#culture

Top management is just lounging around while allowing toxic behavior to spread like wildfire. People used to care about their work, now they just try to survive the madness. It’s contagious, demoralizing, and scary. Watching talented people change because of this environment is heartbreaking.

What does it mean after having a great year? Layoffs! Greater efficiencies, more collaborative efforts, great culture - Layoffs. Putting in the extra effort - Layoffs. Continuing to fund women’s sports, Layoffs. Supporting the crime infested low income areas of Charolette - layoffs. Out of control expense accounts by senior leaders - layoffs. Listenening to the same enthusiastic speeches by the leaders, priceless. Employees see through the fake caring. MR could care less about relationships be it between peers or our dealer customers. It’s all a facade.

Will the Chairman of the Board ever be held responsible for the Clown Circus that FF has built?

After failing to lift the sales, the leadership is ready with the next list impacting many old timers at the senior roles, the remaining testers and the product which is always creating top issues with weak revenue stream. Many people are being put into difficult situations intentionally for them to resign. Many did already and impossible situation for the rest. This is a big s**t hole now for Coupa 1.0 folks with no win, whatever effort they make.

Good Luck to the slope workers today. It’s sad to watch really. High $$$ consultants were given the reigns. Reminds me of the RLG days. Conoco used to be the common sense operator on the slope. Only hired good people. Those days are gone. We’ve hired some real winners over the last few years (folks that didn’t make the cut at BP and Hilcorp). To top it off, management thought it best to lay people off right before the holidays, and expect a wildly successful winter season with minimal remaining field experience. Good luck to all. Those that are asked to move on, it’s probably for the better.

So if rumors are true, looks like Boulben’s org is being hit hard. Deservedly so. I counted at least 20 AVP’ers and above. Seriously? For an org that really drove us to a lot of the issues we’re having. Kept raising prices and a lot of questionable value-prop decisions. If the trend continues, I applaud Dan’s decisions.

Penny Pennington announced Edward Jones is the official Wealth Management partner of the Big XII Conference. This figures. A third class wealth management firm for a third class athletic conference. Everyone knows the top two conferences are the Big 10 and the SEC. Come on, Penny, if you really mean business you should do better. Everyone knows you are not a real leader and you are in over your head. That is why you could only secure a deal with the Big XII. While the Big 10 and the SEC have been adding programs leading the NCAA in positive growth the Big XII has been losing programs and been scrambling to pick up third tier programs to fill the holes. This sounds very similar to Penny Pennington's leadership at Edward Jones. While top leaders at Schwab, Raymond James, and LPL take talent from Edward Jones Penny Pennington is scrambling to fill the gaps as best as she can. Penny Pennington is just not adding up. Penny Pennington has already sealed her fate as a doomed leader in firm history.

The 3 CEOs before Gail served an average of 4 years while she has been here for double the amount of time.

Here is a history of how long the previous CEOs served at Elevance/Anthem/Wellpoint.

Gail K. Boudreaux- CEO of Anthem/Elevance since 2017 (~8 years)

Joseph R. Swedish- CEO of Anthem from 2013-2017 (4 years)

Angela F. Braly CEO of Anthem from 2007-2012 (5 years)

Larry Glasscock CEO of WellPoint from 2004-2007 (3 years)

Look at what we have been doing for the last 3-5 years, outsourcing CSRs, taking away abilities from the retail POS, adding fees, reducing and removing discounts, wasting billions on useless spectrum while cutting off and failing to maintain what is actually used, and then listening to higher ups and C suite employees whine and blame us for poor numbers. The actions that have been taken would make no sense to someone in middle school, yet were taken by millionaires. This is criminally stupid, almost makes you question if they are a deliberate attempt to devalue the company for a future sale.

And what is being done to fix it? More fees and BYOD plus? We lost subscribers again on the consumer side last quarter while literally giving lines out for free with free or heavily discounted upgrades. Who thinks this is working? People being payed millions to make your life more difficult, your quotas higher, and your future uncertain.

The obvious fix would be to stop sc--wing customers with fees and trash customer service and stop giving shady reps easy to hide ways to add lines, but who wants to hear that? Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, but no, lets just cut and outsource more, but we will spend on AI that customers and reps very vocally dislike.

Spend money on US customer service reps and the network and stop sc--wing the customers, all of the money they have saved with these cuts is being lost by the droves of customers leaving for Tmobile, and common sense and a little money would stop that and reverse a good bit of it.

