#leadership

She posted this on LinkedIn today; guessing she also sent it to her teams?

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After much thought and reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave Paramount.

We have had an extraordinary journey and the immense privilege of helping shape stories that touched the lives of millions. We brought iconic characters to life for fans globally and immersed them in unique worlds. The creativity has been limitless, the collaborations brilliant and most importantly, the people: exceptional.

Personally, working at Paramount has been the honor of a lifetime. From my early days on Nickelodeon’s Integrated Marketing team to becoming the company’s first CMO, to leading the International Markets and Global Consumer Products & Experiences divisions, I have had a front-row seat to the ingenuity, passion, and hard work that defines Paramount across every division, in every corner of the world.

Together, we built billion-dollar franchises. We turned a yellow sea sponge into a global icon. We acquired and reignited the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, made Emily in Paris a must-have lifestyle brand, and built PAW Patrol into the #1 preschool brand. We hit fashion runways with designers from Stella McCartney to Gucci, and stayed in the zeitgeist with collaborations that sold out in minutes - from Crocs to Supreme. Our gaming business enabled fans to create their own adventures like with the incredibly successful Star Trek Fleet Command, with 20 million downloads and counting. We graced Broadway and London’s West End with theatrical productions from Mean Girls to Sunset Boulevard. We expanded into award-winning hotels, resorts, theme parks, and live tours. In building out these world-class brands and franchises, we created a $7B retail business.

We led the transformation of our international business, setting a strong foundation for the future. As streaming reshaped the entertainment landscape, we supported the Paramount+ and Pluto TV teams, reimagined how we connect with audiences, and aligned global strategy with local expertise. Through the Impact Series, which expanded to 10+ cities worldwide, we had meaningful conversations around leadership and inclusion, inspiring a more connected and empowered culture.

Our Paramount team is the very best in the business. Thank you for your commitment, your passion and for making me a better leader.

I am excited to see what David Ellison, Jeff Shell, and the new leadership team have planned for the future. While I am consulting through the end of the year, I leave with immense pride in what we have built and confidence in what’s ahead. I will always be rooting for Paramount, and I will definitely be first in line for the Top G-n Las Vegas experience.

In the words of the great Bob Marley, “Beginnings are usually scary, and endings are usually sad, but it's everything in between that makes it all worth living.”

I’ve truly had the sl--e of my life in the “in between” with all of you.

We should not keep quiet, we should raise our voice against this leadership!

It's all better now. All is forgiven and we can all just move along like this never happened.

It seems that some people are using this forum to vent personal frustrations rather than to provide constructive feedback. Calling out individuals or departments in an attempt to damage reputations or careers is neither productive nor fair. If you have legitimate concerns about a leader or colleague, the appropriate channels are HR or Ethics & Compliance—not anonymous posts.

While I agree that some resources may not be performing at the level expected, it’s not accurate or fair to paint entire departments, such as IT, in a negative light. Many leaders are working under significant constraints—limited funding, strict policies, and the usual corporate red tape—that can make progress difficult. From my own interactions, I know at least one leader who is frequently criticized here genuinely cares about making improvements and increasing efficiency. It’s unfair for them to carry the blame alone.

That said, accountability is important at all levels. I’ve observed managers who don’t take their responsibilities seriously, ignore feedback, or fail to address concerns. This results in underperforming teams, outdated or conflicting policies, and unnecessary frustration. However, blaming leaders who are actively trying to make a difference only distracts from the real issues.

Before criticizing others, I encourage everyone to reflect on whether they themselves are meeting expectations and contributing fully. Constructive feedback and personal accountability will do far more to improve our workplace than anonymous negativity.

Seems in IT Services a lot more outside managers were hired this past year including a VP with no prior TI experience. In hindsight, I think some were brought in just for cost-cutting and reorg.

What are people hearing about an upcoming announcement planned for late October?

There’s a LinkedIn article circling around my department right now of the top 10 highest paid insurance CEOs of 2024. Good ole Maurice is #1, taking home more than 40 million dollars. Seems to me if he just took a measly pay cut of 10 million he could stop the layoffs and probably even onboard more people. The enemy of the working class is the billionaire, and we’re seeing the impact of that in real time.

Here’s a link to the article: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dutchrojas_top-10-highest-paid-health-insurance-ceos-activity-7355559494208180225-V4fc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAACyFcsBZ8JcsDslVrsTQz0TcwWqK31N26w

I'm sad about the layoffs. I was laid off from my last role. It was very painful. Very painful. And I had a lot of anger and felt betrayed.,

I've seen vicious criticisms towards Maurice, Manika, Shannon, John and Kelley. Let's back off the mean comments directed to them. Personally, I think it is misplaced and not warranted. I remember COVID and how we all in HR thought we would be laid off. Yet those same leaders came together and not only saved our jobs. We also got financial help. They let us WFH for 18 months. I for one am very grateful to them.

