#engagement

Culture always starts at the top.

Winning companies build cultures of trust, accountability, and innovation.

Losing companies build cultures of fear, bureaucracy, and compliance.

When employees spend more time talking about RTO, presence reports, FTW letters, and layoffs than customers, growth, or innovation, you’ve stopped building a winning culture. You’ve instead built a culture of survival.

If employees are disengaged, anxious, and constantly wondering what’s coming next, that’s not an employee problem. Leadership shapes culture, and culture shapes results.

You can’t track your way to engagement, you can’t mandate trust, and you can’t build a winning company with a culture of losing.

People are asking good questions!

Let’s hear it

John is hosting a Dallas ONLY (sorry non HQ people) open mic today. Highest rated question from the chat I will stand up and ask.

So uhhhh…are we not going to talk about this? Results were atrocious. We think anything is going to happen or a lot of hand waving and being told we should appreciate our jobs?

who decides on the date?

Can't wait to get to work tomorrow. Such a fulfilling job where I feel valued. It is great knowing my work is part of the future plan and I am contributing to the overall success of VZ. I'm so excited that I won't be able to sleep tonight. Set the Foundation!!! Love your company!

Employer: We are begging you please complete survey.

Me: 🖕

Can’t believe we’re doing this again.

Those of you who aren't in a production based role and aren't being tracked 24/7 do you keep yourself active on teams even when you have nothing to do?

Looking at the number of likes there is a high visit rates

Sorry lads

Congrats to those who got promoted. Truly.

But can we talk about the process for a second?

No heads up that an upleveled role even existed. No transparency. No conversation. Just a notification that a handful of people, all of whom, by the way, meet the same criteria as the rest of us, got bumped up.

The rest of us found out the same way you find out about most things around here. After the fact.

Leadership loves to talk about engagement and culture. Here’s a free tip: this is exactly how you ki-l both.

We’re watching. We’re paying attention. And we’re drawing our own conclusions.

SG, the WFH champion, is moving onto Wal Mart. Is it because something will be coming down soon? Bonuses usually coming at the end of March...is that not happening? Merit increase this year? How about the engagement survey that usually surfaces in April/May. Will that be put on hold? More layoffs? OR was she just able to take an opportunity with a better company that offers a fully remote role?

We’re seeing a significant decline in leadership engagement, which is directly impacting our ability to meet deadlines and maintain client satisfaction. The current culture has led to widespread morale issues. No one cares anymore.

In a day of social media, only 21 likes on the Intranet page for the townhall is quite embarrassing

Per MH: "Treat it like a 20-minute Wellness Week. In other words, just focus on that thing like nothing else and make sure that you give us the feedback we wanna hear from you."

Nothing says "wellness" like forced tasks and giving them the feedback they want to hear. Plus everything will stay the same or be worse.

Morale is trash. Collaboration did not magically appear. Engagement is still imaginary.

That one remote day wasn’t a “perk.” It was the only day people could handle doctor follow-ups and real-life admin that only exists during business hours. Apparently that was too much autonomy.

Now we’re all back, paying for snacks and sodas that aren’t even stocked, drying our hands on air because there are no paper towels, and playing musical chairs with conference rooms because no one books them. Had to kick someone out of a room for my own meeting. Peak teamwork.

Nothing says “we value our people” like taking away flexibility, providing fewer basics, and expecting gratitude. I feel so engaged. I feel so motivated. I feel absolutely compelled to give more than the bare minimum.

If productivity drops, good. If people disengage, expected. If turnover spikes, deserved.

You wanted butts in seats. Congrats.
You got bodies. You lost trust.

I read a Forbes article on employee happiness and company performance, and it feels very relevant right now.

The research is clear that companies with higher employee happiness consistently perform better over time. Not just culturally, but financially. Engagement, innovation, productivity, retention, and customer experience all improve when people feel supported, trusted, and connected to the work.

Right now, it’s hard to ignore that employee morale at Nike feels low. At the same time, the stock price reflects broader challenges and uncertainty. Those two things are often more connected than we want to admit.

