#favoritism

After two decades of dedication, I just got laid off. Not because of performance. Not because of skills. But because someone who’s better at playing politics and st-----g the manager’s ego than actually doing the work got to stay.

This is what favoritism looks like in real time — managers protecting their inner circle while people with real experience and real contributions get shown the door. And somehow, upper management never sees it. The moment you try to point it out, they go conveniently deaf.

Twenty years. Reduced to nothing because I wasn’t part of someone’s “yes-man” club.

To anyone going through something similar — you’re not imagining it. This is real, and it’s happening more than companies want to admit.

I have never seen a place where making big mistakes gets you promoted faster than doing your job right. Until I joined Ally.

Finance SD is openly vying for a SVP job two levels above his. he frequently mentions it in team meetings and its all over LinkedIn. he uses my annual performance meetings to talk about his desire for a promotion. SVP and AVP show favoritism to him. he acts inappropriately around employees and encourages us all to slack off. he constantly pressures people with opposing opinions in an abusive way and lies to protect himself. toxicity at its finest.

For my second assignment rotation, I scheduled a meeting with the manager of the proposed team to understand their work. He repeatedly said he was not technical and redirected me to a senior team member for any meaningful discussion. Once I joined the team, the actual dynamics became clear.
The team was composed of a handful of senior employees who had been in the same roles for many years, and a large group of junior employees. The senior members were effectively running the team: assigning projects, controlling opportunities, and shaping the juniors’ career paths. They were doing this largely unchecked because the manager's lack of capability .An unhealthy power structure. The senior employees had formed small internal cults and were actively recruiting juniors into their groups. Their influence came not from leadership ability but from the manager’s incompetence and dependence on them. When evaluating his own team members, he relied entirely on the same senior employees who were controlling the work and saving top ranks for themselves.

I have been working at this awful place for 5 years. In those 5 years I have been ranked VG
and good. I have constantly tried to move up kiss the bosses areses. Nothing I did helped not even staying late and working extra. I am salary so I dont get OT. I noticed others moving up and getting promoted. They were promoted even though they did nothing great. I found out later they were the relatives of other supervisors. Some were not even related but just friends with the supervisors. I have an engineering degree and one of the family members was promoted to be in charge of maintenance. The family member had no degree and experience. I asked why I was not given the job and was told I had not been at exxon long enough. I have given up trying and just do my job now. I was told my productivity had dropped and I needed to step it up if I wanted to remain competitive. I will probably drop in ranking this year but I don t care anymore. Exxon is a dead end for me and I am going to leave. The bad thing is I did not learn anything beneficial at exxon. I am employed as a technologist and just did stupid monkey lab work. I learned all of exxons stupid forms and useless meetings and trainings. I have found a new job at a smaller company that will employ me as an engineer. I am planning to leave asap. BTW I got a 1.5% raise last year and was told I was lucky to get that much. Baytown is a place that the blind lead the ones can see and do. I have never met a good or talented supervisor at baytown just friends and relatives of others in power. Another friend of mine went through the same thing at emhc but it was not as bad as baytown. He told me the only way to move up up was to leave exxon.

I’ve never worked in a more toxic department in this bank in my entire career here than Corporate Payments Systems. The management in the group are a bunch of vile survivalists who will gladly throw their employees and colleagues under the bus if it means their own survival. I have seen a myriad of talent abused and released from this specific group if they are a threat to their manager because they are talented or are not part of the favorites list. Absolutely sickening culture of cronies in this line of business. Shameful, and the spineless management who reads this board in CPS, you know who you are and deserve everything bad that comes back to you.

No promotions for people who are already here. No balance between work and life. No chance to move into a different role internally. What we do have is plenty of favoritism toward friends and family.

That's what Medtronic should be renamed, because that's how everything works here. You either know somebody higher up or you're related to them and you can soar. The rest of us are sc--wed, though.

What is it with these Delaware alumni and their entitled attitude? They sit in rooms dividing roles among themselves like it’s their private club, acting as if they’re better than everyone else.

That seemed to be the only qualification for people who were promoted. Not really anything other than their manager liked them and they were in the office.

The soft layoffs in innovative medicine continue, and many of us are starting to question the criteria behind who is being let go. Employees who consistently come into the office three days a week, contribute meaningfully, and do their jobs well are being impacted, while others who rarely show up and contribute little seem to remain untouched.

It’s difficult not to notice how political the environment appears to have become. At times, it feels as though if someone in leadership doesn’t personally favor you, your position may already be at risk. That perception alone is concerning. It keeps repeating and everyone sees it.

I simply wish professionalism, maturity, and fairness carried more weight in these decisions. People should not feel that their livelihood is tied to office politics, personal insecurities, or whether they are personally liked by leadership.

Let’s be honest — some of these leaders are simply not qualified for the roles they hold. Titles and positions do not automatically make someone an effective leader. True leadership requires competence, accountability, emotional intelligence, fairness, and the ability to develop and support strong teams. Unfortunately, many employees are witnessing the opposite.

