There will be a huge round of layoffs happening in Optum with notification date of Jan 22. Every business is at risk, as Corporate handed down mandates of between 10%-30% reductions depending on the business. More happening in Feb & Mar as well. Oh and RRP Funding STILL hasn’t been approved.
56 replies (most recent on top)
@OP so here we are in March. Word is next round of layoffs is going to be March 19th. Does anyone have any idea who will be affected? I am in Remote clinical work, leadership. We were supposed to be expanding, but more recently that was cancelled. I am wondering if they will eliminate our area now, or atleast start downsizing.
@6s3 It was orginally Friday and it was posted that it was rescheduled to Friday.
@47d well I was laid off on Friday so incredibly accurate.
@OP Any word on today?
@4m3 I heard 30 percent. Not sure how accurate that is, but I do know at least the managers got a heads up and we’re able to move onto different jobs leaving the minions behind. Meanwhile if you ask, they don’t know anything.
Does anyone know how big a RIF cut 1/22 will be?
@OP Now hearing that layoffs are not only in New Jersey on January 22 looks like more departments are gonna be impacted not just New Jersey.
@47d Sadly there is a lot of truth to the January 22 RIF you can read the WARN act for New Jersey.
There’s lots of talk about that on here but how does anyone know that’s actually true? How accurate are these people?
@42r Same here, I guess we will be off the books by 1/22 just in time for the 2nd class of 2026 RIFs to get notified. Happy New Year Optum!
@42w wonder what it’s for
@42t Scheduled for the same in PA
@42r what area do you work in?
Seconding this - Has HouseCalls heard if there will be cuts or had to turn in any names? Is there a certain criteria for determining who gets cut?
Looks like tomorrow some people
On the west coast teams AZ, UT, CO, TX, and WA are scheduled for a 15 min meeting..
Managemetn is acting weird I think something is going down tomorrow 1/8 as I've been asked to move morning meetings but unlear why.
@2v2 Was told 1/8 and 1/22 were the days for RIFs but haven't seen any emails to confirm.
Does anyone know if there’s any truth behind the rumor that another layoff for January 2026 for Optum is coming?
I enjoyed the personal shout out from our fearless leader Trump in his Christmas message calling out the travesty of waste that is for profit health insurance. Hopefully SH & SD each had an aneurysm that their concierge doctors could attend to quickly.
Going to be interesting if the penalty for dropping insurance goes away, HSAs get direct funded by the Gov, and we lose millions of healthy lives. Other proposals for small businesses to band together to negotiate rates is another doozy. Talk of regulating rates altogether: eliminate the small business penalty and make all covered lives cost the same premium. Only makes sense.
Big hit to revenue and margins. 2026 is going to be another "extraordinary" or "unprecedented" year with weekly layoffs.
@16q unfortunately no one is untouchable
What is going to happen with newly hired people in optum health services?
Does anyone know if AbleTo will be affected?
@aj Wellmed is included in this round. Beginning tomorrow
@a3 Every. Year.
@a6 I was planning on retiring last October. When I gave my manager a heads up in September she asked if I was willing to stay until the mid November. She was in the process of having to rank everyone on the team and would rate me low so that I would probably be part of the RIF. She couldn't guarantee I would be selected she felt the odds were really good. I figured a few more weeks is worth the chance on getting the severance package. The first week of November I was informed I was being let go and my last day would be November 13th. Ending up getting almost 6 months of pay for a job I was going to quit anyway.
OI Product will continue to be gutted.
@e1 Exactly. It's 70% off, 30% on for OT next year.
@ep I don’t know. The people I manage are either in India or are not in Minnesota or DC so it doesn’t apply in my area. To be clear I have not officially gotten word of the layoff @op is talking about but this is generally how it goes for the ones I’ve had to deal with.
@en are they using RTO for rankings?
@ee it heavily depends on your leaders. In the orgs I’ve been in they usually cuts people who get 2s. What happens when your team is high performing? It doesn’t matter they will force your manager to give you a 2. I’m a director of a really great team but due to stacked ranking (bell curve) they forced me to give someone who was a 3 a 2 instead. This person does not meet the qualifications to be a 2 and is likely going to be let go because of an arbitrary, bullsh-t, outdated idea of a “vitality curve”.
To answer your question more directly, whoever is the lowest performer on your team is the likely candidate. If it’s not obvious who that is then your manager generally flips a coin. It’s extremely sad and the reason why most good managers and directors leave. What you get are the left over a-s kissers who have no problem giving an undeserved 2 because “that’s company policy”. Morally bankrupt.
To the person saying they believe they’ll be the 1-2 because they were newly hired. You’re going to get an auto 3 basically. You might be someone chosen because you were last one in or you might not if they like what you’re doing vs some others.
To everyone else on teams with all good/high performers, they’re going to pick the option that will cause the least disruption. That might mean you’re a solid performer but have less to take over or have less impact if you left.
Can a manager provide any insight if there is certain criteria given for determining who is cut if you have a team full of high performers. Twin cities RTO radius employees vs remote, salary, tenure, and so on…
Is Jan22 the notification date? I had thought it was earlier, like Jan 8.
@bg 50/50 onshore offshore in 2026 lol. In my area of OT it was a 65 offshore 35 onshore mandate in 2025. Undoubtedly that will increase on the offshore side for 2026.
Does anyone have insights on what’s happening with CXDP? Product, analytics or design?
@bx it means 50% of employees will be onshore, and the other half will be offshore. Currently (in OT) I think we’re sitting around 60% onshore at the moment. Leadership is hoping for attrition and is trying to get there with limiting promotions, raises, and bonuses. If they can’t hit their target that way, they’ll do another round of stack ranking layoffs.
@bg What do you mean 50/50 percent onshore/offshore split?
@bn not necessarily. Another team might have to give multiple 2s to balance things out, and you don’t see any 2s for your team. It’s all in what your leadership has fought for.
And being the newest doesn’t guarantee you’re on the bottom. The 2s are going to be people that don’t mesh well with their coworkers or don’t really contribute as much as others.
You make $10k more than your peers? That’s a rounding error and isn’t of much consequence. They aren’t prioritizing higher paid people to get rid of. If you’re not liked that’s what really gets you.
@bg interesting. So on a team of 4 direct reports, 1 will be fired? Good to know.
I was hired in July and can assume I will be the 1-2 due to being the newest and least experienced, needing mentoring in my role, etc.
The blessing in disguise is at least they will fire me before I learn anything valuable here I guess, so I can start over somewhere that trains and guides younger professional track people ASAP.
Have any managers in HouseCalls heard if there will be cuts or had to turn in any names? Is there a certain criteria for determining who gets cut (salary, grade level, etc.)?
I’m curious to see how optum at home/landmark is impacted as some patients are telling us they are going to Humana.