#corporateculture

Part of corp risk

Let’s be honest. They don’t care about quality or people, only about cutting costs. If they can outsource us all, they will. The work will definitely suffer, but that won’t matter to them. As long as the numbers look good on paper, they’ll call it a success. That’s the sad truth of where we are now.

General update: US Silica was purchased by the Apollo Group ("wealth management firm") in August 2024.
Almost immediately layoffs in the corporate structure (not surpising, given a buyout)
Company is now ULTRA focused on cash - so very little capital spending, really digging into every bit of money spent.
Rumor is that they're trying to sell the Oil & Gas plants.
ISP - They laid off all of the mining employees at the Lovelock, NV plant. (Most of them got rehired by the contractor that they hired to run the mine now.) Several plant employees also laid off, not sure how many.
Decisions being made at the corporate level without regard/knowledge of how the DE plants run are going to make it impossible to keep the plants open. Orders in general on the DE side have been low since Nov 2024.
I'd stay away from US Silica. They also have a history of laying people off right after performance reviews (in November) . That way they don't have to pay any bonuses, since you have to be employed in March of the next year to collect the bonus from the year before.

Please be advised that the “Enter weather information here Direction for E&PS”

So much winning!! I feel so safe!! PSMS rules anyway, who needs corporate level safety?

https://journalrecord.com/1997/07/17/walter-leaves-att-after-fallout-with-allen/

Now I need a COSTUME that fits the VIBE: something between “Corporate Casual” and “Emotional Damage.” Otherwise, I need a costume that says “spooky, broke, and still pretending to care.” 👻🎯

Ideas so far:
• 404: Job Not Found
• Spirit Halloween Employee
• A Target logo bleeding out
• “Ghost of Corporate Past”
• Red shirt + name tag: “Ex-Targeted Employee”
• A walking Clearance Tag

It’s Friday, I’m still here, but mentally I’ve clocked out! 🧠💀 Hit me with your best ideas before I show up in a box labeled SEVERANCE PACKAGE.

I was laid off years ago from a different company and felt like I did something wrong,
but it wasn't me it was a company much more dysfunctional than CMCSA.
This was not your fault.

However...
Some observations from a former national engineer who lead a team that built a system intended for divisional and DCF usage;

1. Other national and 2 of 3 divisional teams HAD to build their own instead of collaborating with national and all divisions.. e.g. Power hungry.
2. Upper management permitted this to happen. Heck, the west pretty much encouraged it.
3. DCF rolled out new systems with poor naming strategies and a ~70% ability to match names in existing systems.
4. Cable is dying !! And Brian Roberts has realized that the monopoly is over and hired a co-CEO since the next 10 years will determine if CMCSA survives.

Point is, we had too many people building the same system(s) and management let it happen. Upper management was all about power and not about cooperating.

At the global town hall held on October 22, a very courageous employee rose to ask the first question. Stating that he "was not a VP yet," he proceeded to ask Bryan Hanson to explain the rationale behind adding additional layers to the ranks of senior executives while engaging in yet another round of Q4 layoffs.

By my recollection, counting our pre-spin days, we had layoffs in 2019, received US government pay during the pandemic to avoid layoffs in 2020, and then followed with layoffs in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Now in 2025, we are sacrificing more people upon the altar of growth, while making room for more executives to augment the ranks of our C-suite. That makes the question particularly timely —Hanson fashions himself as a leader, and historically, leaders who can both speak and demonstrate shared sacrifices tend to earn followers. Hanson says a lot of the right things, but his actions indicate otherwise.

His answer was supremely unsatisfying. He provided corporate doublespeak about how we will continuously evolve, and occasionally, that evolution will cause his leadership team to eliminate jobs. That answer is the standard boilerplate C-suite talk that those folks have been spewing for many decades now. But it did not answer the question. In fact, it did not come close.

