#culture

Whoever wrote it thought they were really doing something.

Here's what will be said at the town hall:

1. The company is performing very well due to BT.
2. All employees are fully embracing BT.
3. Asinine questions from shills planted in the audience
4. Few if any real questions will be addressed
5. Go-Go will say "full speed ahead".

L and D is posting on various platforms stating what a huge success the Month of Learning was.
No it wasn’t, it was the same failure it’s always been since the new group of leaders took over.
Everyone I’ve talked to says they didn’t get anything out of it.
They’re trying too hard to convince, I don’t know somebody, maybe even themselves, that they are really performing a good service to the employees.

The bickering between EQT elites and Zayo has beens now? Oh yeah, and the New Crown leftovers?

So was that strange long message to us:
genuine a wake up call or super long reminder that "winter is coming.." and now its going to be "cold"?

What’s really frustrating, and honestly a little disturbing, is how many of our leaders have started acting like politicians. They ignore anything negative, spin reality, and only focus on whatever sounds good in a town hall or email. It’s insulting to our intelligence and completely out of touch with what’s actually happening on the front lines, where the real work gets done.

Until leadership stops pretending everything is fine and starts listening to the people doing the work, nothing will change. Just more talk, less trust, and a widening gap between the top and the rest of us.

This isn’t rumor, emotion, or gossip.

This is what the company itself has said, plus the math that follows from it.

No fluff. No slogans. Just reality.

Where Xerox actually is:

• Q3 cash generation did not cover costs; free cash flow driven by working-capital timing, not profits.

• Legacy business declining on a like-for-like basis.

• GAAP gross margin is 22%, very thin to support debt, restructuring, investment, and dividends.

• Significant debt added to fund acquisitions.

• Leadership has stated we do not have 2 years to fix this.

• Workforce reductions confirmed to continue into 2025–2026.

• Integration urgency now tied directly to SURVIVAL narrative.

• Merit / raises tied to profit (uncertain to say the least).

• Strategy locked: no pivot planned, only “execute faster”.

This is a turnaround under time pressure, not a routine quarter.

What has been signaled:

• The model is right, execution has failed!

• The company will run out of runway without faster performance!

• More layoffs are expected!

• Every function and region expected to “do more with less”!

• Employees told to stop prioritizing personal situations and put the company first!

• Execution failures = leadership changes!

The bets are already placed. No turning back. Sink or swim on execution.

Employee reality:

• Job security is performance- and speed-dependent.

• Raises contingent on profitability, not guaranteed.

• Higher workloads, fewer resources.

• Culture shifted from “corporate career” to “survival, sprint, sacrifice”.

Clear message: contribute at full speed or self-select out.

What happens next? Likely 12–18 month environment:

• Continued restructuring & RIFs

• Ongoing cost compression

• Integration friction + tech platform migration

• Talent drain and forced performance pressure

• Narrow focus: cash, margin, execution speed

Best case? Turnaround works, company stabilizes, slow growth returns.

Middle case? Extended grind — layoffs, morale erosion, cash tightness.

Worst case? cash performance fails... strategic alternatives come to play (asset sales / debt restructuring / Private Equity involvement).

All are standard outcomes in leveraged turnarounds; which one we hit depends on speed, cost takeout, and execution.

Bottom line:

• Xerox is no longer operating in “business as usual”.

• This is SteveB's plan A: execution speed vs. cash runway.

• There is no plan B. And plan A must work quickly.

• Everything else — morale, culture, careers — is secondary to operational survival right now.

Wartime rules are in effect. Everyone just heard it live.

The mood shift, the urgency, the tone, the pressure... all real.

This is what corporate in distress looks like when management says it out loud.

Now you know.

Nothing seems to have a good captaincy anymore. Sailors are shaking the boat. In Visa domain knowledge and love for systems is not rewarded anymore. New direction is looking at easy points. Share prices stumbling. Old people are let go. Maybe if there's any small indication, it is right time to part.

https://www.instagram.com/fordcareers/reel/DQmmXhIgDwK/?hl=en

I smell a Grammy for QB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zyRaOTY4aM&list=RD6zyRaOTY4aM&start_radio=1

I mean, at these point executives have not only become tone deaf but truly cynical. At least we know that these surveys are completely worthless. No matter the results, they will label them as "opportunities".

