Thread regarding Crown Castle International Corp. layoffs

@1ef I can guarantee it if it is within 1800 months. I’m sure there’s bound to be something between now and the late 22nd century. Though, I’m sure our former SVP will come back during that time, unless someone destroys the few pieces of her soul she’s left around the Houston office.

Gossip Girl here — oh honey, the buzz is deafening. Rumor is the Queen Bee’s handing out shiny new titles like royal confetti to her loyalest of subjects, the ones who haven’t exactly “paid their taxes” (aka done the work), Sr for you, Director for you and maybe even a VP and don’t worry skills experience or knowledge not required.

Meanwhile, the rest are left fighting for crumbs while Her Majesty preaches “no peanut butter spread for all.” Bold strategy during a time the company’s supposed to be getting flatter, simpler, leaner… yet somehow shiny distractions that feed favorites instead of fixing fundamentals.… but managing to feed consultants like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Four years of “strategy” and still no transformation unless we’re counting the number of PowerPoints per consultant hired. If you spot progress, blink twice.

Some towers rise… others collapse under their own consultants.

XOXO, Gossip Girl

Crown will be down to 1200 -1400 people within 1800 months. Tops. Its a rental company. Its not rocket science. Everything is made much to hard.

@1dw YES! Ditch the new org chart let ChatGPT run the place because it can actually learn and doesn’t need 5 consultants to say we’ll circle back!

@1dt Maybe she could pitch that she be replaced with AI.

@1d3

It’s baffling every time. Why do the consultant leaders need more consultants? Especially when they claim strategy and operationalizing as their specialities. How is that not the first sign of the ineptness?

Recent actions raise concerns for D&D:

• MM told to cut $50 million
• Hired more consultants for IT advisory & strategy
• Role Job was strategy 4 years, no tech or business knowledge
• 2024 RIF cut own team, kept herself, moved into tech unqualified
• Rumored to target another group in upcoming RIF
• Says “I’m accessible,” but only talks up — not down. Puts self over company.

Adding consultants when cost cutting reinforces their instability, waste and leader confidence. Signals lack of trust in staff & exposing more gaps in leadership experience. Consultants frameworks that internal teams required execute & sustain, expands cost, delays results, and weakens strategy.

In 2012 we had about 1,600 employees, by 2013 @ 1,900, and in 2017 we grew @ 4,500. Today, including those on the perimeter list, we’re sitting near 3,900. Once tower-only, headcount will drop back to somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000. If anyone didn’t see this coming, it’s not the same company it was in 2013. Some changes have been good, but many haven’t especially when it comes to culture and how people are treated. Business is business, but how you do it used to matter.

“How you treat people says everything about your leadership. The rest is just noise.” — Anonymous

Rumor is the tower side needs to cut around $50mil could mean 250~500 jobs unless leaders focus on people cutting consultant spend, facilities or redundant or unjustified system costs some will while others won't.

@1a5 SmartSheets? Yeah that's a business administered platform for many years. You reap what platforms you deep six and sow lol.

The past year I felt like I was on the sidelines watching my coworkers navigate a corporate nightmare version of Training Day, and after last week, I still stick by that visual, but it’s now a mash up with The Stupids.

@196 best comment of 2025

@196

He’d actually have to have an ounce of knowledge to spill anything, and it’s been made clear now that he’s no longer the pet, there’s nothing he can say. The most insightful thing MM has done is realize he’s too incompetent to be worth the political coverage any longer. You can’t be both useless and an id--t.

MM's fault too D&D can't get our systems running today?

Gossip Girl here… even Lonely Boy isn’t feeling the love under Queen Bee MM’s new reign.

The irony? She’s out here claiming “we reprioritized to save spend,” but can’t explain why to anyone — yet just months earlier threw a full-blown tantrum to protect her one-user, once-a-year, overpriced org-chart vanity toy that costs more than real enterprise tools hundreds actually need to, you know… run the business.

