#employeeengagement

My friend is a director in compliance and works with facilities CHQ & coming in 2027 hearing we’ll be implementing badge in badge out to ensure people are in the office. Also being said Q4 they’re advised to review reports of people who are not in 4 days a week. They were originally pursuing the idea of tying in office personnel, bonuses to days in office, but couldn’t make it equitable for the work from home employees..

Can onky imagine rhe Dan direct reports hiding in offices amd DEI Sr Directors using AI to answer " Now what?"

Really miss seeing Directors walking around Basking Ridge HQ parking lot claiming volunteer hours!!!

July 7th

DXC has all the energy of a company that accidentally put “innovation” on its PowerPoint template and has been trying to live up to it ever since. Every restructuring is announced like it’s the dawn of a bold new era, yet somehow the biggest breakthrough is discovering another department that can be renamed, outsourced, or merged into an acronym nobody understands. If corporate strategy were a game of Jenga, DXC would be the team proudly removing load-bearing blocks while assuring everyone the wobbling is actually “operational agility.” It’s the sort of place where “doing more with less” eventually becomes “doing less with absolutely nothing,” but somehow there’s still time for three meetings, four status reports, and a mandatory training module about embracing change.

There's actually a PIP week here? It's not a year-round thing? Haven't been here long enough to know, but if it's true, I like it.

I don’t know about you all but I’m so tired of having to prove what I do day in and out. I have been asked for accomplishments from this year on a couple of different occasions and for different audiences and I need to map them back to my goals. I also must do a formal documented development plan in workday.

I don’t know what they are being used for, probably to stack rank us and for conversations about our futures. Either way they have created this environment where every little thing makes a person feel like they need to prove and be thankful for a job. Last time I checked doing my job day to day sufficiently should be enough. I don’t know why I typed this. It’s feeling heavy today I guess.

The substack post below might be relevant to some of you

https://substack.com/@gregorojstersek/note/c-282587294

Simple playbook to make yourself valuable in the AI era:

1. Suggest/propose a new AI initiative
2. Implement it
3. Create a blog post about how you did it
4. Speak about it at a conference or meetup

Do this a couple times, and you'll build a great reputation.

HT crew what are your thoughts on day 1? Did you attend a launch “party”? I wish every townhall was like this? Oh wait. We have no money. Aerospace took it all.

I sincerely feel for everyone at Centene who is feeling lost, unmotivated, angry, and downright exhausted. If you feel like this is not the company for you any longer, I want nothing more for you than to find somewhere you can thrive.

However, in the meantime you need to use your time wisely. I know It’s astoundingly difficult to put in the work when everything feels fleeting, but there is still time for you to utilize company resources that can benefit you greatly if let go.

Please take advantage of trainings, certification programs, company discounts, financial consulting discounts, and various other company resources while you still have access to them. Put yourself in the best position you can now in case you are let go whether that is voluntary or otherwise.

Your future self will thank you!

P.s. Much love to whoever completes my pseudonym in the comments ☮️

When the pandemic came to an end, many people who had been working from home assumed they would be allowed to maintain that habit at least a few days a week. But today in the U.S., a third of companies have forced everyone back to the office full time and have banned remote and hybrid work.

Some leaders say they insist on full-time in-person work because it boosts productivity, despite clear evidence that it does not. Others claim it’s about collaboration, creativity or culture. Our new research reveals that the objection to any work from home is more likely to be driven by something else entirely: ego.

Case by case, there may be good reasons for teams to work together in person. As a general rule, though, it turns out that ordering people back to the office full time is a power and status move. It’s a signature strategy of leaders who exhibit narcissistic qualities. They see any kind of remote work as a threat to their authority and admiration. They want to be worshiped at the office altar.