Layoffs are horrible but they are something that even MCOs aren't immune to. HCSC is not a perfect company but I think it's the best of the industry. I would work no where else. I have worked for other MCOs and I can say that we are treated better and our benefits are better than my experiences. These layoffs do not make HCSC a bad company.

Once again, I'm very sorry for those laid off and pray that you land
back on your feet quickly. I have said a prayer for the people impacted by this. I miss my laid off coworkers.

Sociopathy is Rewarded in Corporate Culture

The corporate world often values and rewards traits associated with sociopathy, such as ruthlessness, vision, and high focus on goals. Steve Jobs is often cited as a model of leadership where these qualities were admired. This focus on cutthroat tactics and maximizing quarterly profits means that when a toxic boss acts toxically, they may be rewarded, not reprimanded, for their "success."

The Toxic Paradox: Kiss Up, Kick Down

Toxic people have mastered the art of "kiss up, kick down":

Kiss Up: They expend all their effort su-king up to the boss and higher-ups, focusing on perception as the most important element of career success.

Kick Down: They sabotage co-workers, spread vicious gossip, withhold crucial information, or take credit for others' work.

Cognitive Dissonance: When higher-ups consider a toxic person their favorite, they will justify the person's poor performance to advance them. Management may even gaslight a good employee who raises concerns by shifting the blame onto them.

Toxic Work Environments are Enabled at the Top

Weak or ill-equipped leadership creates and enables the toxic environment:

Underinvestment in Training: Many companies underinvest in basic management or leadership training, leading to ineffective leaders.

Poor Modeling: When a toxic executive is at the top, their leadership style—characterized by unrealistic expectations, setting people up to fail, and openly berating people—trickles down and is modeled by other leaders, rapidly declining the work environment.

Insecure Leaders: Many people pursue leadership for validation, power, or to feel important, making them insecure leaders who may tolerate other toxic people.

Toxic people are the Bigger Problem (and Harder to Deal With)

In many cases, management knows a toxic person is a problem but doesn't fire them because they are the bigger liability.

The manager (e.g., "Ted") realizes the toxic person (e.g., "Carol") would "lose her sh-t, file complaints, and cause all sorts of headaches" if confronted. The manager may instead choose to reprimand the more agreeable, non-toxic employee who they know will try to "keep the peace."

1. Their Reputation Matters More Than Results

Ultimately, toxic people are experts at exploiting the idea that their reputation with the higher-ups matters way more than results. They become untouchable once they establish influence with executive leadership.

Most people try to either play dirty office politics or avoid them, but the third option is to learn how to play office politics using simple power moves to make yourself immune from their tactics. But how? Does any of this ring a bell for you?

HyVee is a lost ship at sea these days. It’s the blame game now. Hyvee leadership has failed for 10 years now. They blame the stores for failed business ideas and policy when it was VP and CEO that forced these ideas on stores. Remember when HyVee had autonomy? Now they run it from the top and that has failed. HyVee used to be the grocery store chain to work for but these days it’s just another sub par company in the retail sector.

Drummer has added so many layers, some people are 10 layers from the top in Teams unbelievable. Drummer should go, D Keasey top, Regional Lead, Country, Account, Team Lead, and Employee. There should be no more than 6 levels. This is where the money is being blown. This needs fixing ASAP.

At least 2 senior planners and several in the buying org quit this month.

I know of a half-dozen more interviewing, haha. They were warned this would happen with RTO and leadership decided to do layoffs anyway.

This is all disheartening. There are terrible managers who should’ve been let go, but instead hardworking and honest people are laid off. These decisions were made because of poor leadership to begin with, who holds managers and senior execs accountable?

Four Schwabbies get into a car. The car won’t start.

Director: We should reduce headcount.

Manager: It just needs a coaching memo.

HR: Have you tried asking it to start?

NSD: Let's all get out of the car and get back in.

This place feels like it’s stuck in the past. Half the leadership team seems completely unqualified, and most only got their roles through connections or because they cost less. And the result are layoffs, because that's the only thing incompetent leadership knows how to do. It’s wild how this is allowed to go on.

Where do I begin? After reading all of these and talking to fellow employees who I have known for 20 years, I have lost faith that we are capable of being a company that cares about its employees and customers. I have been here long enough to know people in all departments so I have been talking to them to see if what is written here is true. Time after time they were able to show me proof of….well…everything. I cannot believe we have arrived here after all of the things we had gone through years ago. I thought we learned that doing things right and doing so by doing the right things for our employees and customers mattered. How can we keep secrets about mold and hackers instead of being honest and simply telling them what we are doing about it. Bad things happen. They do in every company but bad companies lie and try to manipulate the masses and their customers. Is that reallly who we want to be?

