#management

I'm on my 4th manager in about 12 months. Two of them were laid off just in 2025. I'm taking odds to see if I'll be let go or my manager before the year is done. No matter how hard I work they pile up the work and expect more. It is a system designed to fail as we can't meet the customer demands.

How did we get the worst CIO in not only out industry, but in the country? A used car salesman would do a better job. At least he might have a shot at convincing us of the lies being told. He must have wrecked GM IT. He makes BB look like a super hero.

Anything other than the ability to blindly cut from one Q to the next?

If you are planning on taking Walgreens private, wouldn't you want to pay as little as possible to do so? And, once you own the company, wouldn't you want to "improve" it easily to make as much money as you can when you sell it or have it go public again?

For instance, is it possible that Pessina/Sycamore/etc. intentionally:

1. Created a bad anti-theft policy so Walgreens would incur losses that could easily be made up after changing this policy later.

2. Created bad losses like the doctor office scheme, etc.

3. Paid massive amounts of money out to 'leaders' who were either friends or affiliated with each other.

The reason I thought of this is because of all the new over-stock all the stores are getting. They obviously held back on stocking the stores immediately before the sale and then after the sale, went back to making sure stores are fully stocked. That is at least somewhat of a manipulation. What else did they do.

What a “B” rated speech by the new CEO. States so many issues with where Verizon is now as if he wasn’t part of the, DAN YOU WERE ON THE BOARD.

So this is why all the cabinets were getting stuffed.

So I went to my morning meeting. We all joined. Some were still waking up (west coast) and others had already consumed multiple cups of coffee.
"good morning!" said the scrum master.
"mmmmm" said we all.
"OK so we are going to go through the tickets now and start with you, Bob"
Ummm...OK so I'm not Bob, but I have to say, I started multitasking right away. Why you say? Well because what Bob does has nothing to do with what I do. In fact, all members of the team work on different things that really don't overlap.
But wait! We need Agile! Agile will improve lead time, cycle time, WIP, and other things (unmentionables)
In this team, nope. No one cares. Each is in their own world. Step back say 5 years, and everyone was trying to help. We all crossed lines. Now? Nope, all I care about is my tickets and their due dates.
So now we have a scrum master, a product owner, a manager, and then.....the rest of us. So we went from our manager (one person) to now 3 people all trying to manage the rest of us. And, did I mention, 4 of 7 got laid off? So now 3 of us are being managed by 3 new bosses to get more done with less.

This is the WF implementation of Agile. Read it and weep.......

Brian Roberts refuses to humble himself. He is turning Comcast into Blockbuster 2.0. He won’t go down with the ship though. He doesn’t have the moral or ethical framework.

That is why he might just go down as the most hated businessman in the country.

Sure Dan thinks he’s telling us all these revelatory truths but we all knew what he was saying was true years ago. There’s a significant proportion of the company whose goals are aligned to saying “No” or “It’s not me”. Trying to get anything done, or anything fixed is a complete pain in the a**

Silo management just blocks progress and every VP and SD are responsible for that

Dan is doing what needs to be done to fix years of bad leadership and turn the company around. He’s the real deal.

What's the hold up? I hear Managers have been asked to wait until January to have performance discussions.

SAS Cloud seems to run entirely on project managers.

No actual SAS experience in sight, yet somehow they manage to present themselves as experts on absolutely everything.

No wonder the whole place looks like it’s permanently waiting on a meeting about a meeting.

#bootstrappers

Pretty sure "managers" outnumber the employees considering I found over 2,000 that have no direct reports. Is Wells running a laundry??

I heard from my manager that we are getting tracked on time in office now? Is that true?

Why is our manager doing one on ones to tell us, if we dont hit the full quota this month, we may not have jobs next month? Something seems fishy.

Everyone in your management chain above your 1-up are buddies from a previous financial institution. You would think they might try to hide that fact rather than broadcast it. The who you know, not what you know, is in full swing.

Copy Pasta from a different site:

Former HR here - subtle signs your company is preparing for layoffs

I’ve been through 3 rounds of layoffs (twice in HR, once when I was also laid off), and there’s a pattern that emerges before the axe falls. Not trying to create paranoia, but if you’re seeing multiple signs on this list, it might be time to update your resume.

This got long, so I’ve broken it down by timeline and severity. Hopefully this helps someone see what’s coming and prepare accordingly.

