#culture

KRK folks - what's your opinion about yesterday's email regarding changes to WFH allowance? I'm pi---d off

Year 1
Comms overload
Ameanable
Pay rise

Year2
Comms wind down
Grumpy
No pay rise

Year3
Limited Comms
Angry
No payrise

Year4 (if they make it)
Whats comms?
Who knows how they feel
No payrise

How many OG’s are left?

As pointed out on glassdoor a couple weeks ago {https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-PNC-Financial-Services-Group-E507-RVW102269233.htm} this whole RTO5 will be very expensive for us. Min $20/day parking. If you can find parking. Need to buy a vehicle? Do you have to hire a babysitter? Daycare? Cancel your evening plans because of traffic. None of this RTO5 makes life any easier for us or the public. And let's be real nobody wants to sit in an overcrowded office and listen to other people scream on teams calls all day. I could go on and on. This RTO5 may as well be called a pay cut. And like clockwork there is high certainty the C-level folks will see some sort of compensation boost before end of year. "Hey thanks for agreeing with my RTO policy and fu--ing over our loyal employees. Our board thought it would be nice to offer you a bucket of PNC shares."

#RallyToOppose
#ResistTheOrder
#ReasonToOrganize

speaking only from my own expereince, i find myself conflicted about how easy it feels to change roles at amazon once you are inside the inner circle.
on one hand, that fluidity creates opprotunity and can feel empowering, but it also leaves me wondering whether rigor and claritiy are getting lost at senior levels...
i rarely see an l8 write a single one pager that clearly articulats direction or strategy, and instead watch strategy turn into a collage of documents owned by l6s and l7s defending their own space.

i may be missing context or blind to constraints, but it makes me question what strong leadreship really looks like here and whether i fully understand the system i am part of...

An walmart director posted like this in LinkedIn. Charging our culture.

If you know anyone impacted by the recent Amazon layoffs, my team at Walmart in Bentonville is hiring software engineers.

I’m an ex-Amazonian (AWS) and made the move a few years ago. We’re working on large-scale problems—platforms, AI, cloud architecture, and modernization efforts.

Questions? Reach out to our recruiter DM me directly.

#hiring #amazon #softwareengineering

Ironically we called AT&T the death star back in the John Legere days, but working at T-Mobile nowadays feels like working on the death star, where any wrong move could mean the end of your job. Keep your head down, follow orders, and you might have a chance at keeping your job….maybe…

A really great place to work at…

Found this interesting Reddit thread for yesterday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IBM/comments/1qot69r/workplace_politics/

Gave me much relief I am not the only one feeling and experiencing this at IBM. I attend the Albany Research center in New York and the location is entirely run on politics. Nepotism, cronyism and favoritism rule the site. It’s run by a small group that has been in charge since the beginning. Merit and hard work and accomplishments mean little here what matters most is if you are one the favorites. It seems the locations intended is for personal gain of small group and their acolytes and not for semiconductors.

This is not a video game. These are people’s livelihoods on the line (both who work here and who the employees serve). This was the most out of touch townhall I have ever seen. Good luck to everyone

The he-l is he talking about hitting level 11 and treating this like a game.

Beyond tone deaf.

I guess it's the time where we are going to be bombarded about the survey for the MSU meeting we all had... Love how they tell you that you have until 1/30...Says they won't collect your details like name and email but we know that's not true..

Now if you volunteer, they’ll donate. “It was the right thing at the time to have that” speaking about Vol for Vaca.

If we played a drinking game every time they say AI everyone would be drunk before lunch time. These people are so out of touch.

Is this really necessary? What will it achieve, other than pi----g many of us off?

What's with everyone taking a MW and leaving it for the next person?

If Schwab is serious about expense management, start holding MD levels accountable.
Not sure how many are in STS about 50% can be reduced… they all just enable politics and misdirection as they are not needed…. If we already have 2 MD layers why are 1-2 more layers needed?
Such a wasteful org model, and mismanaged dept that is hindering our firm. Starts at the top.