I have also gotten to know many leaders here and that includes the new security VP. Isn’t it clear that he doesn’t have the ethical and moral compass to lead one of the positions that require ethics the most. And I am not even bringing up the lack of experience. And you wonder why he isn’t getting things done fast enough and rather throws shade and excuses on others? Do not those articles and what he has already spoken about to many of us even trigger that he is not the right fit for our beloved company, or any other Fortune 500? He is already causing problems with his rethoric and loose lips and I know many of you talk about how you don’t like or trust him. A couple of you have done it when I am around. What else is left? There are over 3000 employees on one of the posts that are screaming for help as one poster so eloquently mentioned on her post. One section below has over 70 thousand hits. That seems to be more than any other company in layoffs.com so take a bow at the damage you are causing to our company name. Especially since you all know customers read these and so will the decision makers who will select the leadership once we merge. Yes we know about that too. His very existence has already caused division and spread rumors that are all turning out to be true and hurts US Foods deeply. For Pete’s sake ELT, do what you know is right. There was a time we knew what great looked like and made the difficult choices easily. Give our coworkers a voice again to report situations that may be dangerous or wrong. The fact that they aren’t able to do that should give you pause and at least 3 and a half thousand employees already have spoken up. Actually, my friends in HR said their own leaders up to the top know the verdict is already out. For Pete sake, put the needs of the employees first.

And these decisions to lie or deceive. Who are we kidding here. Have you forgotten how clear you used to see poor leaders trying to minimize harm and doing so by lying rather than confronting the issues. Be bold and ethical. When all of you weren’t in your current executive positions, do you remember how you felt when things were kept in silent and evasive or hidden actions would happen from your leaders or executives you really wanted to believe in? Do you really want to treat us as blind id--ts? We see and know it all because we are a large yet small company with friends in every department. The IT exec needs to tell the truth of what happened and how you are addressing it and care enough about our employees to tell them enough about the breach to let them know they should not be fearful. Let them know all is well and that all you are doing to try to prevent another attack. The password leaks are scary and we don’t know what that means. Some of us do because we have friends in IT security who tell us but most employees don’t. We understand it is difficult to prevent a hack and won’t lose faith when it happens. Some of the most secure and powerful companies and governments have been hacked. It is not surprising or scary but your lack of honesty and treating us like id--ts is. That same thing goes for the mold and the violence and threat incidents. Do I need to really tell our leaders that transparency brings trust and that harsh consequences for those types of bad employees, create safer work places?

I lie awake at night next to my husband wondering when we will have leaders remember who they were when they were rising and who once said “I will be different when I have that job. I will lead my teams with dignity and honesty”. When and how did that change? But it’s not too late to listen to your heart and us employees and simply do what’s right and take the actions you need to take. We may be merging in the future and who do you think those holding the most stocks and power will want to retain as the new company’s leaders. The executives from one company that dont even get the trust or respect from their employees? Those that lie and deceive rather than speak up boldly and address how problems will be overcome? Those that make bigger profits the right way and with compassion for your employees? Is how you are acting the way you want to teach your children to be?

Please be who I know most of you to be and start to lead and take the necessary moves you need to make. I have seen the comments of lies, cheating to hire some employees, inequality in hiring for positions, taking people who had a proven poor past and were caught lying in articles and admitted to lying, handling work place violence poorly, badly managed safery incidents, etc etc etc. Read these articles and rather than do damage control and trying to find out who the 4000 employees are that are revealing everything, why not just fix the problems themselves . It is a noble idea and actions of true leaders. Your employees are reaching to you for help. Led them and win their trust and respect us again. It is all we are asking for from our executives and friends for which we cheered for to climb that ladder because we believed in them and a vision of true leadership. Be who we all hoped and believed you would be.

I just hope someone posts the decision purely driven by shareholder returns, what a shameful way to ruin a great Canadian company

Congrats to the management team in Australia, Retired and soon to be retired.

What a legacy to leave

Companies will always follow where the money is. Doesn't care if they lose talent and reliable people.

Who is really running things there? Why has neither HR or ethics and compliance team taken any action?

https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/hawaii-dell-hualalai-land-sale-21055390.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email

Can Senior management tell us why you keep individual contributors C15 who are newly transferred to new assignment who ha no background? They are newly transferred starters and less value than C13 but paid too high

It’s been made clear that some of the pending and recent “promotions” have more to do with loyalty than skill, especially in areas like Data Management and Product. RED FLAG with layoffs coming, because people who question the approach often end up on the wrong lists (look at that orgs perimeter list alone). Best advice: DOCUMENT your work, keep your head down, and be ready in case decisions are made to protect someone’s inner circle instead of the SMEs or high performers, sadly in that org it’s clear your work or having any skills don’t matter.
*** Be prepared to prove it, save everything!