As a leader who came in claiming he wanted to flatten the hierarchy, he has significantly thickened it. The tie that binds Hanson to his clique is that they all worked with Bryan in years past. Hanson justifies his decisions by explaining that he needs people who have experienced spin-offs before. This argument, however, begs the question. Are Medtronic and Covidian alums the only people who fit that bill? At what point does this become cronyism masquerading as a meritocracy? And given the huge severance packages (Barry, for whatever personal struggles he is facing, likely earned a two-year severance package when his good old buddy Bryan figured out how to eliminate his position instead of accepting his resignation. No bad for declining a job offer.)

Despite all his flash and polish, it is hard not to wonder if Hanson is simply a pirate, out to pillage as much as he can while throwing some bo--y to his inexhaustible supply of friends. It is hard not to conclude they are feeding off what will eventually become the carcass of 3M's health care business group. And no amount of slide editing at 11 pm can paper that over.

https://youtube.com/shorts/bP6L6kbz2lM?si=U_3CnJs74rLXJMWw

Almost nobody, except for possibly two or three people, above store level positions at Belk is African American. Yes, you read that correctly, Belk corporate is nearly 100% white. I’m not seeing any
African Americans, Hispanic, Asian, nothing, where is the diversity?

https://www.youtube.com/live/eSXjz0-8Q8s?si=ppwY032lzrpaEvSB

55:45 - Aaron Clarey gives Ford its lashings.

What’s the most ridiculous examples of wasteful spending you’ve seen?

Drop your wildest stories of money being lit on fire. No names, just chaos.

Take a look at this sh-t on the Cricket page. I know some of you a--holes will say "we don't care about Cricket", but some of us do....

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1k2mx5x6h

Such a sh-t show!!!

Ah, the newest corporate gospel has arrived. Another “inspirational” RTO email reminding us that being in the office builds connection — which is ironic, considering I haven’t connected to anyone except the guy who keeps stealing my chair.

Leadership preaches “collaboration,” but what they really mean is: we signed leases, now fill the seats.
They’ve got family photos, doors, and flexible calendars; we’ve got assigned burnout.

The new buzzword of the week? “Ten toes down.” Cute. I guess that’s easy to say when your toes aren’t in traffic for two hours a day.

Every line of these emails reads like it was generated by a bot trained on stale HR slogans. “Culture!” “Teamwork!” “Innovation!” — all while the rest of us are juggling hot desks, dropped calls, and existential dread.

If they actually believed in teamwork, they’d try working by the same rules they force on everyone else.
Until then, spare us the sermons and just call it what it is: office rent recovery.

This is a term used when convenient, but not one that represents reality.

Who hurt you?

Just saying, human nature.

Go and look at the executive-bios link. Dan's LinkedIn is not there, and there is an empty Phot logo. This is the sloppiness that says it all. No attention to detail, even at that high a level. In other companies, the communication leader will resign in shame, but here, Sam the People cheerleader will not even know what to do. BTW, how is the sun coming out of the V now, feeling? Sam always helped Hans hire the best of the best, losers.

I just spoke with DAS. Back in June 2022 it looks like they uploaded Maurice to the cloud. This explains the robotic answers, the bad writing and his inability to read. It also explains any future attempts to automate your work and work we so that you make less money and work less hours.
He will be put back in his body when his total income exceeds $100 billion per year.
This is all pretty hush hush but on good authority.

Wirth now has three priorities.

First, complete the restructuring and rebuilding of Chevron's corporate culture; second, integrate Hess; and third, extend the concession to develop the giant Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan, which expires in 2033.
The latter is crucial. When the initial 40-year agreement was signed in 1994, it was dubbed the "deal of the century," as it gave the company access to the oil of the former Soviet Union.

Our concession is valid for another eight years…We have begun working with the government to discuss its extension. I'd like to finish this, not delegate it to someone else," Wirth said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Feels more and more like LCS only exists for media optics. No good path to profitability with any of the venture projects.
Equally concerning is the toxic culture created within…screaming, shouting, and slamming doors in meetings is modeled by management especially he who exited to run the U/S. Why is this behavior rewarded?

UKG has done it again! First that mo--nic, diabolically grinning U, and now they go and slit the K’s throat in the logo. Art or an accidental confession? Maybe it’s just supposed to symbolize how the company keeps drifting apart internally. I bet in the next rebrand they’ll completely butcher the G – perfectly fitting for their corporate culture.