And clueless management to boot!

I don't know if this is a company thing or a district thing but why would Walmart make Team Leads have to do an evening shift two days a week? Our store has informed all Team Leads that twice a week they have to work a 7-4pm shift and a 2-11pm shift of they have to step down as team lead. Many of our team leads, who are great, have kids or are single parents and cannot take off or find child care for this. Why does Walmart ask what days and times you can work and then make a rule like this.
Also, why does everyone in the store now have to have open availability? Again, why have me fill out a form and ask what days and times I can work and now tell me I will work when and on what day they want me too or I wont get hours. One of our best associates has a special needs child and has to take him for treatment on a certain day and a certain time. Now they have scheduled her for that day and time but she can't make it so she has been cut from 40 hours to 25 hours. Seems unfair and maybe illegal. Thoughts

I can’t believe how much talent will be forced out over the next year through the country studies. We are struggling for good people already and we are walking off the edge off a cliff blindfolded. It’s not if but when this will blow back.

New Chevron slang and acronyms are coming out that are good.

Its truly the change that we need and the things we need to be saying as a company to collaborate and work more efficiently. So here they are:

Going forward if you need to take a number 2 its called taking a MW.

Take a number 1 is a MN.

Start using these to bring us together!

Q is like swimming pool. There is an implicit honor system in a large company that people should behave professionally and with integrity and respect for each other. Instead, at Q, everyone, especially the shameful middle managers and VPs, just sh!t in the pool every chance they get. It's disgraceful. They'll do anything for a buck and job security. People who stick around get what they deserve. Its one big cessp00l.

Morale is horrible across the board. Unless you’re in leadership or close with someone who is, you’re on your own. U.S. employees are treated like they don’t matter, while offshore teams get better support, flexibility, and recognition. It’s discouraging and unsustainable- and yet no one seems to be able to stop it. US employees (not in leadership roles) need to unite and demand changes immediately.

We know leadership at a certain point is about potential- not actual merit or experience/ qualifications.

Who would you say our great leaders would be if it was really up to merit and qualifications?

Why does a RVP nitpick small things when the tile flooring needs to be repaired/replaced and the cases in the beauty department need new lights?!

The Indian accent is undoubtedly the most annoying accent in the world, Verizon needs to ax the entire cs reps based in India and move it elsewhere I know it's pennies on the dollar but imagine Verizon customers hearing that accent when they are already pi---d off

Seems like less people than normal already. Spoke to one of the cafeteria ladies and she agreed. Anyone else thinking the same?

Who else is irritated that subsurface is taking their sweet time with this reorg? All the other upstream groups seem to be done and yet we have to wait until the end of the week because AF wants it.

The structure was bad before but it doesn’t seem like it’s getting any better.

Being part of a recent round of layoffs has given me a lot to think about — not just about my own career, but about leadership, accountability, and the values that guide organizations.

In many cases, it seemed that leadership roles were protected while teams — the people who did the day-to-day work that drove results — were let go. It’s a tough reality to process, but also a revealing one.

EQT people will rejoice while Zayo people will start to jump ship!

Everybody sleeping good?

Interesting article published by MIT Sloan

https://archive.is/bPmXE

Can anyone share what was posted in Alaska about all of Lance’s fu-kups ? Would love to read that ? Thank U much.

I've said it before if they let me go I'll see to it they never win root again or any other awards they may use instead.

Legg all hands. Share your perspectives here

We just lost some of the best people on our team, and it finally hit me that no matter how hard you work or how good you are, the people at the top still see you as replaceable. From now on, I’m done putting work before my family just to feel secure. No more missed birthdays, no more late nights trying to prove something that doesn’t matter in the end. I'm done.

Last year we were on a 3-day RTO schedule and things were working fine. Then, because of the (now admitted) broken presence report, everyone was punished with a 5-day mandate. Since then, leadership has acknowledged that the data wasn’t accurate and that the small group of actual abusers has already been dealt with. They’ve all either left or been terminated.

So why are the rest of us still paying the price?

It’s time to end the punishment and bring back a balanced 2/3-day model. The people who stayed have proven their commitment to this company, even through frustration and burnout. Rolling back to 2/3 days would be a genuine show of trust and a much-needed morale boost.