Over the past six years, we’ve studied why some leaders continue to support remote work, while others resist it. We surveyed thousands of executives, middle managers and frontline supervisors on a host of personality traits. When we later asked them about their stances on hybrid and remote work, their answers didn’t correlate with how much they trusted their employees or how much they loved being around people. The only trait that consistently predicted objections to remote work was narcissism — the tendency to be self-centered and entitled. The higher the opinions of themselves leaders expressed, the more they coveted power and status — and the more they favored return-to-office mandates.
ADVERTISEMENT
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

That pattern held for chief executives of Fortune 500 companies. Since we couldn’t directly measure the size of their egos, we measured factors that many previous studies have identified as reliable proxies for narcissism: the sizes of their pay packages, their signatures and their photos in their company reports. (No, the chief executives probably aren’t directly overseeing the page layout, but their underlings have to figure out what will and won’t please the boss.) Commanding outsize compensation and projecting an outsize image sends a message right out of Ron Burgundy’s playbook: I’m kind of a big deal. We found that the higher chief executives scored on this index, the more likely they were to seek power and status by becoming chairmen of their own companies and joining the boards of other companies. These were the chief executives who made the most negative statements about remote and hybrid work during the first two years of the pandemic.

The connection between narcissistic personality traits and wanting people in the office full time is not coincidental — it’s causal. In one experiment, we got leaders to reflect on the role that a bold, assertive ego played in the success of Steve Jobs as Apple’s chief executive and Larry Ellison as Oracle’s. After participating in that exercise, leaders were more likely to oppose remote work.

None of this is to say that individual leaders who reject remote work are necessarily egomaniacs. Many factors influence workplace policies around flexibility. But our data does show that overall, self-centered leaders tend to struggle with the idea of employees making independent choices about where to work. Psychologists have long suggested that narcissism is like a dr-g — it leaves people craving a regular supply of attention and validation. Remote work deprives leaders of access to that supply.

When people aren’t in the office, it’s harder to command and control. Leaders can’t intimidate by hovering over cubicle desks and slamming doors. They can’t establish their dominance by summoning people to a conference room and pounding their fists on the table. They can’t even make direct eye contact to stare people down.

ADVERTISEMENT
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Remote work also prevents leaders from basking in the glow of employee reverence. Instead of standing out in the corner office, leaders are lost in a sea of equal squares on a screen. Instead of rapt attention, they’re met online with boredom, fatigue and interruptions from partners, children and pets. Instead of being showered with immediate gratification, they get glitchy facial expressions and delayed replies. Sycophantic reassurances from employees just don’t have the same effect if they’re on Slack.
Self-centered leaders often respond to these threats by tightening their grip. They declare that people are shirking from home instead of working from home. They threaten to fire people who aren’t on site five days a week.

Rigorous evidence shows that forcing people to come in every day backfires. Take it from studies of over 450 companies and over three million employees: Return-to-office mandates fail to increase financial returns. They succeed only in motivating star employees to quit, reducing the satisfaction of those who stay and discouraging new talent from joining. Experiments at tech companies and nonprofits show that letting people work from home part of the week boosts happiness and decreases turnover by a third — without any cost to performance. In many cases, those employees even get more done, because they don’t have to spend time commuting and don’t get distracted by office interruptions.

There are limits to the benefit of flexible office policies. Research suggests that working from home for more than half the week can be isolating — it’s harder to build connections and cultures. It’s also more difficult to encourage creative collisions, informal learning and mentoring. But it doesn’t take five days a week to accomplish these goals. In fact, it turns out that people are most collaborative and creative when they work remotely part of the week. They can use a day or two at home to focus on individual deep work and reserve the rest of the week for communication and collective problem-solving. It’s well documented that too much togetherness breeds groupthink (not to mention germs). When we spend some time apart, we actually generate more innovative ideas and make smarter decisions.

ADVERTISEMENT
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Hybrid work does have its own challenges for leaders. It’s not fun to try to inspire through a recorded video message or lead a brainstorming session on a digital whiteboard. But to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly flexible world, it’s time for leaders to put their egos aside and master the art of managing from afar. Evidence supports a few basic guidelines.

