#badleadership

State farm been getting over on everyone lately when hear it is we pay our bill faithfully every month but can't help customers that pay that bill every month my house was had water damage that mess up my daughter and son room they try to offer me 500 dollars what is that going to do get some materials ok they told me it was my roof I got it fix out of pocket and they didn't want to help me fix my children ceiling I wish I never ever dealt with them

I'll be brief - almost all of them are always performative, vague... overly scripted and fu--ing unable to execute...

This shithole wouldn’t know talent if it punched them in the face. HR is a bunch of talentless Karens that only use is to be a meat shield between employees that do work, and our d-mb as fu-k C suite. Can’t wait to be out of this dysfunctional company

Several long time employees were FIRED last week for not returning to the office despite manager approval. Fired, no severance, gone after high performance and decades of service. Nothing descent matters to these people.

Nike is an eloborate blend of MLM & ponzi scheme.

They do know that they still have the brand name and a lot of clueless young people being exposed to the woke coolaid.

They indoctrinate you into the cult during hiring, serve you the coolaid.

First you feel amazing, you feel you belong and that you live in disneyland.

Slowly in your 2nd/3rd year you start to realize the defects, meaningless promotions, no career advancement, complete lack of accountability and a culture of retaliation.

Than you start to see the RNC mind dressed up in the "woke" clothing.

You start seeing that leaders dont give a cr-p, they dont care about serving the shareholders or the consumer. They are only interested in keeping the ponzi from collapsing while they enrich themselves and their close circle.

It is a small club and you aint a part of it and never will be.

Every quarter they drill on you, blame you, subjugate you to BS performance reviews.

after 5-10 years, you start getting disillusioned, the same problems that you spotted while you first joined is still there. Critical functions still lack headcount while billions are channeled for resume fillers for certain leaders.

At that point you need to be managed out and recycled with a fresh doe eyed new grad that thinks Nike is a serious business.

and the cycle keeps going on until the ML & ponzi hybrid collapses.

this is a warning for the new employees.

We were in your shoes once,

We once bleeded orange,
Now we are only bleeding.

"You are now informed"

Sunday again and I realize I hate this place even more than I did countless past Sunday's. It's getting worse each and every day, I'm sooo embarrassed to be associated with this place and looking for another job. I will take their money as long as I can but have to leave. If SF didn't have sooo much money in the bank it would have went out of business years ago. I do not believe SF is en a legitimate business anymore. They Executives are so detached for any realm of reality it is mind numbing. Everything they do is some kind of cut rate mind f-ck or woke delusional fantasy. Sad thing is it will get worse! Please offer everyone some type of severance, leave it to the bootlickers, woke crowd and Kool Aid drinkers..... Enough is enough....

Have to share. Scrolling through the org chart on Friday realized that Nike is just now a corrupt diploma mill of engineering job title. Seriously a complete joke. I saw that consistently if people were promoted internally over time it was probably a lie. Promoted twice means even less valuable and less talented. If you don’t agree try scrolling through the org chart on Monday and see for yourself. Ask if those who are still here after this week and prior cuts - what did they really do to be promoted and how valuable are they really for actual work? I noticed was that 95% are total frauds and the number of frauds is endless. And some of us now the talent gutted janitors are expected to simply pick up the garbage while useless and corrupt managers sit around and give high fives to themselves? This is not why I came it’s terrible and corrupt and no good engineers. Any where to sign up for next layoffs would be nice.

I hate everything about Dell. It used to be a good company. Not anymore. The greed, the arrogance, the incompetence, the abuse, the corruption, the dishonesty - it's a SHIITHOLE.

I commit to continue doing absolutely nothing and getting a pay check for it. Dell deserves nothing more.

Well, the time has come. It’s the last night of the Crown Castle nightmare that has been the lives of those of us in the perimeter. I’ve lived through Covid, several RIFs, the lineup of C-suiters that have exited (one took her broom with her), the forced move and then backtrack, offices shuttered, and now a 2.5 year long divestiture process. Heck, I’m beat.