More layoffs in IT late last week
Hear it was ~100 people
Almost all remote workers gone
still no CTO since Scott Spradley (IT being run by HP / Tyson cronies )
Plenty of Chicken People still around pushing for more of their chicken friends to join

Where do I begin? I got hired in September. During my interview, I looked past a comment made after several rounds of interviews with product and cross-functional teams. I remember the Engineering Manager saying, "Hey, we'll give you an opportunity, and if you can't get it done, we'll find someone who can."

I didn't think anything of it at the time. I should have taken that as a red flag, but I wanted the job. I accepted the offer, choosing Floor and Decor over three other offers. It definitely wasn't perfect; honestly, it was a bit of a sh-t show.

As a Product Manager, I asked fundamental questions about documentation, business rules, and features, but they couldn't answer. It was all domain knowledge locked in their heads. They couldn't point me to any documentation, so I always had to ask people for help, which slowed down the process tremendously.

Lo and behold, my immediate manager left for maternity leave after two or three months. I was supposed to report to my VP, but I ended up in limbo. From what I learned, the Engineering Manager was pushing for a product person to get in there. However, I didn't report to Engineering; I reported to Product and the business to deliver on their strategy and goals.

Once I got in, the Engineering Manager—who had only been there eight months and came from Home Depot—was walking by my desk telling me to get things done in 24 hours. He was a total je-k.

I started to see that they were very Type A personalities. The Product team was all women, mostly white, and they didn't seem to like men. They claimed to be DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), but that was a lie—a disguise. The place is a nightmare. I feel they are racist. The C-suite and high positions are white, and I didn't see much opportunity there.

I am African-American, but my observation is just that—my observation. I noticed there was no good structure. Because it's retail, it has a "family feeling," but there is a lot of knowledge hoarding. Teams compete against each other, and it's really bad.

Let me back up. About two months in, there was an Oracle project migrating from a legacy ERP system. It touched all 40 of their systems and took up everyone's time. The project is supposed to cut over between February and March, and it has consumed the company for a year.

I came in new and was told to work on projects with specific timelines, including one for drop ship. The stories and mapping by another PM weren't done until December. I was trying to get stuff done in January, and unbeknownst to me, I got in trouble for it. I was let go because the Engineering Manager was upset I wasn't focusing on what he wanted, even though that wasn't the priority.

My VP sent an email to the whole company saying, "Don't work on this without me knowing; we need to slow down and take it through the PM process." Yet, when I did that, it wasn't fast enough. They didn't even have the resources. Even if everything was ready in January 2026, the Oracle project isn't done until March. The CEO said not to work on anything until that's done, but I was punished for not going fast enough.

They used that as an excuse to get rid of me because the Engineering Manager didn't like me. If they don't like you, they will find a reason to fire you. Be very cautious about working at Floor and Decor. Don't drink the Kool-Aid immediately. They will make plans to let you go.

I did the work. I was turning around documents and creating slides. They allowed AI, so I was actually able to move faster. But they have this strange culture where they claim to be DEI, but they aren't. It's on all the TVs in the break room, but it's just a disguise to protect themselves from lawsuits. There are no Black board members, no Indians, no Mexicans, no Asians. It's an all-white "Good Ol' Boys" club.

To go deeper into the story: I agreed to be a POS (Point of Sale) Product Manager. Once I got there, they told me the POS shares data with two other web applications for inventory and orders, so I was the PM for those too. I had three products, three ceremonies, and requirements to build. I got played and set up for failure.

I did the best I could, but there was no documentation or training. They expected me to piece it together in four months with high performance. The expectations didn't match what could be delivered.

When I started pushing back on work to Marty (the Engineering Manager) because I reported to Shannon (the Product Leader), he got upset. I requested a Product Owner to help manage the boards because they didn't have a Scrum Master. Asking a Product Manager to also be the Scrum Master for three products doesn't make sense; you don't have the time. That is why Scrum Master is a dedicated job title.

Just before I was let go yesterday, they pulled an older Black woman from another team to "help" me. It wasn't help; it was a sign they were pushing me out. They put her there to protect themselves with DEI optics because they knew they were firing a Black employee from an all-white team. They brought her in late last week, she asked a few questions, and then they fired me on Tuesday.