One: Coordination counts. Teams need anchor days when everyone shows up — especially to welcome newcomers and mentor junior people. At Microsoft, new hires who spent at least a couple of days a month with their manager and their teams were more satisfied with their early experiences, which in turn meant they were more likely to stay over the next year and a half.
Two: Intensity beats frequency. The software company Atlassian has found that spending a few days with your team at a well-designed quarterly team gathering does more for connection and belonging than daily schleps to the office.

Three: Hybrid work is not one-size-fits-all. Different jobs require different amounts of time in person. So do different people; for example, flexibility proves particularly important in attracting and retaining women. And you need to gather together more if your staff operates like a basketball team passing the ball back and forth, rather than a gymnastics team whose members do their own individual events. (This explains why fully remote teams struggle to patent new technologies, but the people who examine patent applications are more productive when they can work from anywhere they like.)

ADVERTISEMENT
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Four: Most people care more about when they work than where. If they can choose the hours, they’re more willing to let leaders pick the place.

Organizational policies shouldn’t be vanity projects. The responsibility of leaders is not to mold the world to their needs. It’s to adapt themselves to the world’s needs, even if it means learning to live without the thrill of a live audience.

It’s so nice to see that everyone on that stage receives founder bonuses today. While everyone else is receiving a T-shirt, lanyard and drink ware. So glad that we are truly dedicating the employees on who makes the success of the company. JC, time to think differently, time to be the difference in a leader.

MK post about the World Cup. Wanted to be a soccer player but life took different path. But the game taught him the importance of teamwork, adapting to new environments and staying focused.

Wonder if any rank & file will be invited to the final at NY/NJ Stadium.

The U.S. Food and Dr-g Administration (USFDA) is authorized to hire 2,200 new staff. This follows the agency cutting over 3,000 employees last year. The job reductions had raised concerns about the FDA's dr-g review capacity. Approximately 600 new employees are currently onboarding, with some already started. Officials report improving staff morale and reduced attrition rates.

https://medicaldialogues.in/news/industry/pharma/usfda-to-hire-2200-staff-after-major-layoffs-steps-up-dr-g-review-capacity-173788

Every year, the ELT says they want to hear our voices. What happened to our voices being important?
Release the survey and let the chips fall where they may!

As I prepare for a vacation trip to Europe I contacted Vz Call Center. I must say the Rep was outstanding.

Being a longtime employee and Fios/Vz Mobile customer....historically was confusing and put so much on the Customer to manage.

I point this out for two reasons...first.... the focus and execution was flawless and secondly.... rhe Service Rep was awesome and hwrbrole needs to be supported and expandes and removebrhe Director/Sr Director headcount and live up to the hype of Customer experience

Is there a minimum hrs required to be present in office during your in-office days? How is this followed in various locations

Just wanted to add my voice here. A lot of the other posts on this board were true.
On the positive side, big credit to RB and management for actually listening to the CES Survey and making some real changes. That doesn’t happen often, so it’s worth calling out.

Per the last email, it looks like HMP has basically been ki-led. For those of us stuck in open-plan areas with unassigned seating, how are we supposed to get offices now? Feels like that whole piece just disappeared.

Also hearing we’re going back to Monday WFH next — that’s at least something.
Anyone else in the same situation with the seating/offices issue?

https://fortune.com/2026/06/25/return-to-office-ceos-ego-research/

This is optional. But it's optional.

It's anonymous. Almost.

Published by: BofA Executive Director of Sarcasm and Irony

(1) On a scale of 1 to 5, how excited are you to provide feedback that will be carefully reviewed, summarized, ignored, and filed away forever?

(2) How confident are you that leadership already knows the survey results before you submit them?

(3) Which follow-up action do you expect after this survey?
A. A thoughtful action plan
B. A vague email about “listening”
C. A slide deck proving engagement is up
D. Another survey asking why survey participation is down

(4) How valued do you feel when management asks for honest feedback and then explains why your feedback is wrong?

