#morale

I am a bit surprised no one has posted or discussed this yet here. A serious question for those familiar with the Albany IBM site and the broader Anderon situation:

Do you believe this ultimately benefits or harms Albany IBM over the long term?

From the inside, the process has not appeared especially transparent and, at times, has seemed remarkably improvised. Basic questions regarding leadership structure, governance, and operational accountability remain unclear. Who precisely is leading the organization? What does the executive structure look like? What is the strategic vision? At moments, it feels less like a carefully designed transition and more like an initiative being assembled in real time without sufficient planning, vetting, or institutional coordination. It is odd this has not been communicated yet.

At the same time, the situation has clearly created significant anxiety internally and has already had visible effects on morale, trust, recruitment, retention, and the broader reputation of the Albany site. There is also a growing perception among some that this may function less as a meaningful corrective effort and more as a mechanism for diffusing accountability or relocating longstanding institutional problems elsewhere without fully addressing them.

That said, structural disruption is not inherently negative. In some cases, it can expose deeper cultural or governance issues that genuinely require reform.

Curious to hear others’ perspectives: is this a necessary and constructive reset, or does it ultimately risk causing more long-term damage to Albany IBM than improvement?

I’ve come to realize how much worse things have become here following the recent layoffs and changes. People are incredibly deceitful and backstabbing, praising others one moment and then criticizing them in the next meeting to gain favor or serve leaders.

Is there anyone honest left, or did we eliminate them all? Perhaps that’s why we let good people go. Conform or be dismissed. This isn’t the Nike I’ve known for the past 20 years. It’s disheartening.

Place your bets on how long we have to put up with this loser.

Do you guys not see what happened when Dan Schulman was installed?

Dan was on the board of Verizon for years. That means he saw the profit loss, the bad decisions, the damage to the company image, the lack of innovation, the failed investments, and the growing disconnect between leadership and the people actually keeping the company alive.

He saw the damage being done to customers too, especially long tenured customers who stayed loyal for years only to watch service, support, and consistency deteriorate while prices continued climbing.

None of this happened overnight.

What happened next was a corporate coup.

The old guard and leaders who could advocate for employees, customers, and the necessity of certain roles were removed. Thousands were laid off. Fear was injected into the workforce. Then a new class of leadership was installed, leadership whose loyalty is upward to the executives who promoted them, not downward to the employees carrying the business.

People who spent years chasing titles like Senior Manager, Director, Senior Director, and VP are not going to risk those positions fighting for workers, customers, or the long term health of the company. Their mission is survival within the system.

Meanwhile experienced talent leaves, morale collapses, customers grow frustrated, and the company keeps pretending it does not understand why performance and public perception continue declining.

Never forget what they did and who they did it to.

This was not some random restructuring. It was calculated, coordinated, and executed with precision.

Couldn't care less about Meta or this job.

So that Bill Ackman can make 5 billion instead of 3 and so that do nothing fat cats can get their multi million bonuses.

Costs are on the rise and there is plenty of work in West Texas. What will
Devon do to retain their talent? News of Houston and OKC retention bonuses will only further ruin field morale.

Anyone else think corporate surveillance has gotten completely out of control?

Badge swipes trackd... VPNs tracked. Teams status tracked. Meetings in Calendar tracked. All emails scanned. Fu--ing Productivity Metrics... AI note takers in meetings nobody ever asked for.

Then leadership wonders why morale is unlived and nobody trusts mgmt anymore.

At this point I just assume every company laptop is basically a monitoring device with some work tools installed on it.

To all the outstanding employees and those exploited by this company have a wonderful long weekend.

To all the executives, and their concentration camp commandants, the hr hall monitors,

You don't deserve it. When your kids cause a scene somewhere and you get exposed for your incompetence as human beings, in that moment you should realize that your work persona is fake and your perceived competence only exists inside the walls of us bank. Nobody respects you inside the company either, but they are paid to pretend.

Paying $7 a gallon for gas, to spend $40 a day for parking, to sit in a cube and speak to no one in person. Meanwhile, other people in comparable roles, living slightly farther away are forced to work remotely with impact to their raises. This is nothing like pre-COVID because no one I work with is in my walled-off neighborhood, and everyone in my neighborhood is incredibly bitter to be there. Not too hard to see why, when this week there was an armed guard overseeing the parking entrance, asking people where they worked prior to being able to take an entrance ticket. How is this effective or responsible - fiscally, environmentally, productively, strategically, or in regard to safety? Why even have salaried employees if you intend to treat them like hourly employees? It disincentivizes them from being in the field or going above and beyond in any capacity that isn’t tracked by IP. What happened to, “We put people first,” in a culture of “do the right thing”? If the MC thinks this is the “right thing” it does not speak very highly on their behalf. Obviously, we all know they don’t really care about their team’s actual lived-experiences, but they could do a much better job of making their mandates make sense. The Talk to Us Surveys, employee banking, and PAC solicitations, in an iron-fist culture, are ironic (if not insulting) at this point. By the numbers annually: approximately 440 more hours of commuting and nearly $6,000 spent on parking alone, for a job that can be done more effectively remotely, with zero reasonable reasons given other than, “because we said so.” Bonuses are very nice, but after taxes and annual RTO hard cost expenses, the math is not mathing on the take home pay. At the bare minimum the bank could negotiate fair parking contracts in all HUB markets - public transit is not safe for many.