And the slogans… “when work works, everything works” – seriously?! Sounds like an AI on the verge of burnout. The old line “Our purpose is people” was already nothing but brutal cynicism after all their anti-people actions. Just tell the truth already: “our purpose is profit, we don’t care about people.” Period.

I don’t care about you wearing makeup or not, or any weight gain or loss, or if you decided to wear your hair different. However, when your corporate headshot is over ten years old, I’ll even give you fifteen, but you’re pushing it … you no longer look like that. There are some exceptions and you know when you’re NOT the exception. I respect people who have the confidence to show themselves as they really are because this way you’re not unrecognizable when I actually do meet you in person.

Now that a little time has passed, I thought about sharing some thoughts with you all, John's minions, and the staff at Business Insider and other outfits who scour these forums for hints, facts, or observations. BI asked for comments to their survey about 'the memo'

John's right. loyalty is dead. His memo makes that clear. The 'multi year transformation' is code for job over career. This won't improve collaboration. They tried that with workplace 2020. We don't collaborate. We find a corner of space and lay low until we slip out to catch the train.

This message only serves to further divide. Many of T's brightest and most loyal have and will continue to simply find a new home where innovation and commitment are rewarded. Some will praise their leaders for cutting the slackers, ki-ling dei, improving collaboration... basically parroting the CEO and his priests. Many will complain and threaten to leave but they will eventually find their way to the stream where the majority of the company resides. They are the ambivalent masses who know how to stay quiet and carry on. They badge in, go to meetings, send a few emails, and speak when spoken to. They are the 'future' if which John is building. Clock watchers. Professional annual-review authors. Gantt charts, ppt decks, and endless backlogs of well defined but rarely delivered work products. They learn the buttons to press to get the cheese.

If this all sounds familiar it is probably because John seems to have channeled old 80's corporate movies as his inspiration for the workforce if the future. Cool thing is that 2025 tech lets the uninspired masses watch them while pretending to work.

In conclusion. B+ for conviction and passion, C+ for staying on target. He does have a knack for going off on tangents. D for knowing you audience. F for delivery. When in doubt, wait it out. Remember that rule, J? Wait 24 hours and make sure you're not letting emotions cloud your better judgement.

In the first plot select 'Insurance' and 'USAA':

https://www.economist.com/interactive/business/2025/06/16/corporate-culture?fsrc=core-app-economist&mc_cid=fa28ffc4ba

The second chart shows culture dimensions like Transparency, Candor, Strategy vs leadership, pre and post COVID.

one thing i realy miss from my time in the corporate world… is watching that one employe that no longer care ask a real qusetion at an all hands / townhall…

They’re gonna open up talking about how well the company is doing, using a lot of the nonsense corporate jargon. shout out to soulless chatter. But then at the end they’re gonna turn it over to q&A. that’s what the whole thing is supposed to be about you / get to interact with the higher-ups, cause they don’t let middle to low level peeps talk at this. they don’t trust them to get it done.

and what was so disgusting to watch about these is all the questions were clearly planted. It was always hey, I’ve been here 7 years I love the new products blah blah new services, like what other new exciting things do you have, and what challenges do you see. you know, it’s just always just really disgusting talk.

But one in a while like once every three years there’d be someone crazy dude or girl who knew they didn’t care to work there anymore, and they’d be like hey, so like why have quotas has been so high and why doesn’t this or that thing work, in this system we’ve been telling you it doesn’t work for eons. and then I would get really excited and start to love the townhall…

the first thing I would do is look at their immediate mgr cause they’re sweating that they can’t believe this is happening.

and the reason I say someone had to no longer care to talk like this is once you spoke like this you were probably gonna get fired, two to three months after you said something like this. shout out to HR, never having anyone’s back. i know, HR reps will get mad at me. i got friends in hr and we say things like this, but at the end of the day, anytime you send an email to a higher-up or spoke out like this you were gonna get fired for some mysterious reason, or something everyone else was doing…

and when you hear an hr person defend what they do, it sounds just like Congress. Just like Congress is like, I’m here to represent the American people, I wanna get the American people back to work. if you listen to HR it’s the same thing. they’re like we’re here to provide resources and you know blah blah blah for the you know, average person at the company. at the end of the day they just don’t.

and the reason I think Congress is a good comparison is i think a lot of people who go into HR, they go in with pure intentions, a good heart like I wanna help people and then they get in and they’re like okay, you actually, our job is to make sure the share price go up and the regulations don’t get passed against the co.