(5) What is the main purpose of this survey?
A. Improving the workplace
B. Measuring employee sentiment
C. Creating the appearance of concern
D. Supporting someone’s promotion packet

(6) How much do you agree with this statement: “My feedback directly contributes to leadership bonuses, even if it contributes to nothing else.”

(7) If this survey leads to action, which action is most likely?
A. More meetings
B. More dashboards
C. More corporate language
D. More reminders to complete the next survey

(8) How safe do you feel being completely honest in an anonymous survey that somehow still knows your department, level, manager, location, and employee group?

(9) Which phrase would you most like to see retired from the survey results email?
A. “We hear you”
B. “Actionable insights”
C. “You spoke, we listened”
D. “We are committed to transparency”

(10) Would you recommend this survey to a coworker?
A. Yes, if they enjoy performance art
B. Yes, if they need a break from real work
C. No, but I’ll forward the reminder anyway
D. Only if leadership completes one too

Its a check in not a mid-year.

But we are still doing ratings and stack-ranking people and calibrating to the smell curve.

So the real change is, employees dont get a say or the ability to send their accomplishments. As if that would have mattered.

Nice.

Let's do it, you've got to do it. but it's optional. It's anonymous, I promise, for real.

Exxon Quarterly Employee Survey by VP of Sarcasm and Irony

1. On a scale of 1 to 5, how excited are you to provide feedback that will be carefully reviewed, summarized, ignored, and filed away forever?

1. How confident are you that leadership already knows the survey results before you submit them?

1. Which follow-up action do you expect after this survey?

• A. A thoughtful action plan
• B. A vague email about “listening”
• C. A slide deck proving engagement is up
• D. Another survey asking why survey participation is down

1. How valued do you feel when management asks for honest feedback and then explains why your feedback is wrong?

1. What is the main purpose of this survey?

• A. Improving the workplace
• B. Measuring employee sentiment
• C. Creating the appearance of concern
• D. Supporting someone’s promotion packet

1. How much do you agree with this statement: “My feedback directly contributes to leadership bonuses, even if it contributes to nothing else.”

1. If this survey leads to action, which action is most likely?

• A. More meetings
• B. More dashboards
• C. More corporate language
• D. More reminders to complete the next survey

1. How safe do you feel being completely honest in an anonymous survey that somehow still knows your department, level, manager, location, and employee group?

1. Which phrase would you most like to see retired from the survey results email?

• A. “We hear you”
• B. “Actionable insights”
• C. “You spoke, we listened”
• D. “We are committed to transparency”

1. Would you recommend this survey to a coworker?

• A. Yes, if they enjoy performance art
• B. Yes, if they need a break from real work
• C. No, but I’ll forward the reminder anyway
• D. Only if leadership completes one too

AI fraud salesmen have c-suites thinking that people managers are redundant and everyone will need to be at least half focused as an individual contributor. With the growth of complexity across business and the number of tools, regulations, policies, and the turnover/attrition environment, people managers have never been a more critical role. They own the direction/vision of their segment, keep workers focused (by reducing friction and distractions) and ensure the appropriate people are where they need to be and enthusiastic to be there. They are supposed to make sure everyone below them knows their purpose and can see a clear line of sight to get there. How many people at Fiserv today feel like they have a clear understanding of their role and their specific purpose AND feels like they will be appropriately recognized for meeting it.

Exactly what @b3+1kvwscm9b said.

We've undermined the trust you have that your specific expertise and contribution will be valued, that you will grow and advance your career, and that this will be a place where you can actually have an impact. -- Andrew Bosworth of Meta

I dont care about Wall Street analyst and media hype.
I am curious about what folks in the trenches think.

How productive are you the last 2 weeks? Are you able to focus or get anything accomplished? Are they actually watching what we are doing at this time? In her email Tanya McNally wrote "For our people leaders, our ask is to afford your eligible team members the space and time to contemplate whether the VSP makes sense for them".

