Thread regarding Elevance Health (Anthem) layoffs

@c6 LOL WHAT?! This is a bold faced lie and you know it.

@n0 POW culture is right. I have PTSD from the constant “coaching” I endured the last eight months. Nothing but trying to break me down. Sent back all their equipment the same day. No email from
HR. I had to call IT and get the cost center and ticket number.

@kc Thats how I feel. Recently we were forced to come in 2x a week if we were not performing. Keep in mind 90% is not meeting metrics. I showed up clocked in and they dismiss me over Teams. No info on my last paycheck. HR was supposed to give me details but they just stayed quiet while a script was read.

@n9 Everyone is burnt out. Because management drives away good talent with their unrealistic First Call Resolution metrics. And turning people into robots. Gail would send as many accounts as possible overseas if she could. If not for collective bargaining that forces specific restrictions on that. When I left I was harassed so much that every call became a promised action and created more work for everyone. With a limited number of OE’s to key claims, monitor the chat, perform elevated functions, and track and report issues to management. I noticed layoffs were here when I met a newbie in the break room who asked to be shown around. Gail will replace a seasoned worker with a youngster who doesnt know how a ppo works

Another wave of RIFs are happening. This appears to be Gail’s m.o. Last I checked no warn notices were posted and my paycheck was issued the next day which is a violation when one is dismissed. They read from a script and were on Teams when I was the one who got dressed and showed up in person. Harassed for eight months straight until they found every little thing to critique on calls. The team wanted to cut four people who weren’t meeting metrics. 90-95 % was not considered passing. Getting blamed for technical issues when encryption codes weren’t working. Having to call 5 times for my own payroll stubs when Anthem cant even meet their own First Call Resolution or resolution metrics. There was no auditing measures until this last year and the software looks at every last word to criticize. When told it was my last day they acted like they did me the favor to pay me for the half hour I was clocked in for. Finally relieved to be free

@qw it actually goes all the way down to the Director level - so worried about their own security that they drink the kool aid of the SVP they report to, agree with that SVP that this is all the staff fault, and never stand up for the people who actually do the work. Yes there are a few exceptions - but in certain LOB it is the norm - that is why they are losing staff and will continue to lose more - sharing how exhausted you are, how hard the systems are to use, the lack of response from other departments only gets you scolded as if you were an untrustworthy child/whinner.

@n9 Sad thing is executive leadership are so far removed from the front line worker they have no concept of why we are burnt out. They will form a committee to figure it out with more out of touch executives to try to solve the problem instead of spending time listening to the burnt out worker. Sorry but the stupid survey questions don’t come close to help figure out issue. Take your survey and shove it up your as--s.

@n1 This cannot be stated enough. Sh-t does not work. Almost everything requires some sort of workaround. Implementation of new systems have been done so poorly and not completed. But like it was said, top executives pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves like they solved world hunger. It’s like watching a twilight zone episode everyday here. The reality that top executives are living in is so deluded I can’t even understand it

I was close to tears today when a question on a town hall was related to employee burn out. I am not alone it seems.

@n0 this is the most accurate thing I have read on this site. It is a shame this cannot be posted on Pulse for leadership to see. I wish there was a way for the board and the investors to see this so they would really know what is going on.

@n0 Long read, but lots of valid bits. Where you ask: “ Wouldn’t you rather have a functional job, a career path, decent stock prices, respect for your leadership, to be rewarded and acknowledged for your efforts and some job security?”
The answer is obviously “yes!”, backed up by “Gail has an estimated net worth of between 60-97 million depending on which source you believe“. For $60+ million most peoples’ morals get a tad flexible.

@n0 The silent manual workarounds are massive in most all solutions. This is the best true statement to the current affairs around Elevance that I have seen.