Hopefully the new CEO doesn’t F this trainwreck up any further, maybe he isn’t at his knees in front of Larry Fink like Hans was. Maybe Dan will read this, one of the HR spies in here should put this on his desk.

It’s not gonna stop. Tough working for a shrinking poor long term company.

I find the posts on Linkdin by various leaders at Verizon, to be completely tone deaf. Fancy dinners, and trips to Paris. Sure, it might be work related, but its a real slap in the face to be living it up in luxury while your employees are preparing for the worst. Do better.

How does bp get work done? When there is a perceived and peer/supervisory pressure to attend/host perpetual Teams meetings. Is this on purpose?

being at the bottom of the totem pole, They need to get rid of:

R2b
5g client managers/executives that don't do a thing
Who ever manages useless door 2 door reps
B2b managing partners
Directors that WFH 4 days a week
Whoever manages indirect

I used to be happy working for Dell, but I feel stuck now—I can’t quit because of financial commitments and the years I’ve invested, waiting for the payout.

My organization is full of imposters being carried from quarter to quarter. Other teams are being squeezed so much that disgruntled—or maybe just demotivated—workers often ignore you.

Support teams are being shut down. We’re forced to abandon tools that work and adopt others that mostly don’t. And then there’s the bootlickers posting LinkedIn fluff or resharing corporate ads.

There are still good people at Dell, many of whom feel the same way. But most of us stay silent, shaking our heads at the mess this company has become. We know the end game.

Management tells us to “play the game,” but why should we be as spineless as they are? If we didn’t play along, maybe things wouldn’t be this way. Why make it easy for them to bully us into submission?

I used to dread seeing an HR meeting appear in my calendar. Now, I almost long for it. The lucky ones are those who got to leave—not us, the ones stuck working in this toxic environment where doing more with less is the expectation.

I’m burnt out.

More people gone. Good people — who gave a lot and deserved better. And the message to the rest of us? “Stay positive. Be agile. ”I’m tired of hearing that. This doesn’t feel normal to feel trust being chipped away and a culture that doesn’t feel the same anymore.

We’re supposed to smile and adapt. But it’s hard to find inspiration in watching good people disappear while everyone else pretends we’re going to be fine.

Sometimes the truest thing a leader can say is just this: it really su-ks right now.

I used to like working here. Dell's new approach is to squeeze everyone until they break, then act (emphases on act) surprised when people leave. They crack the whip, throw fear around, shorten deadlines, and generally do all they can to make everybody's lives miserable. Watching it day after day is exhausting and depressing.

Funny thing is, everyone at EM hates being here so much, that’s the only thing that seems to be holding us together. No shared pride, no excitement, nothing, just collective misery. Somehow surviving the place feels like a team effort, and that’s the only bond anyone has these days.

Belk has received the dubious distinction of being one of the top 100 worst companies to work for in the United States by retail world magazine. Enough said.

Do ADs and SDs really know the names of people on their teams?

.. along with Boeing, GE and other dinosaurs who thought they were cleverer than anyone else and then dropped off a cliff. In my 30 years with the company. We are the next Boeing; too big to fail and then we fall.

I have never ever seen us treat people so badly, treat HC10 like $hit on the bottom of your show an believe India will solve every thing but all they do is sc--w it up and leave the business unit or project to clean it up. If the investors could see the failure, they would be shocked but we always put polish on it.

We as shareholders need to come after the MC when this goes badly and impacts the most important people in the company - the shareholders. For all the investors, you need to watch out for your investment as it tanks

Vote if you agree

Someone who actually knows how to build products. Also replace engineering leaders. But it’s too late now. stock below $20.

This company is run by mo--ns. I received the Alumni Zone letter in the mail. "A centralized resource for former colleagues".....HELLO?! Im still employed by you!

Moving teams to outsourcing companies like NTT, Infinite has completely misfired. Instead of improving efficiency, it crippled operations, destroyed accountability, and ki-led ownership. Rebadged staff don’t respond, don’t resolve issues, and have no stake in outcomes. Management must stop making these reckless decisions — you cut inefficiency, not entire teams. What was meant to streamline costs has backfired, creating chaos and eroding trust. Leadership should focus on empowering in-house talent, enforcing accountability, and rebuilding culture. Stop outsourcing responsibility — it’s not cost-saving, it’s self-sabotage. Learn to lead, not to offload. Fix the structure before the foundation collapses entirely.

