#culture

It’s hard to understand how a company with HPE’s scale and portfolio continues to struggle to create momentum, and from the inside it feels less market driven and more internal. Constant restructuring, added complexity from acquisitions, and unclear accountability have worn people down. The recent layoffs were especially difficult because they didn’t feel strictly performance based, many capable, respected employees were impacted while leadership structures stayed largely unchanged, which made the process feel political rather than strategic. That disconnect has hurt morale and trust, and at this point the challenges feel structural, even a strong, proven leader like Rami stepping in as CEO wouldn’t be able to fix this without deeper changes in how decisions are made at the top.

Reading between the lines of all these recent posts, about FS district leaders being gone, and PIC's running the whole store, the CEO's email, etc., etc. So who knows what the real story is?

Leads, ambassadors, captains, key holders. Whenever you see those titles replace the store managers you need to quickly exit to the left. It means a retail company is in trouble . Same thing happened to me at toys r us .

So the expected answer would be "no" 😂
But after a few years here I wanted to create a list, which is no doubt just the start for which many of you can relate or add to. Im trying to explore DXCs current employees views and how you all feel, does the current culture of DXC effect your mental health?
Feel free to add more to my list in the comments.

It would be nice for some media platforms to highlight this feed if it gets traction on LinkedIn.

So here I go...

That 1% pay rise.. after 6/8 years
False promises after promise for salary review, so we feel burnt out and under appreciated.
Constantly battling additional workloads with no return.
Seeing management spew energy going into this AI comercial and yet they have no idea what the feck it is.
Constant changes in leadership who get bonuses and never connect with the workforce then leave.
Clear lack of direction by management.
Lack of career progression / guidance for skilled employees.
Seeing colleagues that are skilled 20+ years hang on, but for some reason they are still on a just above minimum wage salary due to inflation.
(These employees are normally the vital contacts that the clients get on with as highlighted in a recent town hall, if it wasn't for them alot if the clients would have left by now).
Seeing graduates getting onboard but knowing there is no 'happy' career for them here.

The list goes on so feel free to add, but wanted to know your views.
Happy 2026 folks let's address these issues.

We are getting a new CFO over here at Converse. How was DS at Nike? Looks like he ran Procurement. Good experiences? Good culture? Bad experiences? Need the details before he ramps us here so know what to expect. Only thing I heard so far was he got rid of people when he joined and the org did not have much direction from him with a lot of people having left or trying to leave. I only know one Procurement person that is over there still so giving the benefit of the doubt maybe he inherited a bad gig?

Need some info before meeting him…

For more than 20 years he looks good. But we who know him, know otherwise. Look up The Peter Principle and there’s a picture of Ryan. Chevron and XOM (and everyone else) will get things done.

And it's by design. I almost have the feeling that they enjoy making us jump through hoops, throwing all kinds of obstacles and inconveniences at us just for the heck of it. Productivity and performance be damned. Losing top performers, because they do have a choice? Not important. As long as we are exposed to humiliating rituals and games, all is good.

Reorgs, layoffs, shuffling people around, ignoring bad management but punishing talent, directionlessness, maintenance/decay mode - all of it has made me completely uninterested in the future of Nike, and definitely in my job. I just can't care anymore. If someone had told me eight years ago when I came on board that this would turn into a "just collect a paycheck" thing, I wouldn't have believed them. It's actually sad.

Just ask the simple question is it still 120% of budget.. is it tho... the decisions being made are just absolutely absurd at this point and that's saying a lot over the past 3-4yrs let alone the last 15. Sad for all of those who put in the time and effort to hit your # you will get a BS excuse as to why it has now changed... last minute things that make you go hmmm

Says it all really

If you got a 4 in only one area. The "how" . How does it really impact you ? I know people thag have had 4s stick around for years. But this was before the aggresive cuts and bora bora

Its out and followed by “more people in fewer places”

What a fu--ing mess this is

Anyone get an email for a task to complete " Review Distribution of documents or Tasks" Titled Auto Expectation Document-Annual only to see if was canceled in WD.

Well it was seen prior to it being canceled. It's a zero tolerance policy with no exceptions. No reason to let you go. So here we go folks. Hold on the rides about to get bumpy as he-l....