1) As the CEO of the corporation, Gail is responsible/ “to blame” for everything, she is the top of the pyramid and has an estimated net worth of between 60-97 million depending on which source you believe; with great compensation comes great accountability.
2) Gail was supposed to implement the Optum model at Anthem/Elevance. United created internal services that they were able to spin to another corporation and charge for. Elevance tried to acquire other companies to integrate them, but they chose overvalued, underperforming dogs, and su-k at integration.
3) Gail has tried to achieve savings by shifting anything possible offshore, but there are no savings when the work comes back to be redone numerous times.
4) Gail has created a top-heavy organization filled with self-promoting tone deaf “leaders” and their teams of a-s kissers. The leaders claim that integrations or projects are complete and congratulate themselves on a job well done, when the job is usually not done, but is being supported by manual workarounds.
5) AI has been way oversold because it doesn’t account for the secret workarounds and the processes to input into AI aren’t documented.
6) Documenting processes requires people who know how things work, but Elevance doesn’t reward the true subject matter experts. They give the workers who are keeping the lights on the work of up to 3 FTEs, with unrealistic goals and then come review time, reward the self-promoters who already get and use their unlimited PTO. Add to that a ridiculous return to work mandate including mandates for people who were hired fully remote. These essential workers aren’t valued and are leaving with taking their knowledge with them; the impact is starting to be felt.
7) Gail is using rolling RIFs as a business strategy, swapping out higher salaried people for cheaper options where they can’t offshore or replace with AI. But sometimes you get what you pay for. They’ll sacrifice more people before each quarterly earnings period, but are now riffing the wrong people and bleeding knowledge.
8) Gail has attempted to boost earnings via a shell game method of moving staff and functions to DBG, or Carelon or whatever the next spinoff will be, but you can only play that hand so many times before investors stop falling for it.
9) The Elevance rebranding was a costly, ineffective exercise; that was a Gail call.
10) Gail owns the corporate culture which overall can be described as POW work camp. People just keep their heads down trying to avoid exhaustion or a RIF. They say you define your culture based on how people feel about returning to work on a Sunday night. If you aren’t dreading it, you are probably part of the elite class who sit in
meetings all day and never get or complete any action items.
11) Pending lawsuits regarding cr-ppy data in directories and making the wrong call on Medicaid redetermination likely have merit.
Overall, I would say that running a company into the ground makes you a poorly performing CEO, regardless of whether you gave people another PTO day! That is bread and circuses. Wouldn’t you rather have a functional job, a career path, decent stock prices, respect for your leadership, to be rewarded and acknowledged for your efforts and some job security?

@kc They are also reducing AIP for new roles. Some roles don't get AIP at all anymore.

@kb A true leader that does value employees would give up compensation to allow for others to be compensated. Not this bunch of yahoos. Instead we can expect horrible AIP for 2025 and pathetic merit increase. They can all su-k it.

@k6

"Compensation is drawn from a shrinking pool and routed through HR"

I wonder why...

https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/elevance-healths-5-highest-paid-executives-2025/

Gail Boudreaux, president and CEO 

Salary: $1,600,000
Stock awards: $12,600,032
Option awards: $4,199,989
Non-equity incentive plan: $1,142,400
Other compensation: $929,555
Total compensation: $20,471,976 

Mark Kaye, executive vice president and CFO 

Salary: $900,000
Stock awards: $4,125,144
Option awards: $1,374,953
Non-equity incentive plan: $385,560
Other compensation: $87,487
Total compensation: $6,873,144 

Peter Haytaian, executive vice president and president of Carelon and CarelonRx 

Salary: $950,000 
Stock awards: $3,600,081
Option awards: $1,199,997
Non-equity incentive plan: $406,980
Other compensation: $188,069
Total compensation: $6,345,127 

Felicia Norwood, executive vice president and president of government health benefits 

Salary: $950,000 
Stock awards: $3,600,081 
Option awards: $1,199,997 
Non-equity incentive plan: $406,980 
Other compensation: $131,888
Total compensation: $6,288,946 

Morgan Kendrick, executive vice president and president of commercial and specialty health benefits 

Salary: $850,000 
Stock awards: $3,225,249
Option awards: $1,074,825 
Non-equity incentive plan: $510,000
Other compensation: $133,400
Total compensation: $5,793,474

Heaven forbid a multimillionaire take a slightly lower increase, to provide raises for much poorer employees.

@gb It’s worth noting that staff VPs don’t actually control decisions around offshoring, nor do they have the authority to hand out raises and promotions at will. Compensation is drawn from a shrinking pool and routed through HR, whether on-cycle or off. In fact, I’ve seen instances where staff VPs were explicitly told to scale back merit increases, as well as raises tied to promotions.

These calls ultimately sit with SLT and HR. While there may be exceptions, in most cases staff VPs end up serving as the visible point of frustration rather than the true decision-makers.

@jw go work for a non profit or a private company. The CEO’s job is to be profitable or they would be out of a job.