I’m under no illusions that the new company will be perfect…far from, but I’m not going to troll this page anymore. I’m sure I’ll hear about it over drinks with my old Crown friends, but I won’t be active on here anymore.

I’m proud of the work that my friends (maybe even some of you) and I accomplished, despite the mismanagement, craziness, and fear of what’s next. We still did a fantastic job with what we were given. I’m going to miss a lot of people, but I’m sure everyone will be just fine wherever they end up.

For those going to Arium, good luck on starting over with the dedicated company focus that you always deserved.

Zayoites, good luck on an established organization that has pet insurance!

For my Crown 2.0 generation, when the Colonel sends out his email tomorrow, announcing the dawning of the new Crown, hang in there. You’ve outlived how many CEOs? I’m sure many of you will outlive this one…unless he sells the company, which is entirely possible.

The worst thing to happen to Bnsf railway was , " Berkshit Hathaway". Trading peoples livelihoods for profits. No different than when they were burning people out of their homes back in the day to lay tracks !!!

How do you drop the best reservoir engineer in the US like that? Feels like a race to last after that move.

I am afraid that laying off people here and there won't cut it.

Sh-t started going down on last years of MP
And 3 or 4 years of JD's sh-t
And 18 months of EH feeble efforts.
That means that Nike has been on downward slide for 7 to 9 years.

And pandemic's boost made d-mb JD a distorted view of reality, leading or not leading to cliff that we are experiencing.

EH's small scale effort will not change anything. He can layoff until he is the last one left. We might as have same or better result praying and knocking on the woods!!!

Bring back the wolves!

The sheep in place have ki-led this company. All yes people focused on managing up, not results.

I’m gonna say this plain and simple — this company is rotten at the core.

I’m telling you, the experience was beyond frustrating. It’s the kind of disappointment that sticks with you, not because of what happened, but because of how it all went down.

What really gets me is the lack of integrity in leadership. The SC leader — all flash, no follow-through — will tell his team one thing, turn right around and tell senior leadership something else, and somehow still walk away taking credit for work that ain’t his. That doesn’t happen by accident. That’s a culture that allows it.

I sat through that Appian World presentation and just thought… “this is what we’re backing?” It wasn’t just weak — it was a clear case of style over substance. And the fact that nothing changes after something like that? That tells you exactly what this company values — and what it doesn’t.

Folks who put in the work, who show up and deliver, they’re the ones getting pushed out. No fairness, no honesty. And yeah, that leaves a bad taste. Not because of the outcome — I’ll land on my feet — but because of the way it was handled. When there’s no transparency and no accountability, trust doesn’t stand a chance.

And if you want proof beyond the inside story, just look at the market. Ten years public, and the stock’s barely moved. That ain’t bad luck — that’s a signal.

This isn’t a company hitting a rough patch. This feels like one that’s lost its direction altogether.

If you’re on the SC side of the business, I’d take a long, hard look at where things are headed. Don’t sit around waiting for it to turn — by the time it’s obvious, you’re already in it.

GN&T has too many incompetent and wasteful people in leadership positions. I don’t think Accenture has the know how or the perseverance to sort this situation out. More than likely, they’ll end up throwing out the baby with the bath water!

Three words. What a mess!

We witnessed our leaders in a dark room with bad lighting. There were sound issues that went on the entire meeting that was giving me a headache.

Our senior leaders talked for 30 minutes about what food they like. The last 30 minutes were a blur of non sense. They all looked like they hate each other and have not exercised in 15 years.

I walked away feeling d-mber for having used my time to attend that meeting. Thank you.

Hopefully an announcement next week. This is beyond ridiculous. Under qualified and incompetent knucklehead.

Best of luck to you all living with this braindead bozo leadership. I won’t be coerced into “doing more with less”. You claim market based but don’t compensate market based. I’m done going above and beyond for a company that doesn’t even offer basic flexibility in return. Welcome to the world of 8 and skate. GFY! This ship is sinking, fast!