My team is half of what it's been when I joined seven years ago. Others who are still with the same team, is it the same for you? I'm genuinely curious if this is a common thing.

Are lining up at the crystal palace as we speak.

https://x.com/gothburz/status/2009386221521244406?s=46&t=8PYOIs_oDhf5yp9H30hhiw

Last September I announced mandatory return-to-office.

Five days a week.

I called it a "culture-first initiative."

Culture means presence.

Presence means badge swipes.

Badge swipes mean metrics.

Metrics mean I can prove something to the board.

I don't know what.

But I can prove it.

The announcement went out on a Tuesday.

I sent it from my home office.

In Aspen.

I have an exemption.

"Strategic leaders require location flexibility to maintain global perspective."

I wrote that policy.

HR approved it.

HR approves everything I write.

By Wednesday, 340 employees had updated their LinkedIn status to "Open to Work."

I called it "natural attrition."

Natural attrition means they quit before I had to pay severance.

Very natural.

We lost 47 engineers in the first month.

I told the board it was "alignment correction."

The people who left weren't aligned.

With coming to an office.

That I also don't come to.

But that's different.

I'm strategic.

The office costs $4.2 million per year.

Empty, it was a write-off.

Now it's a "collaboration hub."

I measured collaboration.

Average daily Zoom calls from the office: 7.4 per employee.

They commute 45 minutes.

To take calls they could take from home.

But now they're "present."

Presence is culture.

I've never been more certain of anything.

A senior engineer asked why we couldn't stay remote.

She had metrics.

Productivity was up 23% during remote work.

I said, "Productivity isn't everything."

She asked what else mattered.

I said, "Serendipitous collisions."

She asked how we measure serendipitous collisions.

I said, "You can't. That's what makes them serendipitous."

She stopped asking questions.

Then she stopped showing up.

Then LinkedIn said she's at a company that's "remote-first."

Good luck with that.

They'll learn.

We installed badge tracking software.

It cost $380,000.

It tells me exactly when people arrive.

And when they leave.

And how long they spend in each zone.

I check it every morning.

From home.

The data is fascinating.

Average arrival time: 9:47 AM.

Average departure time: 4:12 PM.

I sent a Slack message.

"Core hours are 9 to 6."

Arrival times shifted to 9:02 AM.

Departure times shifted to 6:01 PM.

Productivity did not change.

But the metrics look better.

Metrics are culture.

We have a "hybrid" option now.

Three days in office.

Mandatory Monday. Mandatory Wednesday. Mandatory Friday.

That's called "hybrid."

Because Tuesday and Thursday are optional.

But there are "anchor meetings" on Tuesday and Thursday.

Attendance is "strongly encouraged."

"Strongly encouraged" means mandatory without the liability.

I learned that from legal.

The head of product asked if he could work from home when his wife had surgery.

I said, "Of course. Family comes first."

Then I said, "But let's revisit your Q4 performance targets."

He came to the office.

His wife understood.

I assume.

I didn't ask.

That's personal.

The CFO asked about ROI on the RTO policy.

I showed him the badge data.

"Presence is up 340%."

He asked if revenue was up.

I said, "Revenue is a lagging indicator."

He asked what the leading indicator was.

I said, "Badge swipes."

He nodded.

The lease renews next year.

Seven more years.

$29 million committed.

We needed bodies in the building.

Now we have bodies.

Fewer than before.

But present.

Morale is down.

Glassdoor says we're "hostile to work-life balance."

I told HR to respond.

They wrote, "We're a high-performance culture that values in-person collaboration."

That's corporate for "the review is accurate."

But it sounds like a rebuttal.

The CEO asked if RTO was working.

I said, "Absolutely."

He asked for evidence.

I showed him a photo of the office.

Full desks. Glowing monitors. Bodies in chairs.

He smiled.

"This is what culture looks like."

It looked like a stock photo.

Because I got it from a stock photo website.

The real office has 40% occupancy on a good day.

But he doesn't know that.

He's also remote.

We're both strategic.

Next quarter I'm proposing a "collaboration bonus."

$2,000 for anyone with 95% badge-in compliance.

The bonus costs less than the turnover.

And it shifts the narrative.

We're not forcing people to come in.

We're "incentivizing presence."

Incentivizing means paying people to do something they don't want to do.