If leadership truly wants to rebuild culture and retain talent, this is the simplest and smartest way to start.

Does Dan realize that the real problem in verizon is the over paid huge management hierarchy.I mean come on the amount of money and red tape spent on Managers is unbelievable.Every manager has a higher paid manager above them that does even less.That worked in the ma bell monopoly of endless cash not now!!!The only real value in verizon anymore is the only people that actually know or do anything.That group is the associates union and nonunion on wireless & wireline side.All jokes aside most managers are really clueless.Some where hired from pizza delivery places because their daddy was a executive somewhere in verizon.How about we get rid of the timesheet signers who only job is to bother associates over meaningless things instead of focusing on the customer.The people who matter need to start being cherished more and listened to more .Time to squash the Management pyramid of Verizon and focus on moving forward

Leaders are afraid to communicate, afraid to get in the news, afraid of baby-napoleon-pulte, afraid to have ideas. The only word left in their vocabulary is efficiency. They think they are being political savvy tracking people’s calendars, emails, badging. I am not blaming them. Just feeling sad for them. What a culture:(

Necessary follow-up emails are even being halted. Critical meetings - on hold. I've talked to several friends across the company, various departments and the sentiment is the same - uncertainty and "waiting to hear if we have jobs."

It's not healthy and makes me wonder Dan's long term "culture" strategy that he claims is a priority, when the short term has gone south so quickly.

I genuinely thought the environment couldn't get worse than what H created, but it def has, in a quick way :-/

Mr. Stankey, it’s clear you care deeply about rebuilding AT&T’s culture and driving results. But the 5-day return-to-office mandate is not delivering those outcomes. It’s quietly draining productivity, eroding morale, and accelerating the loss of high-value talent, particularly among younger and mid-career professionals.

In the year since the mandate began, the data tells a stark story:
• Voluntary attrition among under-40 employees has risen dramatically across the industry where rigid RTO policies persist. AT&T’s own attrition rates mirror that trend.
• Stock performance has lagged both Verizon and T-Mobile since the RTO push, suggesting Wall Street isn’t buying “butts in seats” as a business strategy.
• Office occupancy metrics nationwide show that mandated presence rarely exceeds 60% compliance. Employees comply on paper but disengage in spirit.

More importantly, the promised benefits of RTO (collaboration, innovation, culture) simply aren’t materializing. Employees report fewer in-person meetings, more hybrid video calls, and a deeper sense of distrust toward leadership. You can’t rebuild culture through compulsion. Culture is earned through empowerment.

Meanwhile, competitors are winning talent with flexible, hybrid models. Companies like T-Mobile, Verizon, Google, IBM and Microsoft have settled on 2-3 in-office days because the data supports it: productivity, engagement, and retention all rise when employees have agency over where they work.

AT&T has an opportunity here. Not to follow the trend, but to lead it. Imagine the signal it would send if AT&T were the first major company to publicly admit that five-day RTO was the wrong call. Reframing it as a “Return to Trust” would instantly shift perception from rigid to visionary.

You have the chance to show that leadership is about listening, not doubling down dictator style. The workforce is ready to deliver. They just need to know their leaders trust them again.

Revisit RTO. Shift back to a 2-3 day hybrid model. Watch what happens when respect replaces resentment.

That’s how AT&T becomes a company people are proud to work for again.

These people gave each other the leg up and none know what the other is doing! I was impacted and frankly I’m relieved! I know the workforce is hard and we all need our jobs but a couple of months paid to figure it out sounds better then the BS Ive been dealing with! I wish you all the best and my prayers go out to all impacted! But since this new leadership has taken over over it’s been a disaster and the ones who laugh at the ones impacted, the ones who were kept, undeserving if based on metrics and performance, your time will come! You survived not for being a leader but for kissing the right butts!

Stop posting to this manipulated "anonymous" board. It's clear that Dell HR admins (trolls) are up voting/down voting at will and deleting comments they don't like or reflect negatively upon Dell.

What’s the point of these celebrations when the very people that made this happen are let go? No meaningful strategy when it comes to these layoffs. Those at the top are coasting while those who do the actual work are treated like cr-p. Trust, confidence and motivation to drive is lost and they really expect us to be excited about these “celebrations”?