EARLY WARNING SIGNS (3-6 months out)

Financial and strategic shifts:

Hiring freeze gets announced, especially if it’s sudden or poorly explained. When companies say “we’re being strategic about growth” out of nowhere, that’s HR-speak for “we’re about to cut costs aggressively.” Pay attention to whether it’s a soft freeze (critical roles only) or hard freeze (literally nobody).

Executives start talking about “efficiency,” “operational excellence,” “doing more with less,” or “rightsizing” in all-hands meetings. Once leadership starts using these phrases repeatedly, start paying attention. They’re preparing employees psychologically for cuts.

The company misses earnings or revenue targets multiple quarters in a row, or leadership keeps revising guidance downward. Public companies especially - check their investor relations page and quarterly calls.

Consultants show up. Specifically McKcKinsey, Bain, Deloitte, or similar firms. They’re not there to make things better for employees - they’re there to identify “redundancies” and provide cover for cuts leadership already wants to make. If you see consultants doing org chart analysis or “efficiency studies,” that’s a massive red flag.

Leadership changes at the top. New CEO, CFO, or COO often means new priorities. New executives frequently want to “make their mark” within the first 100 days, and layoffs are a quick way to cut costs and restructure.

Budget and resource signals:

Training and development budgets disappear. Conference approvals get denied, software licenses don’t get renewed, that certification you wanted gets tabled indefinitely. When companies stop investing in employee development, they’re not planning long-term with current staff.

Discretionary spending freezes. Team outings canceled, holiday parties scaled back or eliminated, small perks disappear. These are the easiest costs to cut first.

Delayed or frozen merit increases and bonuses. If annual raises get “postponed” or bonuses are cut despite decent performance, the company is hoarding cash for something.

Open headcount gets quietly closed. You might not notice a hiring freeze officially, but those three open roles on your team just stop being discussed.

Cultural and messaging changes:

The “we’re a family” messaging intensifies. Ironically, when companies start really pushing the culture stuff hard, it’s often because morale is tanking and they know what’s coming. Authentic culture doesn’t need constant reinforcement.

Town halls become more frequent but less substantive. Leadership is trying to control the narrative and keep people calm, but they’re not actually saying anything meaningful.

Internal communications shift tone. Messages become more formal, more carefully worded, more legal-sounding. This usually means lawyers are reviewing everything.

Real estate and facilities:

Office consolidation starts being discussed. Subleasing space, breaking leases early, or suddenly pushing hybrid/remote work after being office-focused. Real estate is expensive and often the first place companies look to cut.

Facilities staff reductions. If maintenance, security, or reception teams shrink, that’s a leading indicator.

MEDIUM-TERM SIGNS (1-3 months out)

The ones people miss:

Your manager starts acting weird in 1-on-1s. They seem distant, can’t give you clear answers about future projects, or suddenly don’t want to talk about your career development, or they cancel 1-on1s. They often know 4-6 weeks before you do and are terrible at hiding it. Watch for:

Avoiding eye contact

Being vague about Q2/Q3 planning

Not fighting for resources they normally would

Seeming stressed or checked out

Cross-functional projects get canceled or put on hold indefinitely. If that big initiative involving multiple teams suddenly loses steam, it’s often because leadership knows the teams won’t exist soon.

Reorganizations that don’t make sense. When they shuffle reporting structures or combine teams in weird ways, they’re often preparing for consolidation. The reorg is the setup; the layoff is the follow-through.

Senior people start leaving and aren’t replaced. When your VP quietly exits and the role just disappears or gets absorbed, that’s a restructure preview. Execs often see the writing on the wall before layoffs and jump ship.

The “high performer” narrative shifts. Suddenly everyone’s being evaluated more critically, PIPs increase, and the bar for “meeting expectations” gets higher. They’re building paper trails.

HR and administrative signals:

HR schedules random meetings with employees to “check in.” This can be them gauging morale, but it can also be them identifying who might be problems during layoffs (ie, who might sue or cause issues).

Increased focus on documentation. HR suddenly cares a lot about having everything in writing, attendance records are scrutinized, minor policy violations are documented. They’re building files.

Anonymous surveys about “organizational effectiveness” or “role clarity.” They’re identifying redundancies and overlapping responsibilities.

Operational changes:

Vendors get cut or renegotiated aggressively. If the company is trying to save money everywhere, labor costs are next.

Projects shift from innovation to maintenance. All the exciting new work stops, and teams are just keeping lights on. This suggests they don’t believe in long-term investment right now.