And let’s not forget MM’s meteoric (and mysterious) rise — from “communication strategy consultant” to Director to VP during the LN era in record time. Poor reputation, questionable decisions, and somehow still promoted right before being escorted out for cause… only to reappear in an even bigger role six months later over a domain she has no experience of knowledge in to manage. Plot twist of the season, folks.

Rumor has it Lonely Boy’s about to spill all the tea — and this episode promises drama, data-deets, delusion, and dashboard secrets.

Stay tuned —

XOXO, Gossip Girl

I am sure I am going to get down-voted for this but hey F-it. BB is a pretty smart dude but like most architecture people in most companies, tone def, and egotistical. He has the potential to step in but he doesn't listen due to his ego. I argued with him once about a particular issue that he called me out as being d-mb on. Guess who is laughing last. His solution never came through and mine remained. I would still take him over MM.

Leadership choices in D&D are eroded delivery, morale, and trust. Expanding a VP consultant’s role with no technical depth and weak engagement history compounds the problem. This isn’t a talent issue, it’s a leadership and accountability failure. We are bloated with redundant tools, unclear ownership, and a the former “culture” mindset overpowered operational discipline. Teams are overextended, disengaged, and blamed for inherited dysfunction.

EMT needs to act reach stability by auditing leadership capability and accountability, eliminating redundant tools while restoring transparency, and setting measurable goals tied to real business outcomes instead of politics because “who” wanted it shouldn’t be the answer. Without immediate top down action, capability and credibility will vanish and recovery later will cost more.

@wj BB was the light during CJ—leading with connection and an egalitarian mindset. But as a former team member, you likely see more than most: a key hire BB championed came with real sunk costs, and you may still feel the ripple effects. That impact hasn’t been acknowledged but rewarded!!

@r9 whoever you are, you’re d-mb.

@tz what vision is that? I agree with the second part though! At least when CJ was around we all knew he was simply full of cr-p. As someone on BB’s team in the past; the guy isn’t smart enough to manage what he has let alone more!

@vf ☠️ OMG yes! Didn’t you hear? Everything can be done with AI now 😂 No leader needed, just use ChatGPT run the org. At least the bot can learn and won’t take three months & five consultant-leaders to say “We’ll elevate that for visibility.” 🤖

@v0 OMG it's a comment from MM's team. After SP started reading AI, now MM in every planning meeting, "Why do we need that project? Can AI do that?" 😂

@tz even with that way better than what we are facing with MM, every question isn’t “can’t AI do that”🤣

@ra No doubt BB’s leadership is impressive—he’s got vision, strategy, and presence. It’s just unfortunate that his peripheral vision seems to cut out whenever his favorites start underperforming or steamroll the team like it’s a power trip parade.

@t6 If IT really were just a bunch of gaming geeks in basements, nobody here would be able to log in, find a tower, maintain equipment, bill a customer, request PTO, execute contracts, or even run payroll. But sure let’s pretend it’s all just magic. Guess it’s “Work From Your Parents’ Basement Day” since you forgot 40% of the week the entire company’s remote. 🎮💻

@ra oh no. Does that mean we will get our new ms office upgrades? How will we survive.

The only real leader left is BB — they should be over D&D, not the consultant VP. If BB leaves too, that’s it — rock bottom.

I don’t know why so many D&D people are complaining. They get to “work” from their mom’s basement and just do what is put in front of them by their leaders. They go to a couple of Teams meetings, do a little work, and then go back to gaming on their other monitors.

@r1 Just wait, my money is on a consultant VP to take that list and claim it as if they thought of it themselves ….. your list shows you are more qualified than what we have now. Great roadmap and plan!!

1. Simplified Roadmap & Priorities
   Goal: Build a flexible, resilient foundation for future growth.

2. Fortify Security & Compliance (ISO 27001, SOC 2)
   Goal: Protect data, reduce risk, and maintain customer confidence.

3. Align IT with the Business
   Goal: Transform IT from a cost center into a strategic growth driver.

Here is a roadmap, where do I apply to be VP?