I'm not stupid. I'm in my 40s, and I see how they move. I know the games corporate plays, and this was clearly one of them. I was set up for failure with staggering demands and no documentation. It was an absolute termination because I didn't kiss the Engineering Manager's a-s.

Be aware when you go to work at Floor and Decor. It's not what it seems. It's a sla-ghterhouse, and they just had a mass layoff last week. That should help you with your decision. Thank you.

You and your team have effectively minimized my role overnight—reducing my title without reducing my job scope, responsibilities, but a title without clarity.

This change has materially damaged my external career prospects by assigning me a generic, market-irrelevant title that obscures both my seniority and expertise. The removal of visible seniority in title is not a cosmetic issue; it directly impacts credibility, mobility, and future opportunity.

The so-called career compass, intended to provide clarity on roles and responsibilities, delivers neither. Instead, it functions as a mechanism for devaluation stripping definition while simultaneously narrowing both current and future prospects.

I am not alone in this assessment. I have heard from multiple employees who are similarly unhappy and confused by these changes, particularly the disconnect between stated intent and actual impact on employee experience.

We work at a financial services company. Many of us literally help clients build wealth for a living. So let’s talk about return-to-office in terms that should be very familiar to leadership: compounding, assets, and long-term value.

Parking in the city where I work is $19 a day. That’s not unusual.

$19 × 5 days × ~48 weeks = $4,560 per year just to show up.

Not gas. Not wear and tear on a car. Not lunch. Just parking.

Over time, that turns into real money:
• 10 years = $45,600
• 15 years = $68,400
• 25 years = $114,000

That’s before growth.

If that same $4,560 per year were invested in a Roth IRA or brokerage account at a modest 7% return:
• 10 years ≈ $63,000
• 15 years ≈ $119,000
• 25 years ≈ $315,000+

That’s the difference between an employee retiring stressed and an employee retiring secure.Now think about this from the company’s perspective.

Right now, that money is flowing into:
• Parking garages
• Gas stations
• Downtown lunch spots

What if, instead, that money was flowing into:
• Roth IRAs at our bank
• Brokerage accounts at our bank
• Deposit balances at our bank

Flexible work doesn’t just “make employees happy.” It redirects thousands of dollars per employee per year into assets held at the institution they work for.Which makes the timing of the new “Total Rewards” program especially interesting.

We’re being encouraged to consolidate deposits, investments, and cash with the bank. Leadership clearly understands the value of employee assets sitting here.But at the same time, we’re being required to spend thousands of dollars per year just to be physically present — money that could otherwise be sitting in those very accounts.You can’t ask employees to bring their cash to the bank while also designing policies that drain that cash into parking garages.

That’s a contradiction we can see very clearly, because this is what we do for a living.We talk every day about helping customers build long-term financial security.

Why are we designing policies that force employees to divert thousands of dollars a year away from their own financial future and into parking infrastructure?This isn’t about culture. This is about capital flow.

You can choose:

Employees investing in their futures at your institution
or
Employees funding city infrastructure to sit in a cubicle

One of those builds loyalty, assets, and long-term value.

The other builds parking revenue.

For a company that understands compounding as well as we do, this feels like an odd choice.

Holy he'll how has this place kept together? No one knows anything, no direction, no purpose, all leaders are clueless and at the same time thinking they will do the same as last year. Silos out the a**. It has only been a week and I am looking for the exit. This is going to be a 5 year minimum turnaround and it will be a bloodbath and stress factory for anyone who stays. God bless you verizon folks, it can be so much better elsewhere.

Still grinding away in the Escape From ATT Land Desk Farm??? Jockeying every day to find a decent spot??? Take control of your future and roll the dice on some small caps. Bunch of losers

If the schools are closed for icy roads why isn’t the bank closing? They don’t care about our safety. Almost spun out completely. Have to come into office for my 3 days though 🤡

Thought this was only for project managers?

It has been indicated, here, that upper management is responsible for a lack of growth caused by a lack of vision and innovation. Further, this lack of growth coupled with inflation causes reductions in the workforce (i.e., packages, attrition, and layoffs).