Contractors and temps disappear first. This is always the canary in the coal mine. If contractors are let go en masse, full-time employees are usually 4-8 weeks behind.

Financial desperation moves:

The company takes on debt or seeks additional funding under unfavorable terms. This suggests cash flow problems.

Asset sales. Selling off business units, real estate, IP, or other assets to raise cash.

Delayed payments to vendors. If your company is stretching payables or late on bills, they’re struggling with cash.

IMMEDIATE RED FLAGS (2-4 weeks out)

The “oh sh-t” tier:

You or your team suddenly gets asked to document all your processes in detail, create runbooks, or do knowledge transfers “for continuity.” They’re preparing for people to be gone and don’t want institutional knowledge walking out the door.

Managers have mysterious meetings that aren’t on the calendar, or meetings that say “leadership sync” with no agenda. Often they’re being told how to “rank” their teams (stack ranking) or getting trained on how to deliver termination news.

HR blocks calendar time that’s marked private across the entire organization on the same day. That’s layoff day. Usually a Wednesday or Thursday.

Managers seem panicked or are suddenly unavailable. They’re either in planning meetings or mentally preparing for what they have to do.

IT or Security starts asking random questions about access, or you notice permissions audits. They’re preparing to revoke access quickly.

Conference rooms get blocked all day with “private” meetings. Those are the termination meetings.

The parking lot has way more cars than usual early in the morning on a random day. Leadership arrives early to prepare and coordinate.

The final 48 hours:

Executives all happen to be “in the office” on the same day when they’re usually remote or traveling. They want to show their faces and deliver messages in person.

Your manager asks for a “quick sync” with no context, or you get a calendar invite for early morning with just “meeting.” That’s often the termination conversation.

You notice coworkers disappearing into conference rooms and not coming back, or leaving with boxes. If it’s happening, it’s happening to multiple people today.

Email access starts acting weird, VPN connections drop, or badge access to certain areas stops working. IT is already starting to shut you down.

WHAT TO DO - ACTION PLAN

Preparation phase (as soon as you see early signs)

Update LinkedIn immediately. Make sure your profile is complete and compelling. Turn on “open to work” privately so recruiters can see it but your company can’t.

Refresh your resume and tailor it for your target roles. Have multiple versions ready for different job types. Get it reviewed by someone who knows your industry.

Document your accomplishments with metrics. Revenue generated, costs saved, projects delivered, teams built. Save this somewhere personal, not company equipment.

Save important files legally. Performance reviews, reference letters, samples of your work (that aren’t confidential), documentation of your achievements. Email them to your personal account or save to personal cloud storage. Do NOT take confidential company information, client data, or proprietary code.

Screenshot or save your LinkedIn recommendations and endorsements. Sometimes people leave and delete their profiles.

Reconnect with your network NOW while you’re employed. It’s easier to get coffee as a “catch up” than as a desperate job seeker. Reach out to old colleagues, mentors, recruiters you’ve worked with.

Financial preparation:

Build emergency fund if possible. Even an extra month of expenses helps.

Understand your benefits. Know your PTO balance, how severance works at your company (if there’s a standard package), what COBRA costs, when your stock vests, and what happens to your 401k.

Reduce expenses where you can. Not to panic level, but maybe hold off on big purchases.

Check if you have any loans against 401k or obligations tied to employment. Some companies require repayment upon termination.

Legal and administrative:

Keep records of everything. If you suspect you’re being targeted unfairly (discrimination, retaliation), document it meticulously with dates and witnesses.

Check your employment contract for non-compete, non-solicitation, and IP assignment clauses. Know what you signed.

Mental preparation:

This is not about your worth. Layoffs are business decisions, usually driven by executive mistakes or market conditions. Even top performers get cut.

Have a plan for how you’ll spend day one after a layoff. Whether it’s updating your resume, going for a run, or calling a friend, having a plan helps you not spiral.

Tell your partner or trusted person what might be coming. Don’t suffer alone or let it blindside your household.

If/when it happens:

Don’t sign anything immediately. You usually have time to review severance agreements. Consider having an employment lawyer review it, especially if it includes non-compete or release clauses.

Negotiate if possible. Severance, extended healthcare, references, job search support, equity vesting. The worst they can say is no, and many companies have wiggle room.

File for unemployment immediately. Even if you get severance, you might be eligible. Don’t leave money on the table.

Ask for a neutral reference or letter of recommendation before you leave. Much easier to get this on day one than six months later.

