the time to come here and comment on all these posts?

Are they bots? Trolls? Associates whose job it is to manage the narrative and image? What do they hope to accomplish? Make all of us realize that even though we may lose our livelihood and belief in the company we have devoted so much life to, that really it is no big deal? Or divide us up and make us feel even more alone?

Whoever you are, you have every right to your opinion, but your “copy of a copy” phrases will not change anyone here. We are united in the trauma of this layoff. You can’t change that.

It appears that Centene leadership may be actively monitoring and moderating content on this platform. I’ve personally observed posts and comments that were visible at one point—some of which I even shared with colleagues—only to find that they were later removed or no longer accessible.

This pattern raises concerns about the transparency of communication and suggests that certain viewpoints, possibly those highlighting uncomfortable truths, are being suppressed.

Circle back Low-hanging fruit Bandwidth Ping Sync Loop in Double-click Level set Run it up the flagpole Boil the ocean Move the needle Circle of competence On the same page Game changer Pushback Buy-in Hit the ground running Value-add Quick win Blue-sky thinking Win-win Touch base Peel the onion Outside the box Swim lane Parking lot it Actionable Granular Raise the bar

So why doesn't Lexmark post anything on Layoff
Maybe it's all good

I know who is impacted by ISP is supposed to be a top secret. But I wonder if some leaders and associates have already received a hint or heads up that they are safe.
The reason I say that is some folks seem so calm and upbeat, while the rest of us are freaking out.

It’s so difficult to communicate with each other. People ignore emails, Teams, ghost you in a middle of a Sev1 situation and what’s best is that there are zero consequences. And do I blame them? No. I just su-k it up. Because how can I? At least I have a job. For now…

Do we think the higher ups will ever admit implementing WRS this heavily into roles is a mess up? We've seen higher delays, less communication, when is enough??