What is being said there?

Try to print :-)

I assumed we would never have one again. I'm certain they will take the feedback to heart and change and improve (sarcasm)

A pointless organisation (GVS)
Led by a pointless guy (JP)
An all hands that should have been an email. Cringe worthy fake enthusiasm, as a business do better no one cares about his favourite food, Greece or any statue

We deserve terrible leaders when we ask terrible questions

I wonder how many of us is lacking motivation to be productive now. Personally I am just waiting on the outcome of the VSP. I have no motivation now since this has came up. I have tried to be productive up until this but I just can’t get motivated enough to go above and beyond like before. It’s a struggle to remain focused.

Why is that everything at IBM needs to orbit around a bunch of useless execs? And they are always having fun with ridiculous videos, such as this current one about watsonx challenge.

South Dakota's labor secretary believes Artificial Intelligence can help the state's workforce. The state faces a longstanding challenge with a very low unemployment rate. AI may streamline operations and allow workers more time. The DLR prepares workers through reskilling and upskilling programs. No AI-related layoffs have occurred in South Dakota as of May 15.

https://www.sdpb.org/business-economics/2026-06-16/state-labor-official-believes-ai-could-help-south-dakota-workforce-challenges

After over a decade in corporate banking, I’ve realized that one of the most frustrating things about modern corporate culture is when performance expectations become increasingly subjective.

It’s one thing to be measured on clear outcomes, production, quality, deadlines, or objective standards. It’s another to be told you need more “critical thinking,” more “ownership,” more “judgment,” or more “independence” without clear definitions of what success actually looks like.

What I’ve experienced is a shift away from structured work and toward ambiguity. Employees are expected to make decisions with incomplete information, navigate constantly changing expectations, and somehow know exactly what leaders want even when the target keeps moving.

The irony is that the people doing the work are often asking for clarity because they genuinely want to succeed. Instead, they can be labeled as needing too much guidance or not being independent enough.

At some point, organizations have to ask themselves whether they are creating environments where people can succeed or environments where expectations are so subjective that almost anyone can be told they aren’t meeting them.

I’ve always believed that if someone knows what success looks like, most people will work hard to achieve it. The challenge is when success becomes a moving target.

Maybe it’s not that employees don’t want to perform. Maybe they’re exhausted from trying to hit goals that are difficult to define in the first place.

My department’s leader recently sent a note to all staff with directions to update our “My Career Story” in the HR portal area. She said the “critical fields” to update were education, external work history, career preferences, and relocation/work preferences.

Seems kind of odd. Anyone else agree?

When is the next Beat. I am missing the commentary. That one person really made my day.

Did you like the Beat updates?

a joke

In an internal memo to employees on Friday, Zuckerberg attempted to lift their spirits in what appears to be a notable failure to read the room. Specifically, the billionaire promised to host a companywide AI hackathon in July — only to get brutally shut down by workers who were in no mood for such a thing.

https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/mark-zuckerberg-orders-employees-start-123539264.html

What would make you think, hey, this might not have been such a bad thing after all?

How are we paying for this??

We're increasingly relying on very junior resources who often arrive with a great deal of confidence but very little context. Many are obsessed with visibility and impressing VPs and Directors, spending more energy crafting narratives and projecting competence than actually doing the work required to build it. Everyone seems eager to have an opinion on everything, despite being fresh out of school and lacking the historical context or operational understanding behind why certain decisions were made. Questioning assumptions is healthy; dismissing experience before understanding is not. Leadership often mistakes polished communication, executive presence, and confidence for capability. Those who manage perceptions rise quickly, while other carry the load. To make matters worse, some are very well connected, merit isn't always what drives opportunity. just look ate the recent hires.

Has anyone else dealt with environments where visibility is valued more than substance? Performance Vs perception he-l.