Understand what’s happening to your benefits. COBRA deadlines, life insurance conversion options, FSA/HSA balances.

Get contact info for colleagues you want to stay in touch with. Once you lose email access, it’s hard to reconnect.

Job search strategy:

Take a day or two to process emotionally. You don’t have to start applying immediately.

Quality over quantity. Targeted applications with customized materials beat spray-and-pray.

Use your network first. Most jobs are filled through referrals. Let people know you’re looking.

Consider contract or freelance work to bridge gaps. It keeps money coming in and shows you stayed active.

Be honest in interviews about the layoff. “Company went through restructuring” or “position was eliminated due to budget cuts” is fine. Most interviewers get it, especially if layoffs were public.

WHAT NOT TO DO

Don’t panic or make it obvious you’re job hunting. Don’t print your resume on the company printer, don’t take recruiting calls at your desk, don’t update LinkedIn with “OPEN TO WORK” publicly while still employed.

Don’t badmouth the company publicly. Even if you’re furious, keep it professional. The industry is smaller than you think.

Don’t stop doing your job. Keep performing until the end. You want good references and you never know what might change.

Don’t burn bridges with your manager. Even if they’re delivering bad news, they’re probably just doing what they were told. Stay professional.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Seriously, don’t steal company property, access data you shouldn’t, or do anything that could give them cause for termination instead of layoff. You want that severance and unemployment eligibility.

AFTERMATH - IF YOU SURVIVE THE CUT

Survivor’s guilt is real. It’s okay to feel relieved and also sad for colleagues who were let go.

Your workload is about to increase dramatically. Set boundaries early and document what’s not getting done. Don’t try to do three people’s jobs.

Start looking anyway. Companies that do one round of layoffs often do more. Plus, the culture and workload might not be sustainable.

Support your laid-off colleagues. Write recommendations, make introductions, be a reference. What goes around comes around.

Last week higher mgmt called me and just straight up told me to stop coming in. Told me I’ll receive my notice in writing in the new year and I’ll receive a few months of pay. Benefits will last until EOY. Ummmmmmm is this normal??? Where’s the formality? I can’t even tell if i was fired or let go or punk’d. Can someone please advise on what I should do? Going to file for unemployment now I guess……..

So seeing all the disorganized reorganization going on in management.Wondering just what’s in store for us at the bottom of the pole .We are in a contract year yet have heard nothing more then there was no early agreement.I mean as I sit looking at the cost to live in northeast I realize that everyone is acting like we make so much but in reality just surviving!!Difference is we don’t get some huge golden parachute.The pension is peanuts m.Maybe it was worth something years ago currently with gatt rate it’s not worth more then few years salary if that .The company has already spent years sc rew I g Us .Now th y really wanna deal us the death blow .So anyone thinking this is just a management dilemma.Think Again.Were next .So stop kiss A$$ and start asking so what’s going on with our contract coming up

So we get it, vader wants COR gone, bla bla bla, AR everything. So why not just close em all ? I mean, all we do is fix D2D scams and turn away people who wanna return their modems as directed by cust care. With unattainable numbers crammed down our throats, AR retailers popping up all around the COR locations - why keep the COR open ? Just to make people lives miserable ? We will not hit our numbers - we spend all our time fixing what YOU - the management - the monster YOU created - so why not just put a fork in it ?

I mean you guys have a very different opinion . Shankar did the best for the company last 15 years . I met him few occasions and his vision is great and he is always optimistic and up to date with the latest trends . If not him , i dont know wht will happen without Shankar to Vz. All his juniors aren't root for verizon to win . They find a way to put more pressure for them to survive and it goes down to the bottom . SShankar is the main guy who kept calm and composed .

What is going on at this company that close to 100 people can sit on a call like this morning and think we have the right people in charge??? It’s almost like they didn’t have months to prepare.

Hope actual leadership watch the recordings (or attempt at recordings and wrong screen share). Cut the experiment and let’s get back to work.

This was the message given by them repeatedly during session calls with mgmt and they are “frustrated” mgmt keeps saying this. Excuse me but you’re either nieve, lying or freaking clueless cause it’s absolutely freakin true

Any confirmation if managers got the okay to stell associates?

Job searcher here! Are any of your departments hiring? I have a MBA from Duke so I should be a preferred candidate for management jobs. I can relocate to Dallas if needed, but preferably would like to work remotely.