It's different from mandating.

Legally.

The employees who stayed are "loyal."

Loyalty means they have mortgages.

And kids in school districts.

And RSUs that haven't vested.

They're not loyal.

They're trapped.

But on paper, it looks like loyalty.

And paper is what the board sees.

I've been doing this for 22 years.

I know what culture looks like.

It looks like butts in seats.

Butts in seats mean control.

Control means management.

Management means me.

RTO isn't about productivity.

It never was.

It's about seeing people.

So I know they exist.

So I know they're working.

So I know I'm in charge.

That's culture.

As long as the badge swipes go up and to the right.

Who is feeling like this is a preferred workplace? What is leadership doing to make this a preferred workplace? It seems none of the employees from 3M are part of the future. The goal is to replace everyone with better employees and bring them in as Sr Director or VP and above. If you are not already that level, you never will be.

I've been noticing a lot of people getting their titles bump down 1 grade level. Any insight for folks who were impacted? Did their leaders say it's either agree to it or get laid off?

It seems the new HR is back with the hammer for colocation.

Contractors, who were remote hired are supposed to be in office during connect week but the full timers in different region are told their position is moved to different region.

You can't be serious!!!! This is an absolute pathetic joke!!!

If using this to track our every move why aren’t all bands (3 and 4 specifically) required to use it if not directly tied to production? Seems to me if they are looking to cut people this would be where to start - if your Verient consistently shows you are more idle than not maybe you are disposable more than others.
I am not talking the downtime because of reading an email and gathering your thoughts or listening to a recorded team meeting you missed. I am talking about the people who WAH and log in early in the morning then go about the morning getting breakfast, showering, walking the dog - THEN actually starting work or napping during the day. We all know installing Webex on your phone can help it “appear” as if you haven’t stepped away from your desk but if Big Brother can actually TRACK you are not at your desk why not leverage it as needed? I HATE Verient but if it is for some it should be for all and used the same across the board.

You can build all the offices you want. The workforce you’re trying to force into them doesn’t want them.

Five day RTO is not culture. It’s wasted time, wasted money, and wasted talent. People commute for hours just to sit on video calls they could do better from home. There is no productivity upside and no data to support it.

The market has already moved on. Over 80 percent of companies offer hybrid or remote work. Younger talent will not choose a dinosaur policy when better pay, flexibility, and trust exist everywhere else.

As older workers retire, you’re forcing out the next generation before they ever commit. That’s not strategy. It’s self sabotage. Keep spending billions on offices no one wants while the talent pipeline walks out the door.

Wayfair really turns a blind eye on some. Im in another team but my friend heard that one of the CSO agents does work avoidance and nothing has been done. Keeps easy tickets and updates them every two days just to meet metrics when it should have been closed but goes on weeks with it open. Out of the blue the ticket metric sky rocketed.

Over the past two years, T‑Mobile employees have been operating in a near‑constant state of transition. Frequent reorganizations, unannounced job eliminations, and shifting priorities have created an environment where stability is the exception rather than the norm. This instability has eroded the sense of security employees once felt in their roles and has fundamentally changed how they experience their work.

Employees consistently hear that “our people are what make T‑Mobile special” and that this is a place to build a career, not just a job. Yet the company’s actions — particularly the elimination of high‑performing employees who were previously recognized as role models — directly contradict those messages. Individuals who were celebrated, mentored, and held up as examples of the company’s future have been let go without transparent communication or meaningful attempts at repositioning.

This disconnect between words and actions has created a deep cultural fracture.

The most recent layoffs intensified this sentiment. They were not clearly announced, leaving employees to piece together who was impacted and why. In the same conversations where employees were told how valued they are, they were also informed that more “duplication removal” and organizational changes are coming. The result is a workforce that feels misled, unprotected, and uncertain about its future.

The emotional impact is significant. Employees who once demonstrated extraordinary ownership and commitment — who would “do whatever it takes” — now question whether that level of dedication matters. When high performance is no longer a differentiator in job security, the spirit that once fueled T‑Mobile’s culture begins to fade. Instead of feeling like they are building a career, employees increasingly feel like they simply have a job.

This is not a matter of resistance to change. It is a matter of trust.
And trust, once lost, is difficult to rebuild.