Modernize Core Infrastructure and Cloud Adoption: Migrate at least 60% of on-premises applications and services to a hybrid or multi-cloud environment, focusing on scalability, redundancy, and cost efficiency. Establish robust Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices and automated deployment pipelines to reduce manual effort and accelerate the provisioning of resources. This modernization effort will lower technical debt and provide a flexible foundation for future business growth.

Strengthen Cybersecurity and Compliance Posture: Implement a Zero Trust architecture across the entire enterprise to rigorously verify every access request, regardless of origin. Upgrade threat detection and response capabilities using AI/ML-driven security tools, and achieve major industry compliance certifications (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2) to mitigate risk and protect critical data assets. This ensures business continuity and maintains customer trust in a high-threat environment.

Elevate Business Alignment through Digital Enablement: Transition the IT organization from a cost center to a strategic business partner by embedding IT experts directly into business unit development teams. Focus on rapidly delivering value-generating digital products, improving the user experience through enhanced self-service portals, and leveraging data analytics to drive informed decision-making across the entire company. This shift positions IT as a primary engine for organizational innovation and competitive advantage

D&D is collapsing under ego-driven leadership — not lack of talent Let’s be real — D&D has been stuck for years under leaders who either can’t make a decision or make the wrong ones for the wrong reasons. Delivery doesn’t happen based on what’s best for the business — it happens because someone with a title wants something, even when everyone knows it’s not the right call. Resources get pulled in, timelines get squeezed, people push themselves to the limit, and right before value is delivered, the plug gets pulled and it’s labeled a failure.

People know this pattern now. Many document everything just to protect themselves because the sabotage and blame culture are real. It’s not a healthy environment — those who care about doing the right thing and delivering real outcomes are exhausted, disheartened, and being driven out.

The root cause? Leadership that values optics over outcomes. Titles and perception matter more than experience, skill, or integrity. Promotions happen for image or politics, not merit, and the people who genuinely care end up carrying the load for those who don’t.

This all starts at the top — with an ego-driven CFO and a VP who was originally brought in as a consultant-level manager, then rapidly promoted to Director and VP in record time without the experience or qualifications to lead such a critical area. It appeared to be an optics move — adding a “female leader” to signal progress — but that backfired badly. Some leaders, regardless of gender, make the environment worse, not better.

The VP’s actions drove out one of the few genuinely strong and trusted female leaders who actually brought accountability and collaboration. Since her departure, what’s left is a small circle of leadership disconnected from technology, people, and business reality. The first big decision they made was to expand the role of someone already facing multiple internal HR complaints for poor management — because that person once held a VP title at another company in a completely different industry. That’s the level of judgment driving decisions here.

It’s a cycle: underqualified, politically protected leaders are promoted, the capable people around them leave or burn out, and then those same leaders are rewarded with even more responsibility. D&D has become a case study in how to demoralize top performers through bad optics and ego.

And yes, many of us are still here — not because we’re naïve, but because we’ve invested so much and are waiting to see if things finally change, or at least to collect what we’ve earned. But make no mistake, if this leadership structure stays the same after bonuses and retention payouts, it’s going to be a mass exit. If you think the systems are bad now, wait until the people still holding everything together finally leave.

Our IT transformation efforts have repeatedly stalled—not because of technical limitations, but due to a persistent misalignment between leadership’s and business expectations and how technology is structured, governed, and integrated into the business.
There’s a fundamental disconnect between how the organization operates and how technology is being positioned. While the business has historically relied on externally sourced solutions to meet its needs, recent approaches have leaned heavily into models better suited for organizations with different operating DNA—ones that build, own, and scale digital offerings as a core competency. That’s not who we are

Leadership signals this tension clearly:

• JB emphasized a return to operational support, not customer product development, however never controlled IT spending by business.
• DS values the department but lacks visibility into how decisions ripple across delivery and governance.
• SP remains largely unaware of how technology functions or how fragmented decisions impact outcomes.
• A, attempted to reshape the company around a model that assumes internal product ownership and delivery maturity—despite no such foundation. Her tenure was marked by slide decks, consultant overreach, and a growing gap between aspiration and reality.