It won't change anything, and there will still be the associates who still want to do everything by the book in hopes that ELT will spare them. But, what if June 1st the home office was damn near empty and everyone either called out sick or WAH for some emergency reason. Imagine the signal it would send to those d-mb bags of sh!+ that sit in the corner offices. I'm sure we would all be collectively punished or lectured, but we outnumber them. They can't fire all of us, and they need us more than we need them. The 80/20 rule. 80% of the GPs and directors could take a month off and nobody would notice. 20% of home office associates who actually do the work could walk out that door and the whole thing grinds to a hault and would make a media headline. So glad to be driving 4 days a week during and energy crisis, I thought this company was all about the environment and saving the planet?

Strong story doesn't save companies. Strong work do!

I like that and He's correct—companies survive on output, not narrative.

But that's a principle for stable times.

When the house is already on fire, "just keep working hard" starts to sound less like wisdom and more like a way to keep people holding the hose while the roof caves in. It won't save anyone.

...but CVS can't afford to give a cost-of-living increase to their employees.

https://www.moomoo.com/news/post/70410806/cvs-health-cvsus-director-sells-us-317-47-million-in?level=1&data_ticket=1779459073784388

https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/CVS/insider-trades/

Trust me, after doing it for over 25 years for T just to be kicked out the door...don't do ANYTHING over the bare minimum for T, they won't recognize nor reward, they don't give a S about you, just remember that.

Staff at Southern Berkshire schools received layoff notices on May 19. Superintendent Brian Ricca confirmed 21.3 full-time-equivalent positions are being cut. The district faces a budget deficit exceeding $1 million for the upcoming fiscal year. The teachers union president reported widespread anger and a sense of betrayal among staff. Ricca plans to propose rehiring some laid-off staff using available excess funds.

Sheffield, Massachusetts

https://theberkshireedge.com/layoffs-deepen-crisis-in-southern-berkshire-regional-school-district-as-mood-turns-really-really-miserable/

Just from an ethical perspective. People who feel entitled to clean out the snack bins are demonstrating the quality of their character. It is like the wait staff test - how people treat wait staff is telling you a lot about who they are.

Some Senior Managers were laid off today.

They are cutting deep, one deserved to go.

No point in investing in this place. Look at who they cut - nobody is safe, and hard work clearly doesn't matter.

I'm kind of sick of my department, it's a constant rush to new ridiculous deadlines every day all with the threat of being offshored, it's exhausting

Comment on how you feel being isolated, while others wait their turn for next round. This happens every round, laid off employees dropped off the bus, while ELT preaches Cisco impressive leadership, AI prowess and caring for employees.

Nice touch. Great empathy.
Announcing 4.000 people being fired, while wearing a 250.000$ Richard Mille watch

I found Robin Vince’s LinkedIn post last week… fascinating. He calls it a “full circle moment” with his Goldman buddy Lloyd Blankfein, yet it plays like another round of leadership cosplay. It might even be touching if BNY employees weren’t here describing a workplace stitched together with fear, offshoring, and corporate theater. Nothing says “excellence” like inviting a billionaire mentor to discuss humility lessons learned at Goldman while thousands of his BNY employees beg for clarity, stability, or even basic honesty.

Vince praises Blankfein’s lessons on uncertainty and values — meanwhile BNY’s workforce is drowning in ambiguity, morale is on life support, and “risk taking” mostly means gambling with people’s futures.

He talks about embedding values “every day,” yet avoids the very public concerns about layoffs, offshoring, collapsing trust, and a workforce treated like expendable inventory in a never-ending transformation cycle.

The real full circle moment won’t be a photo op with a retired Goldman titan. It’ll be when Vince realizes that inspirational quotes and curated leadership moments don’t fix morale, don’t slow attrition, and don’t rebuild credibility.

CEO’s don’t give a shard about you or your family if they terminate you to make them more money for their pockets.

Best of luck 🤞 to everyone.

And it stinks

It felt completely stripped of any clear message or real leadership. It looked like it was generated completely with AI or rewritten so many times by HR that there was absolutely no purpose to it. No numbers, no changes, no future. How did NetApp lose so many important people while the entire leadership team stays onboard?