The article reinforces that compensation and perks aren’t the main drivers. Leadership trust, clarity, purpose, growth, and how decisions are communicated matter far more. This feels like an important moment for EH and TH to seriously reflect on how employee experience is being navigated and how it’s landing across the organization.

Nike has always been strongest when people believed in where we were going and felt proud of how we got there. Rebuilding morale isn’t just about culture, it’s about long-term performance.

For anyone interested, here’s the article:
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescoachescouncil/2024/10/04/happiness-at-work-the-new-competitive-advantage/

And even has HR coming in to get a pulse on things yet gets defensive on a team call right before the holidays today to address the feedback. This leader is very disconnected from his actual team, CANNOT make a decision without consulting SLOD for BAU business matters, and spends all his time being a site leader when the time should be spent understanding his new role , engaging his team and for the love of everything training his green people leaders. Kennedy is a great leader pretty surprised he hasn’t caught on to this about his direct. Call today was odd he had with our team defensive when asked for feedback. Then don’t ask! Merry Christmas ya’ll.

how many times will LC say AI. Drinking game!

Rawool Fernandass announced with great enthusiasm “My leadership is uniquely leaning itself toward strategic penetration as we fully embrace a deep engagement with our organization’s Assponential operating framework".

Just checking in.

How are the quiet quitters fairing these days.

Is it still a thing?

I was at 12, granted my attention was not full.

#collaboration

I was wondering if they were going to cook the books on the engagement survey. Either folks were scared that any negative reviews would be traced back to them, or they only took the survey results from Sr. Management. I don't know a single person who gave them a good response. Complete sh-t show.

If your team have H1B visa holders or you notice your business is shifting more functions to India, it's important to stay cautious and alert.

Many companies are now laying off American workers to reduce operational costs, and in some cases, employees may be unfairly labeled as underperformed to save severance.

Remember, as American workers, you have rights—if your business is laying off while still employing H1B visa holders, it raises questions about the necessity of the visas and the company's compliance. Do file a report to Department of Labor and USCIS.

As a proactive step, consider reaching out to your local congressman to advocate for stricter regulations on H1B visas and offshoring practices. Congress has already taken some actions in this direction, but additional support is needed, especially as U.S. job growth is experiencing multi-year lows.
Staying informed and engaged can help protect your rights and ensure fair employment practices.

Was this actually anonymous like oxy said? I’ve heard mixed stories on whether these are actually anonymous or not.

Why are these guys in such a rush to receive all of the negative feedback they’re going to get through this survey? Pushing to have 100% completion in the first week and giving drps to the first teams to do it. I can’t wait to get my free shirts after trashing the company in every question like I do every year since mission one started! Maybe we’ll even get another useless team morale building cookout!

Good expose on the mistakes that have led to stagnant growth and culture. Geoff comes across as dismissive and defensive, nothing is his fault. Do you think it’s true in your group that engagement scores are up since 2019? I’m not seeing it!

I'm tenured, multiple roles in 30 years. I finally made it to a director level. I always assumed based on the views and the way I can break down my associate engagement survey, but it truly was anonymous. Until today. I was on the CPO call and just realized they tie it all back to where we are for our annual performance reviews. Which means they know exactly who we are exactly how he answered exactly what our performance for you was and exactly what the survey said. They know everything. I've been a lifelonger of. It's a legit discreet anonymous survey. It's not quit taking it.

Use this as your “like” button if you believe that “Enterprise Reimagined” is a sh*t show.

The best move here is to not fill this out, correct?

Phillips 66 offers good pay and good benefits. And before the Go Go regime took over it was a relatively satisfying place to work.
Now with the failure of BT. WEP, and never ending layoffs it’s sad place to work.
Morale is at rock bottom. Employee engagement is practically nonexistent. Most employees that I know of are just going through the motions of doing their jobs until they find other employment.
I spend time almost every day talking to recruiters and spiffing up my LinkedIn profile on the company dime.

I stopped putting in extra effort a while ago. I just do my work and unplug, no more doing anything late. Whatever happens next, I’m ready to move on. The way things are going, it feels like we’re all just waiting our turn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH2UHobXt1E