#culture

It’s a wrap, execs are just talking nonsense now. Get ready for more nonsense in the coming months

We must reduce the corporate surplus population!!

What are the odds JW and DL were visited by the ghosts of Imperial Past, Present and Future this weekend?

I go to the office, do my work, and then go home and forget about it until 9am the next day. No one bothers me, pay and bonuses are decent. I don't allow myself to be drawn into drama. I am here for a paycheck, nothing more. A common theme on this forum is you've allowed your lives to become a soap opera. Let go of the drama. AT&T doesn't care what opinion you have about Policy. They ignore employees, so just ignore the distractions they create. Focus on the paycheck. Let it go.

Can someone tell our executives to seek a style consultant. I remember when the board dressed well, shaved, hair was cut. I hope they dress better when the meet clients. It seems they all go for the Seattle Grunge look. The ladies look professional. The guys not so much.

https://syncni.com/article/14123/how-allstate-ni-s-activate-event-is-redefining-workplace-culture

It was bad enough we didn't get to say goodbye to those they threw out of the firm as the firm asked us all to stay home to receive calls. We found out if you were laid off you were immediately banned from the building like you were a criminal. Nobody got to say goodbye. Then those of us left got to watch the firm come through with a huge trash can and clean out the file cabinets and lockers of those laid off. Why, why would you do this during the work day? The firm couldn't do this task after hours or the weekend? This firm has lost its humanity. Guess the lesson is everyday hug your friends at work. Tell them how much you appreciate them and do not keep anything at work. Prepare like every day is your last day.

Halfway through the quarter, and surprise! Nothing has changed. The team of unqualified leaders continues to expertly guide the regions straight into confusion.

The Head of Asia is still “getting up to speed” - an impressive 1.5yr onboarding process. Truly redefining patience and low expectations.

The head of Europe remains a model of underperformance proudly carrying the WFH banner as if it’s an Olympic sport. Congrats for being last place every year.

And the Head of Americas… where do I start? Well it’s like the old head of Americas is back - Deja Vu we might as well have rehired JB. “One Month In” and things are somehow worse than before. Land grabbing, confusion, and healthy dose of chaos on what to do - stellar leadership all around!

Rest of the SLT? A truly inspiring bunch of old school dudes pounding the pavement, achieving absolutely nothing. Another glorious year of mediocrity ahead.

And Sanoke, maybe take a look at this org and HR while you are at it. Apparently their biggest contribution is planning team get togethers in London! Great use of resources.

“#PathToo200”

Feels more and more like LCS only exists for media optics. No good path to profitability with any of the venture projects.
Equally concerning is the toxic culture created within…screaming, shouting, and slamming doors in meetings is modeled by management especially he who exited to run the U/S. Why is this behavior rewarded?

Recently posted, in part, on LinkedIn:

“…AT&T leadership continues to set the gold standard in recognizing and rewarding its people. Their unwavering commitment to appreciation and employee happiness is what fuels our culture of excellence. When you feel seen, valued, and celebrated, you bring your best—and that’s exactly what we do.

I’m beyond proud to be part of a company that invests in its people and celebrates every chapter of their story. “

WOW.

Speechless. Though I did throw up in my mouth a little.

John Stankaheeheee Let me help you!
John....let me help you demoralize the workforce even more. Do this John. Take away the service anniversary awards. Please do it John. Then remove any and all employee discounts. Also good work on pension plan increases. They are virtually non existent.
Cobb county teacher pensions in the state of Georgia get 3% every year. You are a cheap worthless pathetic divider in chief. It is no longer a desirable place to work. You and your cronies have gutted every aspect of what it used to be. You have as--ulted the low hanging fruit ( 1st level managers ) to the max because they have no voice as the union members do. The company culture will never rebound until you and your henchmen go somewhere. Anywhere would be good. Just go.John Stankaheeheee Let me help you!
John....let me help you demoralize the workforce even more. Do this John. Take away the
service anniversary awards. Please do it John. Then remove any and all employee discounts. Also good work on pension plan increases. They are virtually non existent.
Cobb county teacher pensions in the state of Georgia get 3% every year. You are a cheap worthless pathetic divider in chief. It is no longer a desirable place to work. You and your cronies have gutted every aspect of what it used to be. You have ATTACKED the low hanging fruit ( 1st level managers ) to the max because they have no voice as the union members do. The company culture will never rebound until you and your henchmen go somewhere. Anywhere would be good. Just go.