Rather than address the structural issues, executive leadership continues to patch symptoms with short-term fixes. There’s no coherent strategy for organizing teams, managing spend, or aligning delivery with business outcomes. Instead, we operate in competing silos—business performance team, engineering/architecture, operations, and product all pulling in different directions.
The result? Business units attend events, return with vendor solutions, and implement them independently. Governance is bypassed. Integration and cost management are an afterthought. We now support over 750 applications in a company that should be running lean.

We’ve also seen a series of “strategic” pivots that raise more questions than they answer:

• A push to migrate from Azure to AWS—not for cost, capability, or alignment, but seemingly because someone liked the branding.
• A “Snow for Everything” mindset—where one platform was positioned as the answer to every question, regardless of the question.
• A belief that consultants with frameworks can replace institutional knowledge and operational clarity.
• Next believe its Salesforce for all your problem.
  When P attempted to streamline and consolidate, the business perceived it as a loss of autonomy. Rather than engage, they resisted, aligned, and pushed him out.
  Until leadership aligns on a shared vision—one grounded in how this company actually operates— whoever is in charge, nothing is going to happen. We can all complain here.

Hi MM What changes? Oh, you mean the part where we promote people who don’t understand the work to lead the people who do? Brilliant!

The only thing optimizing is how fast this place can implode but hey, at least it’ll sound great in a buzzword-filled slide deck.

All you IT people will be fine. Sharpen that resume and move on of you don't like the changes.

Ah, yes SNOW su-ks, but we are far from the only company building applications around it. It is a one-size fits all and much like clothing, that never works out. We tried that with D365 for PDI and that lasted oh, a month? Wasn't D365 supposed to be our savior. Honestly you can give some blame to the out going director for SNOW. Ok dude but needed someone to level set with him. Unfortunately all of these solutions were never run past the people that actually know the data. That was stopped 15 years ago. As for our dear internal system, that is the business's fault. Sorry, but definitely not, as much as I love some of my business counterparts. It needed cleaned up and upgraded for many years but there was never time. D&D(f-it IT) always had to have X done by Y because of Z and in the end it was a bunch of non-sense, and I can't tell you how many times things were developed because it was a priority and rarely, if ever used. This left no time to do real upgrades. What is left is 3rd party systems Crown can try to shoe-ho-n into the mix. Not looking forward to that. Another unneeded group is architecture. Like most companies it is a bloated mess with big egos. In our case, primarily D, B&R (though D is gone), granted architecture in most companies are narcissistic anyway. Most of that group is sticking around and not sure I want to be part of what is left. Anyway just keeping it real since we now have a sh*tsh0w of a VP to guide us down the primrose path. Honestly, those in the perimeter may not have the best of it but definitely better than those of us left.

@m4 The “dated, complex systems” didn’t just appear they’re the result of years of everyone getting whatever they wanted and nobody saying no. Now we’re buried under redundant tools, bad data, and tech debt the size of Texas. Most of us came after this mess was built and are trying to fix it with half the resources it takes. The “strategy geniuses” made the decisions, like promoting a consultant with zero data experience to lead data (because apparently that’s a transferable skill?). But sure, blame the worker bees while the consultants who caused it keep getting promoted. Classic Crown.

So yeah, we’re frustrated too. Most of us are still here out of loyalty or stubborn hope.

Guys no one cares. You haven’t upgraded a system in years, our data still su-ks and AI we use su-ks and all our systems are from 2010. Maybe stop complaining and do your job.

@kr who’s the 3rd?

@ks SNOW is like inheriting an old car and it’s the only one you are allowed to drive so you duct tape it, sorry we don’t like it either trust me. And you would be mad to if the people in charge won’t do what’s right and don’t even understand and won’t let you make things better. We are losing the people with the duct tape left and right now soon you’ll miss his snow runs 😂

You D&D people are big mad. By the way SNOW is awful do better.