I’m only a few days out from Wells Fargo, and the feeling is nothing short of liberation. After years of toxic management, mind games, tricks, and the constant drain of unhealthy dynamics, I finally feel like I can breathe again.

What I’m curious about—and what I’d love to hear from this community—is how others have experienced life after Wells. Have you noticed your mental health or physical health improve once you left? Do you feel lighter, healthier, or more yourself in a new company compared to the environment we endured here?

I’m also wondering about comparisons. For those of you who’ve worked at other money-center banks or big financial firms: is Wells Fargo’s toxicity truly on another level, or is it just a variation of the same culture across the industry? What feels different about Wells compared to other firms?

For me, asking these questions is part of healing, curiosity, and looking forward. Understanding how others have rebuilt after leaving helps me realize what’s possible—and reminds me that liberation isn’t just about escape, it’s about growth.

Would love to hear your thoughts, stories, and comparisons.

This week my new boss brought me behind the current to help untangle reorg chaos. He is new in role, so totally lost, and wanted my help on work flows, etc. Long story short, they eliminated multiple jobs with zero plan/guidance as how those responsibilities should be done. When I asked “what’s leaderships guidance?” The response was hand waving about centralization. When I ask what the skills/capacity are of the centralized team, more hand waving. It was then suggested, as a high performer, they’d like me to take on responsibilities of one or more of these roles. Here i pushed back, noting: 1) this was not what I applied for; 2) they dropped my role a psg, 1 below my current psg, and the new role would be a psg above the old role - so unless they adjust the psg, im not doing anything more (because what’s my incentive). I also suggested we needed better guidance from whomever established the new org design to understand what’s intended, and it was made clear to me there was no intentional design here, just a concept they want to make so. The lack of leadership from LT is appalling. And, I don’t see a way out.

But it got me thinking if it’s this much a cluster fu-k in my little corner, the rest of the biz must be as bad or worse. So let’s hear it! What’a broken in your corner of this clusterfu-k?

Honest question, why do you like working at TIAA? There seems to be so much contention about poor management, legacy technology, in office requirements, and vast pay differences.

What is it that keeps you here? Especially those of you that have been here for so long. Are you hoping for things to go back to the good old days?

this isn't a complicated story

leadership pumps up the numbers with ethically challenged accounting

eventually there are no more tricks left in the bag

leadership parachutes out with inflated equity

new leadership "comes clean" and gets a ton of equity at deflated prices

everyone wins, except the dedicated employees

What if a work study is conducted and the results don’t align with the current hr/mgmt narrative or expectations? What if someone on the inside says she wasnt to use the results equitably?

How might the team ensure that all findings are accurately documented, reviewed, and communicated, regardless of whether they confirm or challenge assumptions?

Could workers establish a process for transparency and verification so that the outcomes are trusted and actionable and calibrated to perf ratings and bonuses.

“Momentum. That’s the best way to describe our 1Q 2025 results. We had a strong start to the year, and the V Team didn’t miss a beat.

✨ We took big and bold swings with new experiences, products and plans to give our customers more of what they want and need.

✨ We also showed our appreciation for our employees with our first-ever V Team Day, and we will continue to celebrate how our people are the power behind our purpose.

And here’s the best part….there’s so much more to come in 2025 and beyond. We have built Verizon to be number one, and that means we are focused each and every day on making our best even better.

In fact, I would say we are just getting warmed up. So watch this space 👀 .

V Teamers – please take a moment to celebrate your role in our 1Q results because we wouldn’t be here without you. Thank you for everything <3

P.S. Huge shout-out and welcome to our new retail team members. It was great to meet you today! 🙌 🙌

#bestteam #lovewhatyoudo #lovewhereyouwork #VTeamLife”

The ones you fire and hire back is a joke. Such a game you play with your financials so the owners get paid on the backs of the Staples slaves. And you wonder why the ones come back in the first place, it’s not for the great culture.

ISG Engineering leadership, the SVPs and above are abject failures. They have absolutely no clue what’s going on are talentless and got to where they are either because the talented people left or they got a package. Going to meetings with them and listening to the philosophize about S@S is ridiculous or hearing them bicker about the d-mbest thing is just embarrassing. You are embarrassing yourselves and your too stupid to know it.

They’re in capable of changing and being any better than who and what they are today. You try to raise the bar, get them to improve and they absolutely cannot. The engineers can but their leadership just can’t get their mind out of their myopic way of working. They think they’re top notch engineering leaders but when you try to challenge them they just fall apart and complain.