I personally felt he demonstrated why our company is ranked # 567 out of 600 Companies for Employee Culture.
He said nothing new but did double down that in spite of reading the survey comments, nothing is going to change.
Let me repeat that… Nothing is going to change.
He symbolizes what is wrong with our once great company.
Bravado yet doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

Today’s a complete nightmare.

Every one pats each other on the back and then pretends like any of this matters. While the whole world is a sh*t show

How much longer must we wait before Leahy is fired? She has destroyed the company.

It has been a year since DW and George Sloan set in front of us and declared that we are getting out the HW business because it is the right thing to do. George went on to declare that we are turning over any HW development to a company called Ennoconn which he gleefully said is owned by Foxconn who makes cell phones and the transition would be completed by December of 2024.

What they did not say is that at that time Ennoconn had absolutely no presence here in the US when the announcement was made, not a single office except for some guy working out of his apartment in California. That is it…

So fast forward to today, Ennoconn supposedly now has leased a building here in the US and is working to get it set up to begin handling all of the HW business here in the US for NCR. According to sockless Jim, the work was supposed to be done by July, then August, then September, and now it looks more like sometime next year…so much for our wonderful leadership knowing what they are talking about. Of course, they have proven time and time again that they are clueless so this comes as no surprise.

This talk of moving out of hardware has cost NCR $$ Millions in lost revenue due to customers going elsewhere along with higher costs to design, buy, build, test, and sell the HW. It has also cost thousands of jobs too which is still happening.

Forget tariffs, the leadership of this company has redced the revenue and increased the costs of our products themselves which is a huge reason for that layoffs – just as our man Georgieee said it in the last all hands - we spend more than we make!!

Here is an example – the GHQ had a lab constructed in the basement of the building to test the HW we designed. The tests included emissions testing, and other environmental and safety tests. So, the bright idea by our leadership was to dismantle this testing lab and outsource the testing.

So, testing that would have cost thousands of dollars now costs HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars for the same testing. And what of the lab itself, it has been dismantled and is sitting somewhere and, along with the space where it used to be, is not being used at all....great job guys!!

Wonder why there is no money for raises or bonuses – well there is one reason for sure.

So, while we wait for Ennoconn to officially take over the HW role, we lose $$ Millions as our diminutive CFO puts it, because of HW revenue losses - but what he is not admitting is these losses are directly the result of poor decisions made by the past and current NCR leadership.

But hey, instead of $$ we got Pride so let us celebrate with a parade.

Pride - where the men are men and so are the women!!

I thought the usa webcast was pretty useless, except for the revelation that TA was a cr*p purchase. Love the chest thumping by the refinery ladies, empty words and rhetoric. Strange they travel so much to accomplish what exactly?

Any guesses as to the subject(s)

You don't believe HSBC has anything real using quantum computing to do bonds trading do you?...

Must be HSBC from Hong Kong bought IBM shares as they're a financial institution to cash on the hype don't you think?

Hopefully this is the last hype Alvind pulls to cash his shares as he finally steps down, claiming success of course!

Never trust analysts nor IBM Research BS!

Dell is losing the PC market not because of the market, but because of leadership missteps. Poor brand unification, a half-hearted approach to channels and e-tail, and failure to compete with Lenovo on pricing are leaving customers and revenue on the table. Cutting costs can’t fix a lack of strategy. If Dell wants to stop the slide, it needs bold decisions, not just headcount reductions.

Gary Cohn doing more "whisper number" interviews on Jim Cramer etc just prior to Q3 results showing IBM hitting consensus estimates BUT lucky to grow top line revenue more than 2%?

Heard that on Cisco beat. Just gross

I swear if one more ex-CVS Health exec starts working here, we should start doing flu shots in the course materials area.

Tell us you're filling the company with c-suite buddies instead of investing in the stores without telling us.

Who is voting for this cr-p?

In underwriting, the burnout is very real. Pay even came up in the recent town hall, which says a lot. Every time someone leaves, their work just gets redistributed to the rest of us: same pay, more responsibility. Meanwhile, competitors are paying more and we’re cutting benefits, so people are openly talking about leaving.

We’re also losing clients and not hitting our goals, and it’s hard not to connect that to the fact that so many experienced people have left. Their knowledge and expertise can’t just be replaced overnight, but instead we’re backfilling with new college grads who don’t yet know how things work. That gap is putting even more pressure on the people still here. Now we are expected to do our work, cover the work of those who have left, and train the new hires.

Curious if others across the PBM side are seeing the same. Do you think leadership really understands how widespread this is?