So long folks! No, I didn't get RIF'd, and I'm staying with Optum until I do. I came to the realization misery loves company and all y'all are miserable. Things could be better, raises and bonuses could be higher, job insecurity causes real anxiety. But at the end of the day, the negativity here is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you think you're gonna get RIF'd, chances are your performance will decrease. If you got a 2 on the performance review, chances are you've spent way too much time looking for all the gossip. It seems to me that there is little value to this webpage because there's selection bias in the community. The people here aren't looped into the decision making processes and can only provide fear, rumors, and speculation above their pay grade.
Things are bad, no doubt about it. But the people here really don't know what's going on, and so all they do is augment the fears we all have. I've been through 4 RIFs this past year in my department. I expect my time will come. This post isn't intended to be a culture corner moment or a Rah Rah Optum pep rally or anything like that, but more of a reminder that all of these things are beyond our control. The 2 rated performers are looking to blame someone else for their poor performance, but the reality is that Optum would be open to all sorts of lawsuits if it intentionally rated people lower than the goals employees made at the beginning of the year. Maybe in prior years we could all skate by doing level 2 work getting level 4 ratings, and this year they actually held us accountable for the level of performance we provide, but that's still our problem, not Optum's.
A piece of advice: Get out of here with me. Assume you will be RIF'd in the next 6 months and create a strategy to make yourself invaluable so that they can't fire you, or start polishing the resume. One more minute spent here is one less minute you have to prep for the future. Good luck y'all!