I’ve been ringing the bell on this for over a year—both here and in person. The writing’s been on the wall, layoffs were always coming this year. The PTO change was the clear warning sign.

I got out earlier this year and stopped even checking this site. Honestly, I’m amazed so many are acting surprised. Pull your head out of the sand.

And don’t think it’s over. Next comes a “mini reorg” here, another one over there, then suddenly—“oops, redundancies!” More cuts.

Bottom line: leadership has a headcount number they need to hit. Their bonuses are tied to it. Things will break, just like the culture that’s been shifting downhill for the last decade. Same as the country—leadership has their plan, and the rest of us just get dragged through the tank while they hit their targets.

Best advice: build a path that’s about you, not about serving an employer.

Layoffs incoming, 2 faced leaders

The lists are already up, and as always, if you’re not a group thinker, you’ll be eliminated.

https://youtu.be/eFTLKWw542g?si=fyhsW6SmeFovCchY

As a former follett employee I’d like to let anyone else still working there know…. There are much better less stressful jobs. “Oh but uhhhh the vp is d-mb and we didn’t get temps for fall rush and they cut our hours” yeah no duh dummy you work for a stupid company. Unless Follett is the only employer in your area (which is unlikely) just start applying elsewhere. I work for a great employer now with better benefits, hours, pay, work environment. Your life is bigger than dead end college retail.

I feel so genuinely bad for my old market leader, she ran the Cal State East Bay Pioneer store from her college years into her 40s. And talking to her was like talking to a brick wall of follett information. Zero soul, just regurgitated slop about endless retail. My point here is don’t let that happen to you too. Life is more than shelving books and getting screamed at by pi---d off customers who’s AirPods are 4 months late due to a drop shipping issue.

Absolutely nothing will change, except many of us will be jobless and replaced by cheaper offshore hires. At this point, I’m starting to think those who got kicked out first might be the luckiest. I can’t imagine enduring more months of this mess, only to land in a gutted team with heavier workloads and an even worse company culture.

but we don’t// apparently we work at the Oracle show. Every executive is just porting their team over here

7 years late with engine
No exploration success
Broken organization and failure to meaningfully centralize
Demotivated workforce
Unbalanced portfolio
CNE failed
Succession problem
Now series of OE incidents

All they have been able to achieve is to return cash from already producing assets back to shareholders. We dont need to pay them 33mm to do that

It is any wonder why TD is struggling to sell when it likens to famous personalities. It lacks the creativity of TV designer Linda even when trying to dress up the truth. Lacks the elegance and humbleness of Sue on a tennis court. It's more likened to the selling skills of Albert Arkwright (Ronnie) in Open All Hours and determined to bag it's own drums like drummers Jay and Nicholas. Just barking up the wrong tree!

The whole problem with this company is the lack of visibility beyond line managers. I have no idea who my manager’s manager is, I’ve never met them, and I’ve never received a single message from them. Above that, there are another four layers of management who nobody ever hears from ever! And then we have the top brass who take all the profits and issue orders. No wonder the company is such a mess. By the time any direction filters down the message has changed completely, or just totally lost and forgotten.

Why is the board so complacent. This leadership team seems to keep fumbling the ball…over and over and over. Purple this and purple that will not impress investors.

At JPMC people talk behind others people back, gossip, gaslight, berate a novice for asking questions then huff and puff about being bothered if asked. I'm sure that it happens at Wells Fargo, Citi, MS, Goldman, TD, but I am in shocked at the scale that it happens here. I'm been here only 2 weeks. The only positive thing I have seen here is people talking back to people who are like that. The worse I've seen which is subjective to me is asking them what have they done in the last 10 years outside of work after loving to work 10 hour days. They can't name anything except drinking.

Since I'm new, how do I navigate this when keeping my head low is not working? They are coming up to me to see if I am part of the fraternity or like they say in the streets "size me up".