Blaming upper management for this situation is disingenuous. Any person at the company could have innovated on their own and brought about a different outcome. Management facilitated this possibility by providing Innovation Day for creatives to demonstrate their genius. The lack of effect implies little about management and speaks more to the dire lack of contributor capabilities.

It could have been a different world.

So we here in the colonies have lost pretty much our entire schools publishing and content team. The rationale is that global content can be mediated to local curriculum requirements. This is patently untrue. The ANZ market for secondary school material is seriously insular, and anything that is not created by local writers will be looked on as second rate nonsense. They are moving us to the Pearson model, which as anyone who knows our market will attest is doomed to failure.
The best bit of this though is the fact that we only found out about this via a: people who had already been dumped but still had relationships with those canned and b: the actual email that went out was addressed only to the team who were mostly already being canned. There has been no messaging to the rest of the ANZ team despite us working closely with most of those involved over many years.
Gold standard in intercompany comms.

Only in the company a few months. Chaos everywhere, nothing works as it should, layoffs , Reorg and no CEO. People treated like cr-p and MGMT are the worst I've ever seen

What a dump , I'm lucky that I've enough savings to last 2 years so I'm thinking of walking out

My manager pulled me into a last minute meeting with zero context and kept a straight face the whole time. It turned out to be small talk, but my nerves were shot for hours after. Do they not realize how on edge all of us are?

I used to be the calm one, and this job’s slowly beaten that out of me. The pressure never lets up, and it shows in how short I’ve become and how checked out I feel. I hate that work’s turning me into someone I don’t recognize, but there's not much I can do about it.

I swear, if another person tells me this, I'll scream in their face. Is the bar really that low? Seriously?

Is there a secret department at UCR where job descriptions go to die?

Because after watching this place operate, it is convincing, that a solid chunk of long-tenured personnel have absolutely no idea what their job duties are - despite having occupied the same chair since the Bush administration.

The environment is peak toxicity, propped up by a nonstop flex of credentials:

“I have a master’s.”
“I have two master’s.”
“I’m certified in 17 things that don’t apply to this role.”
“I attended a webinar once.”

Cool. So… who’s actually doing the work?

Apparently no one - because whenever accountability shows up, it’s immediately chased off by a blizzard of excuses that have nothing to do with the task at hand:

“That’s not really my responsibility” (it is)
“We’re waiting on alignment” (with whom?)
“Process changes” (none occurred)
“Bandwidth” (translation: vibes are off)

These are jobs they’ve held for years, yet somehow every request is treated like a surprise pop quiz in a subject they’ve never heard of. The degrees get louder, the excuses get stranger, and the actual output remains… theoretical.

Accountability? That left the building a long time ago — probably reassigned to a committee that never meets.

At this point, UCR doesn’t need more certifications. It needs a basic refresher course called: “So What Is It You Do Here, Exactly?”

Stock is down nearly 20% today and the message from the top is about mission and culture and embracing AI. Only one sentence about Medicare rate notice. If anyone watched the Capitol Hill hearing from last week, both parties are gunning for us. Yet leadership is going on about re-energizing our culture (whatever that means). So tone deaf.

Central station made a poor call on being open today. It’s apparent its solely for the sales launch. Fossil is risking lives over a day of wining and dining international partners.

An organization full of quiet people is not calm.

It’s resigned.

And resignation, unlike conflict, is very hard to reverse once normalized.

As a senior woman at this bank, I am appalled at the handling of the bully and harasser Andy Sieg. The HR team here is the absolutely worse. In fact, Sara told us at a meeting of senior women that she knows nothing about HR and is just "fake it till you make it".
Jane, do us all a favor and go hire someone who understands the important role HR can play when led by someone with integrity and an ounce of employee advocacy.

No overtime for RTM positions. Just so you know the company is going to fully expect you to work 50-60 hours to complete the job but only pay you 40. Dont fall for the trap. Take the severance if you can.

Rumour has it some of the old guard are coming back and rebranding into a new processing shop - hands up who would abandon their ship to join ( my hands are up!)

I was hoping for better than my last job. But that didn't happen. It's as if I never left the other company. Broken promises, a bunch of hot air and bunch of pretenders.