Glad that George also got a $15M raise yesterday for all his hard work: https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/NTAP/form-4-net-app-inc-insider-trading-activity-d08f092e431a.html

Playing the fiddle while Rome burns.

How they always manage to target the very people the team depends on is beyond me.

Will we at least get a few months to recover from all the stress?

It didn't look like it on the all hands, lots of red but we will get there they say

Don’t give me all that double talk about needing a job and all.
You are grown human beings. You should be able to do something else, and clear yourself of this mess here.

Why do you keep doing the same thing every day, yet expecting a different result? At this point you are beyond being able to justify why you stay here to anyone or yourself.

Just a P.S.A. that bears repeating: Even though it feels like it would be better to quit since EJ has become such a toxic work place / environment, do not quit. If you do quit on your own volition, you are giving up many legal protections. Make them fire you. Learn the code words for ageism in disguise: "over-qualified," "passing the torch," "new perspective or cultural fit," "fresh energy," "doesn't want to learn the new technology" to name a couple. There are more and the company will dress it up as a compliment.

HR is NOT your friend.

They're leaving in droves now before it gets worse. Which is hard to imagine. Better get while the gettin's good folks.

Nobody trained me. You're simply expected to know things, then get blamed when you don't. The mood is terrible because everyone is only here out of necessity. Corporate talks a big game about safety and standards but won't fund what it actually takes to meet them. They'd rather rearrange the shelves than make the job manageable for the people stuck doing it.

I lost count of how many layoffs have happened in the past 8 years. Today's is the worst. Our already skeleton crew was cut in half. All of us are already over worked. This place is going to be a disgruntled sweatshop in day or 2. And they layed of the folks with a future. 3 of us are close to retirement and informed our managers that a layoff would be welcome for us. Nope, they skipped us and went for younger generation. Who is going to carry this company forward? NetApp... where stupid thrives.

Days like today are always tough. When smart, hard working and loyal, good people get let go from doing their jobs to assuage the hubris at the top. Every single layoff has a personal and professional impact. I think there is growing frustration at NetApp that GK, our President and SVP of Comp to name a few continue to be here despite years of stagnant growth, lack of vision and being completely disconnected from field teams and customers. Everyone with a brain cell knows $10B by 2028 is not happening yet GK and executives keep pushing the same BullS*** narrative. Unless we get acquired or acquire a company it will not happen organically. Why not make $8B a realistic goal and stop the gaslighting. It's time for Executive leadership to be held accountable.

After years of being expected to do more and more with less and less, now I just show up for the money. I stopped caring a while ago. How can a place change so much so quickly? Or am I wearing rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Medtronic of five to ten years ago?

If you been here a year or you been here 15 years. You know that Verizon doesn’t give a cr-p about you. You are a number. Always have been always will be. My issue is, at least they used to hide the fact you didn’t matter. It was not as apparent as it is now. Employee morale is at an all time low everywhere. Unless you’re making six figures of course. Leadership is so out of touch with reality. Put them in front of a computer or tablet and ask them to sell. They would look at you cross eyed. Let alone hit these insane quotas that they are putting in front of us. It’s everywhere. Retail r2b V2B b2b. Let’s change commission. You’ll make more they said. Lmao. All of us that have been around long enough know that’s a crock of shi* anytime commission is changed it’s to line the pockets of the C suite. The ones that have zero clue.

The cost of living is at the highest it’s ever been and we can’t even get a raise enough to cover it. It’s actually a pay cut with the rising cost of insurance.

Funny we have not had a pulse survey for quite a while. Not that they matter. They just change show you the good results and say “you asked we listened”

We got so accustomed to being the “best” carrier. Now, T-Mobile and AT&T are laughing in our faces.

Run while you can. If you can. This is a sinking ship.

Honestly, I never thought the current Bank President would have such a devastating impact on USAA Bank’s culture, organization, and people leadership. I knew him when he was an ED, watched him move up through the ranks, and genuinely congratulated him when he was selected. At the time, I was happy for USAA because I believed he might help restore the culture many of us remember from before 2018, etc. I never imagined it would turn out like this.

How did we get here?

I’ve worked in this industry for more than 35 years, and this is stunning. Employee exhaustion from perpetual cost-cutting cycles has become so normalized that people now seem to accept it as a fact of life.

I understand capitalism. I understand the need to make a profit. But at what point did we remove the human element from the workplace, all while increasing our use of slogans like "people first" and "we’re a family"?

We've became a sick society.

This treatment of depression staff has happened under Ryan's watch, and Rajat Taneja is complicit. It was never like this with Al... remember the lockdown tears and family-vibe he instilled? Now a climate of fear.

Question is, is it purely down to Ryan (being a salesman, not CEO material), the shareholders, Rajat... or would this have happened under Al but he saw it coming?