The company is too interested in making a profit instead of doing what is right for our customers and associates. It is nothing but corporate greed. Larry G. and Tom Snead were awesome leaders that actually had a vision (even though we were public at the time). Our downfall came with the acquisition of California. Their systems were not the best but decisions were made to go with their claims processing system and then the big decision to outsource the entire world seem to happen. The company has lost site of the value of employees with experience. Too much is offshore and too much time is spent trying to migrate from one tool to another instead of implementing new technology. They will spend millions to save a penny.

There is nothing positive that can be said about this company.

@c2

IT employees are responsible for technology refresh strategies? Tell us another one 😆😆😆

@fv Let's not forget they gave themselves unlimited PTO.

@gg Larry Glasscock was the best and worst thing that ever happened to this company. This best because he was really cared about employees, members and providers. The worst because he left us with Angela Braly who was a disaster of a CEO.

@aq I was RIFed after over 18 years at this company and I still talk about Larry. I felt like he actually cared and we heard from him directly.

Gail is the driving force behind how horrible Elevance is but let’s be real it’s leadership at and above Staff VP creating a toxic work environment. They are never going to listen to us or give a decent salary raise if they can help it ever again and also offshore as much as possible. We are merely pawns in their game of chess moves.

HR has entered the chat.

Before Gail, we also didn't have monthly RIFs, either. They can have the extra PTO days back.

Gosh, did I miss something? What’d she do now?

Gail needs to resign but honestly the minion behind her looking for the CEO spot looks up to Gail (go figure). ELT/SLT want all these Optum folks but don’t account for the technology we are limited too and the ELT/ SLT leaders in the Blue markets that have been with Anthem for decades that want to be catered too and hate any new strategies and are just down right rude…flush them out!

@OP this company was great under every other CEO. She did the same thing at United. The common denominator is Gail

Ah, that's all of executive leadership in a nutshell. No accountability. Just blame.

"It's not my fault. Look, I did these one or two good things. Our associates and low-level managers/directors failed and that is making us look bad. To fix it, let's RIF and start all over again. You will need to give me time as a great leader to replace all of those poor performing people. And while we're at it, we can reduce the remaining people's bonus so that I can preserve mine, er, no, so that I can save the shareholders millions."

Gail is responsible for the sh-t-ification of this company. She should take her multi million dollar compensation package and take a hike

It is Gail as she is CEO. She’s running this place into the ground. I don’t know why you are defending her unless to get brownie points but why? Otherwise, seems like desperate attempt by Gail to seem like she’s not so bad. Sorry we see you on the town halls and you are that bad. You are a soulless robot of a person who doesn’t care because you are already wealthy enough not to have to worry about anything. Why don’t you just leave already?

Before Gail, we were Amerigroup—a company that truly cared about its employees. We were a family.

We had separate PTO and sick time, and we could transfer or even sell unused PTO without worrying about losing it. When Gail took over, one of the first things we lost was that benefit. With just a couple of months left in the year, they told us to “use it or lose it,” and many of us lost a significant amount of unused PTO. On top of that, the company reduced the amount of PTO we could accrue each pay period, cutting back our benefits even further. The same thing is happening now with sick time. I know several people who were laid off with plenty of PTO hours left, plus 200 hours in their sick bucket, and they weren’t able to use their sick time because the company required them to use up PTO first.

@et Hi right back at you. By Gail - hmm

2 hours ago by Gail | no reactions | Reply
Post ID: @et+1k2w3wd3p

Hi right back at you.

Hi Gail.

@OP not sure where you are seeing holidays and PTO were cut.
Prior to leaving this year I had been at this company since 1993. Holidays were not cut at all. They were recently added to over the last few years but we never lost a holiday that wasn’t replace by a floating day.
PTO was not cut for me, but I was grandfathered in. Even at that it was only like 2 days.
Please stop trying to defend this disaster of a CEO.

I disagree wholeheartedly. Under Larry G. we went public and were well compensated, I had AIP years that were over 200%. Sure Angela Braly was a major misstep, selling the Pharmacy, trying to verbally spar with Obama... However I thought Joe Swedish was a solid leader. You know that he would respond to employee emails? I exchanged several emails with him during his tenure because we very similar family backgrounds in Europe during WWII and displaced person camps. So no, I do not think that Gail is better than the others, she has a 1954 mentality and it shows.

What other company has IT people that know how to work on mainframe computers and are proficient in COBOL and PL1? It makes us almost hacker proof. She’s safeguarding or data with hanging on to antiquated technology. Go Gail!