They’re incapable of creating anything innovative, and getting them to actually invest in anything is a chore. They’re 100% manufacturing and operations leaders and that’s about it.

The culture these leaders have built in the short time they’ve been in place is horrible. They’ve put in place a micromanagement structure masked by “S@S” which is just a control mechanism because they have no talent. When you have talent you need much less process. By putting impediment processes in place they’re putting a culture of blame in place.

They’re too arrogant and ignorant to even know they’ve taken the organization backwards at least 5 years. At the end of the day, you didn’t earn your role. People left and had nobody else. You play politics instead of having talent, people with talent intimidate you so you sideline them. You polish your rock, thinking you’re a varsity team, while in reality you’re still in a freshman league.

My boss told me, and I quote, “to fill specific roles that support the company’s changing needs.” The funny thing is, most of the openings I see aren’t new or tied to AI. They’re the same roles that were just emptied out by layoffs in the past few months. Go figure.

Just the usual garbage from AK to justify current layoffs for future AI growth. If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

Link --> https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/ibm-ceo-fears-about-ai-bubble-are-overblown/vi-AA1Q10z2?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W099&cvid=690f13a0d8fb4402a6385eb77a6e774c&ei=14

We all got pretty Dollar Tree goody bags! And a break from actually working while we sat around and talked or listened. It’s one cup shy of a coffee klatch. I keep waiting for this to be something that has some good take aways. So far, nothing of substance.

Do they spy on your work machine?

She knew (as is knew-knew, iykwim) about BL and covered up. Done 1/1!

Layoffs are coming because that’s what a short sided company does when the stock is down so Ed can’t retire. All the needless marketing VPs won’t be impacted. It will be those that management considers expendable, those that give up their nights and weekends, those that actually do the work.

Extreme will never rise above mediocrity with its bottom of the barrel management team. No one wants to hire the CTO who has been looking for a new gig on the sly. The CMO was fired after 9 months at her previous gig. Ed. Extreme peaked a long time ago and just rides the industry tide and picks up the scraps.

No we don’t play in AI data center because we laid off that team the last go around. That’s not just missing the boat - that’s bad management.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mohamedamer_retailstrategy-organizationaltransformation-activity-7392217719959396353-hAdx?utm_medium=ios_app&rcm=ACoAAAgtY3sBYDFnclM5iLdHkOCfHOYJbmAQVAQ&utm_source=social_share_send&utm_campaign=copy_link

The first value listed on the vaunted Solventum mission slide is Put People First. I don't get it. How can senior leadership say with a straight face that they "put people first" when they so obviously do not? They could change it to "Put People at the VP Level or Above First and Everyone Else Second" and that would more accurately capture it. But why lie about it? Why not be honest and say, "Put Stock Price First"? (Bryan Hanson couldn't figure out stock price gains at Zimmer, but we'll set that aside for a second.) Why say you're "transparent" when you're not? Why send a company-wide email announcing a 4-year "Transform for the Future Initiative" six minutes before announcing that initiative on a quarterly earnings call? So many questions. Here's an idea, which I know no CEO will ever implement. What if, instead of creating Transform for the Future Initiatives, hiring more SVPs, and laying off more peons to cut costs and "reallocate resources," what if a CEO did something real and radical? What if a CEO said something like this: "I was going to lay off 2,000 more employees this year, but then I said no. We put people first here, so I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I'm cutting my salary, bonus, and stock incentive compensation package this year down to the average Solventum employee levels, and all my direct reports will do the same. Any new hires at the VP level or above in the next two years will NOT get signing bonuses. For example, we won't give singing bonuses like the one we gave to Tammy Gomez that is approximately equivalent to 30 years of the average worker's salary. Also, no more guaranteed severance packages that exceed one year of salary. In other words, we will actually implement the value we hold most dear, and we will PUT PEOPLE FIRST!" Okay, I know this will never happen. I live on the planet earth. But imagine if it did. Imagine how loyal of a following a CEO would get from his or her tens of thousands of employees. Imagine how little it would matter financially to that CEO and his direct reports, all of whom are already rich. He could even ratchet their salaries right back up again after "the year of impoverishment" and no one would care. And in the meantime, he would have gained a cultlike following of people ready to take a bullet for him. I'd argue he would get even richer over time. And most importantly, for one tiny flash of an instant of his career, he would be putting people first. I dare you, Bryan.