Too often, decisions appear to be driven by favoritism, office politics, personal comfort, or insecurity rather than actual performance and contribution. Strong employees who bring value, experience, and consistency are being pushed out, while individuals with the right relationships or visibility continue to advance despite limited impact. That creates frustration, distrust, and a toxic work culture.

What’s even more concerning is that many organizations claim to value innovation, collaboration, and talent retention, yet they continue to lose some of their most capable people because leadership lacks the maturity or confidence to manage high-performing individuals effectively. Great leaders build strong teams around them. Insecure leaders often view strong talent as competition.

At some point, innovative medicine has to ask themselves why morale is declining, why turnover is increasing, and why employees no longer trust leadership. The issue is not always the workforce. Sometimes the issue is the people making the decisions

It’s a dirty game. They rank their own favorites at the top, then use those inflated rankings to hand them spotlight roles, visible projects, keynote slots, everything. And because those opportunities are handed to them on a silver platter, they get ranked high again. It’s a sick cycle. I wish some one tells new hires its not about your work its the way they choose to see your work

Favoritism galore.

I saw most of it on social media but the group who went kept it off LinkedIn, probably because they were told to. So many useless people who under perform got to go. Unbelievable.

Managers simply protect their favorites and no merit in lay offs. Managers simply lie to their employees that they know nothing about layoffs. Leadership needs to adopt some transparent system or will be left with nepotism or favored employees.

People quitting every month. Almost no chance of moving up. Clear favoritism along ethnic lines. And the list goes on and on. And the sad thing is that I remember when this was a great place to work. When it earned the top spot on the best workplace lists. And that wasn't even that long ago.

I've got nothing. Maybe that's the real issue here.

I want Nike to succeed, but what’s happening in certain areas is deeply concerning and hard to ignore.

Not all managers are part of this, and there are still many who lead with integrity. However, in some cases, hiring is clearly not based on merit. Positions are being filled through favoritism and personal connections, including close associates and family members and friends of managers—this is nothing but nepotism.

There are also serious concerns about unethical practices tied to hiring decisions, where managers appear to benefit from perks such as holiday packages, gift vouchers, or other incentives from contracting firms especially CW. That crosses the line from bias into corruption.

At the same time, genuinely skilled, hardworking, and committed employees have been let go, while those benefiting from these practices remain. This sends a message that integrity and capability are not always valued equally.

That said, there is life outside this company. Many of us who left including me have found better opportunities where merit, transparency, and hard work are recognized and rewarded.

If these practices continue, they will damage not only employee morale but also the company’s long-term credibility and success. No organization can grow sustainably on favoritism and unethical decision-making.

Does it ever end??? This is the worst company I’ve ever worked for! This company seems to hire toxic leadership on purpose. I have yet to meet anyone that is satisfied with the ill treatment we are met with from the leaders. The only time we get told we are doing well is right before leadership requires us to take on another meaningless project. We are over worked because those that perform well are only left to pick up the slack of the “favorites” while the favorites get paid more for doing less. I’m expected to do my managers job as well. I think I’d rather quit and take the chance of starving to save my self from this soul crushing place. I have the rudest B5 lead on team! He was a manager but was demoted due to his employee survey scores & when I tell my direct manager I am met with “ Trust me he doesn’t want to be a people leader y’all get on his nerves” if that’s the case why is he left in charge of us while your on maternity leave? It’s been he-l on Earth at this place.

Brokerage, Wealth, WI, PI are all under WEALTH as a BU.

Back in 2024, they split Wealth into Personal investing (PI) and Workplace Investing (WI) that had some impact and layoffs.

But the move did not make sense long term and hence with Emerson's and Bob's move Brokerage, PI, WI are again considered "Wealth" as a one BU and there's push to consolidate operations that do similar work.

With that, there will be obviously some redundancies that will be introduced.
Some slackers who have been coasting for years, will be exposed along with managers pets and those managers who are responsible for encouraging these pets.

Majority of these "pet owners" tend to be CL and GCLs, not just in Wealth but across company.

What's unfortunate is that there are some chapter leads who got "lucky" and are now "Engineering leads" but still promote favouritism.

It all stems from their own insecurity, they downplay achievements of high performer pushing them to deal with all sorts of stress, anxiety and uncertainty.

They will talk big game in the face but seriously lack basic documentation skills.

Nepotism is everywhere, sure, but this place has industrialized it. Leadership’s kids, cousins, college roommates, golf buddies, family friends, Intel connections, and basically anyone who’s ever made it onto the holiday card list get quietly slotted into comfortable roles, while layoffs sm--k around the downtrodden and the rest of us sit here waiting to see whose number gets called next. And somehow, they still have the audacity to parade it all over LinkedIn and every other social platform like it’s a leadership masterclass, a kind of “how to succeed in business” series where step one is simply being related to the right person. At this point, merit isn’t just optional, it’s almost suspicious.

Is favoritism a common thing in your department? Manager overlooks/makes exception for a certain employee but either micromanages or ignores the rest of the team.