Something I learned recently is that a big reason banks want people back in the office has less to do with culture and more to do with money. Cities and states give companies tax breaks or abatements if they keep a certain number of jobs physically located in offices. If too many people are remote , the company risks losing those incentives, facing higher taxes in multiple places, or even having an abatement revoked if they don’t meet the headcount requirement.

I’m not saying I agree with it. I’m just the messenger here.

Local governments also want people in offices because it fuels the economy—restaurants, transit, parking, all of it. When offices are empty, that revenue drops, and the city is less willing to hand out big tax breaks.

So a lot of the return-to-office push is really tied to protecting tax agreements and the economic impact that comes from offices being filled.

Another pep talk from JR!🤢🤮

Everybody getting ready for the annual October layoffs? Not sure if it will be as big this year or not. Seems like they're gradually laying off people throughout the year versus a big October round, but maybe I'm wrong.

It's like sitting in a warzone, with stress all around you and knowing that a bo-b will drop on someone, hopefully it's not you. What a total moral ki-ler.

I will say that the layoffs on 9/30 are "convenient" from the employer cost perspective. Yet, so were the earlier ones throughout the year. It is hard however to stomach losing bonus and 401k match so late in year. Would be better to just get displaced on Jan 1 - where the emp is not giving up anything.

IMHO, it seems that WF is getting rid of the "undesirables" as well as the ones who don't fit the new location mode. Its all over the board. Yet, we, the displaced pay the price.

The only benefit is, we are gone from the toxicity of the environment, we are gone from the daily worry "am I next...!" thoughts. Is there something better? Time will tell. Will I miss my coworkers? YES. That is an unequivocable answer. YES.

The Wells Fargo today is not the one I started working for years ago. It is completely different. Cutthroat. Conniving. Political BS. Pitting co-workers against each other at review time. Yep. Totally different. I think there must be something better out there. Better for the career, better for the soul, better for learning. Just......better.

Thats my .02 for the day.....working through the grief process and separation process and everything that entails.

Its real.

A survey of 1,500 US managers found that 25% of C-suite leaders admitted using return-to-office (RTO) mandates to prompt resignations, while 20% of HR professionals said their policies were intended to make staff leave. Nearly 40% of managers said layoffs still followed because not enough workers quit.

Amazon has faced some of the strongest backlash, with 30,000 employees signing a petition, 1,800 pledging walkouts, and many “rage applying” to new jobs.

Data showed 99% of companies with RTO mandates reported lower engagement, almost half saw higher-than-expected attrition, and 29% faced recruitment difficulties.

Leadership week is a joke. Norlin speaking to us about being a leader when he doesn’t do anything but monitor dashboards and fail at executing a go to market strategy is pure comedy. He needs to be the first one fired if this company has a chance.

Let's say, in last 40 years - Has there ever been a decision that benefited the employees?

It’s time for our illustrious CEO, Ste Ve Pru Sak, to actually lead. He’s losing his biggest asset – the people who keep this place running – and he doesn’t even see it. When you lose the experience and talent that make your company function, you’re sc--wed.

The town hall was an absolute disaster. You put your CIO, with an accounting degree from Stephen F. Austin, in charge of a billion-dollar tech group and front and center at the meeting? That’s embarrassing. Then there’s your SVP of HR with a University of Phoenix degree, and a GM of supply chain who’s never run supply chain before. These people aren’t qualified, yet they’re making decisions that drag the company down.

Meanwhile, the folks doing the actual work – the ones generating revenue – are getting laid off because of leadership’s bad decisions. Optics matter, and right now the optics are terrible. Employees don’t trust leadership at all.

Ste Ve, if your team su-ks, you replace your OC and DC – that’s how it works in football and in business. You’re smart enough to know this. Pay for real experts, bring in leadership that knows what they’re doing, and stop cutting the people who keep this company alive. Otherwise, the “parents” (shareholders, board, whoever’s really in charge) won’t keep you around much longer.

Do the right thing, before you end up on the street with the people you just laid off.

I've been under a lot of stress lately and working long hours. It made me curious about how others define Work Life Balance for themselves. While I can find plenty of definitions online but Im more interested in hearing how my peers and colleagues here at Humana personally think about it.