Leaders clamoring to hijack meeting.
Talk 500 miles a minute.
Hollow Corporate enthusiasm.
Glimpses of fallen allies enslaved to enhanced collaboration.
Describing every initiative like it's a big deal on the cusp of entering a new frontier.

Management promotes or prefers folks who kiss their buttocks pretty much all teams I have seen, not sure if such culture is prevalent but it has definitely detonated with time. Hope Trump can revive the job market so we can get the he-l outta this place

Did they get rid of the chicks that mades these videos everyday? What happened to the news updates.

Hi y’all. An 8 minute, highly edited clip from the disastrous one hour webcast is now available.
No mention of Yugo.
No mention of Applesauce.
No jokes from HR lady.
No mention of work-life balance.
Highly edited to look more professional

The stock + 28% pre-market is based on backlog news - Safra said about $455B - 4 multi-billion contracts - so stock-market is buying this, and LE + $70B. Then this backlog is more important than Reve/EPS which was not delivered. Maybe this aligned with META +$600B CAPEX - what Mark said being with Trump last week, but then people said it's impossible based on shareholders. It's AI FOMO until it's not.
Maybe O will do its own LLM model?
So people are not as important if everything is going UP. Who cares. FOMO until change.

Dear UHC? Is this really happening?

I actually love this approach. It’s like a Hallmark channel for corporate PR: scripted, heartwarming, and just enough to distract from the plot twist nobody asked about.

Mental games are highly encouraged across all facilities—because who doesn’t love a good game of corporate chess?

Employees who show off their stewardess skills in decency, manners, and hard work will be the first to get thrown under the bus when the going gets tough.

Only individuals with big egos, big trucks, and tiny pennies will be hired, promoted, and given extra perks, regardless of how long they've been around.

Pedigree is more important than actual skills. If you come from a GOOD family, you're set for a bright future here.

If you're the type who values morals, ethics, and honesty, be ready to be shown the door—or a vicious "firing squad", if you can back it up with solid evidence and/or science. If you're too smart for this place, academia is calling.

This is a hard, cold and relentless place of business. If you disagree, feel free to join a mission in a third world country and see how far that takes you.

Conscience extraction procedures will be fully covered by your health plan—no co-pays required.

CEO WORD V0MITS ABOUT RTO (AT&T)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq10jrnO2SM&t=6s

This guy's stuff has been posted before, but the comments are pretty funny. Keep signal-boosting this kind of bad press.

Corporate life can drain your enthusiasm, no matter where you're at. I joined from a small company and even there, the experience of cursing bosses and endless bureaucracy ki-ls your excitement. You’re basically always choosing between two unpleasant extremes.

Front line RSM Nov 2.

I hope everyone reading this knows we were set up for failure. I was someone who was so successful in this company. Hit every objective but once mission 1 came i couldn't do anything right. I recently left and I am so happy. You beautiful people need too know it's not you it's the corporate greed. Love you, good luck.

Seems like alot of posting on Linked in " look at me, look at us meetings" getting various groups to travel somewhere to discuss "strategies" and fun on the company dime. I also see awards from little known companies that say Lumen is great at this or that. Is anyone really working on fixing the back office **show of legacy system, or is this all fluff to make the company look better to sell off the parts?

Just saw the Meghan Trainor SF commercial. Can SF get any more ghetto or low rent? I guess they are targeting the 2040 population just like the 2040 workforce. It's embarrassing SF! I wonder why were are #2. #2... that basically sums up everything at SF. The work environment and company smell likes, looks like, and feels like #2. Our commercials are pure #2 just like our Exec leadership!