The culture is so bad that people end up becoming worse versions of themselves the longer they stay here. It takes a special kind of talent to pull that off, but SF has always been an overachiever.

BD Mebane has a very bad track record of hiring friends of HR and upper management along with management that can’t make decisions and push the blame on lower employees

When will the people here be held responsible for all of the bad decisions they make. How can a company of this size act this tjis

I looked at who survived our last two layoff rounds and it's baffling. People who haven't delivered anything in years are still here and people who carry the whole team got cut. Someone decided that. Someone looked at the list and signed off. That person has terrible judgment. They should be at the top of the list when the next round comes.

I've been a top performer here for eight years, but lately I feel like I am losing my mind. My manager moves targets constantly and then acts confused when I miss them. A coworker who does half my work got a big promotion last quarter. I know I should leave, I just don't believe I am good enough anymore. This place did that to me.

Leadership at AirMI is trash. Laying off the people who do the work and taking forever while doing so. Soon they will be blowing smoke about the “change curve” and “new ways of working.” Please get fu---d!
Also good luck to my fellows under Satan’s least favorite group of gals: AS and MC. I hope the misery ends soon.

Now that DF the champ of west coast software talent rehashing old ideas of low talent Michigan auto engineers out, I sincerely hope someone talk some sense into Ford executive thick heads.

Ford hasn’t shipped anything of significance since FNV2 (feel proud of that era). FNV4 would have been essentially delivered this year. Yet after billions wasted what did we get?
Silicon valley snake oil seller left with 200m and the company got a nothing burger.
Their SDV dream is as good as a dead cow in the canal, effectively years behind any competition.

Never seen waste more splendid than this. Unbelievable!!!

The way things are going right now, there are directors pushing people to adopt new tech, then telling them they can't use for what they were telling them to use it for, because it presents major security risks. Yet people already did.

These bad decisions will just compound the longer this goes on. We're sinking. Fast.

Some in management loved to play political games in the company. Like it was fun. Why? Business isn’t a game for those trying to earn a living.

Sure, revenue's way up. But the culture and morale are in the underworld--seriously it's depressing. Run like a prison daycare if that's even a thing. Senior leadership is awful and arrogantly tone deaf. I give it 2 quarters before it's 80% black screens and nothing but fresh college grads to try and pick up the pieces as they continue to crumble. The ship ain't crashing, it's being sunk by ignorance. AI, Saleschat, and ODW will NOT save MB on its current course.

First layoff I get it. Oops over-hired.

But second and third. No. You can't consistently make mistakes and be competent as a leader.

When stock underperformance stretches over years, restructuring no longer feels like a reset and we employees are paying for strategic failure twice...

Let me start with that all of the below are my opinions based on very close up observations of the people I'm commenting on and that I won't refer to anyone by name below the ET Level.

Cengage is only about optics at this point and I wouldn't be surprised if their main focus was maintaining the illusion as they work to go public and cash out.

First, Mr. Hansen has been and is a terrible leader who has largely rewarded terrible leaders and pushing out those that inspired.

He brought in one of the worst bullies I've ever seen in as Chief Product Officer and has continued this pattern of getting rid of true leaders with true vision that challenged the status quo over BS artists whose only talents are internal backstabbing, firing people, and posting articles that appear to be written by AI on LinkedIn as to appear as some profound thought leaders (see Mr. Wolbe and Mr. Persons).

How many reorgs and transformations do the same folks get before realizing the real problem is with leadership, not the operating model nor the people doing the jobs of 4 people for the salary of someone that is entry level.

How much money does Mr. Wolbe get to spend on consultants that do nothing but waste money while people that kept the company functioning are let go?

Instead of leveraging things like Cengage Unlimited to be disruptive, they just added this to yet another offering in their overly complex GTM model as none of these back stabbing leaders understand this business or, seemingly, any others.