A manager told me they’re FORCED to assign lower ratings because there’s a quota for how many people must fall on the bottom end. The problem is, on teams like ours with only two or three people carrying all the workload, that means one of us gets marked down no matter what. I’m fine with ratings reflecting actual performance, but forcing a bell curve at the manager level feels continuation of Franks playbook . It should balance itself naturally, not force it. Makes me wonder what kind of game they’re running here and whether this came from HR or from Mike.

Any of the managers here able to confirm if that’s actually true?

And these are the people steering the ship. If there is another layoff coming, here’s a bold idea: Start the same “leaders” of these decisions — not the people actually doing the work.
Remove the placeholders, and watch morale (and maybe the stock) bounce back.

Anyone else watching this stock drop like, “Yep… checks out,” considering the same “leaders” (air quotes) who built the perimeter list are still in charge? Only here could tower-only folks get listed to go with a fiber sale while people who’ve never done tower a day in their lives — pure fiber/small-cell — were kept? Made zero sense. It felt less like a workforce plan and more like someone drew names out of a hat, but that work require planning they aren’t capable of so doubting they even did that.

Until then, we’re all just updating our resumes watching them ruin what we worked to build and pretending to be surprised while hoping someone stops it, we have a good business that is profitable once we remove the fake leaders.

What is up with the external hires with 0 experience? It's ridiculous that workers have to hand hold the management!!!!

Finally our Networks manager has listened and agreed that this company will just keep shafting, delaying pay awards then will make excuses at the end.

His seen his colleagues wfrd in the last year, now his joining the engineers, his offered us free time off whenever we need. If you can't beat them join them. Other colleagues we request you join us, bring this $hit place to a halt.

Just had one of those... it was a meeting about why the last meeting did not achieve what the meeting before that was supposed to fix... You cannot make this stuff up. We are doomed.

Did they just layoff a large portion of SMB management and senior management in California (or did they all just quit)? Anyone have details?

For the corporate people, has anyone else not received any communication from their manager/hr after the day they were laid off? I feel like HR should have hosted a Q&A or something. I am still doing tasks but it’s mostly crickets from upper management. I am still charging time to the project as I have not been told otherwise. I have also not been told to handover to others what I have been working on.

I feel like the leadership in this company is so confused about how to run a good healthcare company and it starts from the top. Sarah London is not a good leader and she needs to go.

At this point CV is polished, will bide my time. Still putting in work but only until something that looks better comes up. Thankful to be on the ship but this place has given and taken so much, the new lack of leadership is literally ki-ling me. Management pushes down to empty suits, No direction given. When you push you get more problems and politics. When performance suffers they blame the little people and give out sh---y pay and reviews. Can’t change anything at my level. Only way to survive mentally is to stop caring.

It’s funny how management was always telling us to sell sell sell, follow the prices even if I had to sell to 90 year old lady who is being transferred to assisted living facility who needs a landline just so she can talk to her son every Sunday but I have to ask her does she stream and she don’t know what that is. All of a sudden we customer focused it’s now be nice to the customer do what’s right for the customer, whatever, we have always said that but this regime was always about money money money and now look Dan laying people off left and right. We did this to our selves! Yes everyone is in the business to make money but let’s use common sense. Customer dies , but you want us to ask the daughter or son do they want to take over the internet. Yeah change this sh-t Dan!!

I read that when Schwab wants you to quit they start write ups and the compliance team starts questioning your every move even if you are doing nothing wrong.

Eventually Schwab sits you down and asks you to resign or else they mark your licenses.

This feels like blackmail, how should one navigate through this situation and how should one answer probing questions from compliance and management?

I joined this company when it was still considered a start-up and was part of its incredible growth during Covid, as well as the major decline it is now facing. Here are some things I noticed.

Management is not in tune with the market.

I hate to say this, but numbers were falsified during the CG buyout, which caused a hard fallout between the former management and CarGurus.

Many of the leaders who are still there are in over their heads.

CarGurus hit the panic button and laid off too many people at once, which led to a decline in dealers on the platform.

During Covid, CarOffer sc--wed over a lot of clients, which resulted in our reps getting kicked out of 20-group meetings and Auction Access taking rights away from CarOffer.

Laid off as well, interesting package and settlement. The invite is indeed business update confidential blabla. My manager was so nervous, she had to read the message from her screen.I calmed her down a bit and then the word came out: due to intensive investments and business changes..... All opportunities are blocked, all hiring reqs on hold, maybe until April. It's serious now. O wants to scale down.