Windstream/Kinetic employee here looking for advice or feedback on all your former leaders coming over here. They are not making friends and ripping the company that we spent nearly a decade building apart. They have come in like a wrecking ball and it seems if you are not part of their inner circle then you don’t mean anything to them. They might be smart folks but their people skills are awful and the only opinions they care about are their buddies they brought over. Are you happy they are gone or do you miss them? Help me understand my future lol

Lot of management favorite employees were RIFed.
They got good severance packages.
Were rehired back as consultants @ $100 per hour rate.
Some middle management managers are playing this game.

Leadership is something that employees aspire to become one day. Our leaders are nothing but that. These are people who are so called HiPos stepped over others, stayed not more than two years, did nothing of value to the corporation but perception and favoritism moved them up and is reflected in poor leadership and zero vision that we see today. They travel for no reason, present mundane powerpoint slides just to show that they are busy to their division. Where will it end? These are the people that board trusted to lead in to the future?

Let me describe how this place works. First pillar, punishment. Make a small error and they'll remind you for months. Second pillar, fear. Nobody feels safe. Everyone's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Third pillar, favoritism. Certain people can do no wrong. They get the promotions, the good projects, the protection. Everyone else gets the scraps. That's the culture. That's how they run things. And it's not just unpleasant, but also abusive. It wears you down until you don't even remember what normal feels like.

So many posts about EIA snub and no recognition highlighting individual accomplishments with EIA.

An EIA IMHO stands for excelling individual, yet if you win something and instead just receive "great job team" it tells you how Chennai connection or being in Bangalore-ham is what will make you be recognized.

A person with 5 yr anniversary gets all the accolades while the one who is celebrating 10 yr anniversary doesn't get nothing, coz they're not from the same region.

This culture is what drives toxic corporate politics in every team I have been part of since 6 years.

Last winter two people in my team received EIA, both received detailed individual details on what they did.

This year two people in my team received EIA but this time, the comment they received was "great job team". All because they're not in same location as rest of the team.

So that's clearly a sign of managers playing favourites, purposely not choosing to highlight individual accomplishments.

In short, the associates who received EIA this year, would have mixed feelings about it as EIA comments go in towards year end review. So with nothing to show for, it's obvious how sick these things are.

Only Bangalore-ham or Chennai connection is what gets you recognized.

That's Fiserv's recipe for disaster.

I'm in therapy now thanks to this job. I did everything right, great reviews, no issues. New management is awful, threatening, plays favorites. I have a health condition that needs good insurance and I live somewhere with few other jobs. So I stay. But I'm done ki-ling myself for them.

Want a promotion? Make friends with the higher ups. That's it. But know that after you get promoted, you're more likely to get cut. Higher pay has become a liability. There's no winning here anymore.

We noticed lots of greencard and US citizens were laidoff where H1b in same team survived. This seems one of favoritism for low cost worker. Filed a case for this.
Seems lots of H1b frauds floating around in Texas and Nashville and Oracle is hiring H1b's here ...
The Indian managers who held H1b and laidoff US residents should be questioned.
Lots of news floating around on H1b fraud now.

We have internal job postings all the time, but it’s becoming pretty obvious a lot of them already have someone in mind. People go through the entire process and then lose out to someone who seems pre-selected. Why even put it up if you already know who you're going to give it to?

Or working hard, for that matter? There's no path upward. Promotions happen under circumstances that are genuinely baffling, and never seem tied to actual performance. Meanwhile, the real backbone of the teams, the impressive professionals, get passed over every time. I'll go further - being qualified practically disqualifies you from moving up.

Watching promotions happen makes you wonder whether performance is really the deciding factor or if knowing the right person is the trump card.

Title says it all. Some areas are far worse than others.

Awful leadership
Open favoritism
You can forget about coaching or career development
You’re treated as a number and replaceable
Pay and benefits are subpar
Little to no accountability
And so on...

I can’t confirm whether every rumor going around is true, but I can speak to what many of us see and feel inside the team. There’s a clear sense of favoritism and decisions that don’t always seem based on merit.
It’s also concerning to watch the CEO receive multimillion‑dollar compensation while work is being sent overseas, reducing local opportunities and creating even more uncertainty for employees.
This isn’t about attacking anyone or repeating unverified claims. It’s about pointing out a culture where some people protect each other while others are left vulnerable, which naturally creates distrust and discourages those who work with integrity.
Fair leadership should focus on transparency, equity, and real accountability.

Today we found out that a member from my team who has only been on the team for two years will be getting promoted. That person is still very new and has a lot of questions and in my opinion work to do. One of other members on the team who has been here for 6 years is always helpful, knowledgeable, and shockingly passed for this promotion. If anyone deserves it then it’s him and I’m shocked he didn’t get it. Surprised manager or vp didn’t feel this way and went with the other team member.

It's becoming impossible to ignore the fact that certain people get access to opportunities the rest of us don't even know exist, not to mention are considered for. It's always the same names for every good project, every interesting assignment. I guess hard work doesn't matter if you're not in the right group.