The AI strategy is a joke with tools that are unlikely to be used and the arrogance and incompetence of "fake it until you make it" Mr. Persons running the show. The company is thus likely many years behind competitors here and AI is pure theater at Cengage.

For the competent, hard working folks at Cengage, the reward is layoffs or taking on the work of those laid off. Then training your likely, incompetent replacements.

For some reason, many of those that are known underperformers have slipped under the radar while top performers are moving onto competitors and the companies that will ultimately disrupt Cengage.

The focus seems to be to try and make the P&L look as good as possible for the IPO and then for those that can cash out to do so while leaving the barely functioning company and problem for the next regime (assuming there is a company left)

For those still there, everything you have worked on and given your blood, sweat, and tears to has already been destroyed.

You can stay and train the incompetent, ex-management consulting replacements or you can try to find another job now and leave those working to cash out holding the bag.

With the outsourcing of content and seemingly irresponsible use of AI in creating content for products, I'm not sure why anyone would use or trust a Cengage Product at this point.

The industry and customers are watching as those you fired are the trusted thought leaders in the future of Education and those you have leading are seen as irrelevant folks regurgitating AI-generated slop. I'm sure you were embarrassed at ASU.

With the Employee rises of 0% settled for another year its time for the Execs to take their big haul again. Internally DXC give the message that things are bad and they can't afford pay rises, on the Results calls they say all is going great and then go and take their rises. They always take raises at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving employees at the end of the year. Del bean even goes as far as saying money has been budgeted for employees this year, then the money then evaporates i guess into the dodgy Execs accounts.

DXC Execs are one big lie, Will they get raises this year, whats your guess?

It seems to me the leadership is trying to have its cake and eat it. Stretch the remaining workforce as much as you can whilst expecting them to adopt AI, close multiple offices, remove any hope of career advancement unless you want to move 1000 miles, provide no clear strategy or plan and leave everyone on tenterhooks wondering if they’re the next one to be riffed. No empathy or support from senior leadership or HR. It’s a complete shambles and something major is going to go wrong very soon operationally. Verizon is not currently a coherent or fully functioning company. It’s crying out for some strong and clear leadership that adopt an understandable and logical communication plan

and among those upper/middle managers trying to claw their way up the ranks and leaving a trail of bodies. Too many a$$holes agreeing to whatever they think their higher ups want to hear. Of course, pointing to whatever is convenient to blame when their plan doesn't work.

My manager apologized to me for the poor bonus and raise and he indicated my compensation has nothing to do to do with my performance last year, which was outstanding. He said this is what he was given, would habe loved to give everyone that deserved it more, but his hands were tied.

Now GK and EL to us to talk to our manager??? Why do they want to throw the managers under the bus when they have no control over compensation that has a cap.

This morning, in a meeting including Michael Green and SVP Ian McCoy, the remaining Franklin Templeton employees servicing the last calls transitioning back to FT, were told that they would not be laid off, they were being transitioned over to Heritage Funds to service their calls due to their struggling to meet Service Level Agreements, beginning on 04/27/2026. This was the lay off date that they were given last week, after waiting months on the expectation of leaving with severance. Now, they will be trained on the new funds and take those calls for an indeterminate amount of time. In a later meeting with the managers for those funds, the FT employees were told that "if you show your value" they may get an offer to permanently join. Those not greeting this news with abject joy were told to be glad that they have a job. Those who are unaware of this site were shocked, those reading, not so much. This is the FIS playbook in which the C suite can report the savings on the severance and get their big bonuses for such innovative solutions.

It's in the air. You see it in how people walk, how they talk, how they avoid eye contact with certain managers. Everyone is afraid. Afraid of being next. Afraid of speaking up. Afraid of a bad review that could lead to a PIP that could lead to being walked out. That's the culture at Exxon.

That's the whole story.

This place is garbage. The employees are mediocre at best. I don't respect a single person I've worked with here. If you want no growth and endless politics for a decade, this is your spot.

I can say with full confidence these have been the worst three years of my career.