It’s disheartening to now know that leadership’s idea of the ideal org size is always smaller. It’s also disheartening to hear many people on this board say similar things - “we could use less of x or y groups.” Makes me wonder if anyone actually knows how to properly operate a company of this size and complexity.

Now that (hopefully) the emotions have started to settle after the layoffs at HCSC, maybe we can pivot the energy to something carthartic?

Let’s crowdsource ideas for harmless, policy-accurate compliance. The kind of thing you can do at any company that’s made it clear ethical or moral leadership is... no longer a priority.

We’re talking about doing exactly what’s required, nothing more, nothing less. No sabotage. No risking jobs. Just subtle disengagement that lets you sleep a little better at night, while giving the company exactly what they’ve earned, the bare minimum.

Basically - no team spirit :)

Examples to get us started (some were shared in an earlier post):

Employee surveys? 0’s across the board (except for the 1 question concerning direct manager - mine will always get a 5 - they're amazing). No other comments. No free consulting.

Stop “going the extra mile.” If it’s not in the job description or the SLA, it’s not happening.

“I followed the policy.” (Exactly. To. The. Letter.)

No more “I’ll just handle it real quick” after hours. We’re clocking in and out by the minute (unless it's an expected part of your jd).

Meeting runs past time? “Sorry, I have a hard stop.” Click.

The Rules:

No one here wants to lose their job. These ideas should be safe and policy-compliant.

This is FUN. A release valve.

No “Black on Monday” or anything traceable. Keep it anonymous and professional on the surface.

If you’re here to cape for the company with “But we should think about what’s best for the company,” this thread is not for you. Just scoff and scroll on by.

So... Harmless but satisfying disengagement?

One benefit to my eventual layoff is I will never come back to this layoff chat again. Most comments are negative. WF and any other company has the right to set expectations. If you don't like them, you can find a better fit for yourself. I loved my job ( 90% of the time). I had some amazing managers and met some great friends over the many years I've worked here. Can I complain about some things? Sure. But for the most part, I have no complaints. There will be many things I'll miss once I no longer work here. Best to you all. Hillsboro OR hang in there. This chapter will soon come to an end.

On a recent visit to Home office, I noticed an open bar (with paid servers) providing free beer and wine each evening we were there. I’m at a bit of a loss as to how this helps clients and why it is better to have this than the home office representatives who were laid off.

It seems corporate for UHG/Optum frequent these pages and nudges the website to get things deleted/ removed. Which further proves how bad this company is. However, screen shots of the replies that reflect how upper level management and normal employees feel can always be taken. Maybe start to treat your state side employees better. Have middle, upper and executive management take compassion and empathy courses and remind the shareholders you are a healthcare company and need to stop offshoring overseas. Trying to hide the truth won’t make those survey scores go up. We will see what unfolds in October. The dates I keep hearing are the 13th and 30th. The 13th is on a Monday so maybe they’re trying to deviate from the normal Thursday schedule.

UKG has done it again! First that mo--nic, diabolically grinning U, and now they go and slit the K’s throat in the logo. Art or an accidental confession? Maybe it’s just supposed to symbolize how the company keeps drifting apart internally. I bet in the next rebrand they’ll completely butcher the G – perfectly fitting for their corporate culture.

And the slogans… “when work works, everything works” – seriously?! Sounds like an AI on the verge of burnout. The old line “Our purpose is people” was already nothing but brutal cynicism after all their anti-people actions. Just tell the truth already: “our purpose is profit, we don’t care about people.” Period.

Maybe it’s my internet connection but I haven’t caught all this ‘excitedness” and the more severe strain of “super excitedness” that all the execs on town halls seem to be experiencing right now.
Should I be worried, should I see my network engineer as I don’t want to miss out?

Do not let anyone gaslight you into thinking constant layoffs are normal. This is not normal.

If I was new to the workforce, I’d be thrilled to land a job at Humana. And justifiably so.

But I finally had enough of “member-centric,” “right care, right time, right place” and Perfect Service > Perfect Experience > Green Glove drivel. Fully supported it for years but, after hearing the same rah-rah for years, you realize none of it ever really mattered.

I’ve always believed if you don’t like something, get out. Taking ERP was a no-brainer for me. I hope those who chose to stay enjoy as many Humana memories and friends as I did through the years.