If T‑Mobile is to preserve the culture that has long differentiated it, leadership must acknowledge the gap between messaging and lived experience, communicate with transparency, and demonstrate through action — not rhetoric — that employees truly are the company’s greatest asset.

(original post is 11 down)

I have worked for three companies before this one. Each had its flaws, but each, in its own way, understood something basic about decency. When I came to CVX, my fourth, I was told, again and again, that the culture was different. Healthier. Kinder. A place where people stayed because they were valued.

I believed it. For a long time, I wanted to.

Six years in, I can say without hesitation that this is the most hostile environment I have ever survived and I started on a rig in Midland, TX.

What makes it dangerous isn’t incompetence or chaos, it’s intention. Everything here is calculated. Smiles are worn like disguises. Praise is given only when it can be reclaimed later as leverage. If your work is good, someone else will quietly attach their name to it. If your ideas land too well, they stop being yours almost immediately.
And if you are noticed, truly noticed, by the wrong person, especially your boss, the consequences are swift and surgical. Threats are not confronted; they are dismantled. Slowly. Invisibly. By the time you realize what’s happening, your reputation has already been rewritten without you in the room.

Gossip is the real currency here. Cruelty, its favorite language. Personal lives are treated as public property, mined for weaknesses. An affair. A secret. A truth shared with the wrong person. Even something small, once discovered, is inflated until it becomes unmanageable. Stories grow teeth. Context disappears. Suddenly, survival feels like something you have to apologize for.

This is not a place where mistakes are forgiven. It is a place where they are archived.
I used to think cultures were defined by mission statements and values posted on walls. Now I know better. Culture is what happens in whispers, in meetings you aren’t invited to, in credit you never receive, in silence when you need protection.

If this place has taught me anything, it’s that the most dangerous environments are the ones that insist they are safe.

Anything less than 100% is corporate greed, plain and simple. The people who stayed are being squeezed dry doing the work of two employees while getting paid for one so executives can protect their bonuses and call it “strategy.”

But by all means, Dan, keep slurping your coffee and pretending this is complicated. If Hans is still pulling in millions, don’t insult everyone’s intelligence by offering scraps. There is zero excuse for anything under 100%. Anything less is a slap in the face, and everyone knows it.

Broadcom doesn’t have much of a “company culture” but now you realize that most of the VMware culture building events were meant to soften and obfuscate the pay gap between you and the millionaire executives.

Now YOU are the millionaire.

Welp, looks like another ‘rules for thee, not for me.’

‘Select’ leaders will have assigned spaces for ‘business continuity’

It would be bad to give them a widdle inconvenience. Poor babies.

Foskett - Who might be the laziest CRO on the planet. Here is 25% off and a couple of tickets to the Super Bowl. Isn't a strategy. His rolodex is ancient and hardly relevant. And we keep him around to ride around in the jet. The level of favoritism and nepo babies he has in his org is nuts! Ineffective!!!!! The other guy working for him in FIG sales. He keeps losing more people because the smart ones won't work for him - utterly ineffective and we continue to not address. It's a mess and that is why people are leaving! They do not want to make changes and will continue to bleed clients and talent. It is that simple.

Any good leadership remaining? Who are they????

I talked to someone at UP on another platform and was told seniority with UP only determined your shift and off days. Management will line up individuals on any job they want to and seniority does not matter.

Managers, mdirectors,, VPs,,, advisory engineers,, “scientists” are not doing any work in the office and they are alllllllllll getting passes by their supervisors Morale is at an all time low

I don't want this post to get washed away by Chevron's HR Trolls. Please help keep it alive and post your thoughts here or on the original post, 8 down.

All time low. I’d say I hope senior leaders see this. But I also suspect it’s by design. Low morale = high attrition

2 in the thoughts and 1 in the prayers for all you delta peeps. Your new CD&TO left a trail of pain and misery at USAA. Don’t believe me? Read any of the dozens of posts on here about her. Best of luck! 🤞

Just read Amala is going to Delta Airlines to be their Chief Digital & Technology Officer.

Poor Delta. These worthless executives always come out smelling like roses.

They're all the same. All they think about is how to line their own pockets. That's their one and only goal. Don't expect much to change. I wish I was wrong, but I believe that we're in for much of the same.