Band 4 manager here. I’ve lost a lot of talent over the past year due to RIF. As ops has moved over to HIH there’s a whole team over there doing stuff we deal with. Their manager pulled me into a meeting to say his employees were complaining about mine. Mainly that we are slow to respond, and that my team isn’t “nice.”
I asked for specifics and if anyone was unprofessional or outright rude. Turned out the HIH team doesn’t like that my team is direct, asks them to repeat when they don’t understand due to language or the ask is unclear, takes initiative, and basically does stuff fast without explanation because we don’t have time and have too much to do.
More discussion led to him asking me to have my team slow down and be more “pleasant” and to engage in back and forth rather than just getting to the point. I told him my team complains that they get pinged with just “hi” and won’t respond unless there is something actionable too. He asked for us to spend more time helping his team with their work so the can learn and get better and that my team has told his they don’t have time. I agreed. And I said as long as they are being professional, I can’t expect more from them because they are watching their friends and coworkers lose jobs that are being given to HIH.
HIH manager was very surprised and didn’t realize that what was going on. I said as long as we meet SLA then that’s that and I don’t expect my team to respond same day for anything that isn’t a managed incident.
Anyone at HIH on this forum, be glad we are interacting with you professionally. I’ve had team members express downright hatred for HIH. Nothing against you personally, but Cigna is firing us to give you jobs, so don’t expect friendliness.
None of this is sustainable. I’ve told my Director to put me on the layoff list. When I have to bite my tongue to avoid yelling at HIH, and I get no answers from above other than more RIF is coming but my team is okay because we are 20:80, I can’t do it anymore.