#leadership

Looks like they are targeting sales channels now for late trimming after squeezing what they could. They eliminated customer service teams which effectively made customers lose their mind, the new guy Shah doesn’t care about his people or the customer and looks at them as a number. Lots of support lost and they are now not even letting customers cancel to fluff numbers. If you have to fake numbers and fire people to

Is Jeff’s past at Arthur Anderson bringing forth ideas about artificial inflation of earnings? Only time will tell.

Everything else has been a mess, from the announcement and the buildup, to the awful communication from leadership right up to the last minute. I dread whatever comes next. I really feel for those affected today, especially anyone in a tougher spot than the rest. Wishing them all the luck.

Just wanted to chime in as one of your corporate neighbors in Minneapolis. This is awful and we are thinking of all of you.

Curious if the comp package of your ceo and executive team will change—this is their mismanagement.

Hang in there, our team is disgusted enough to avoid lunch break target runs for awhile. I don’t think that I will ever spend as freely there again- thought they were good employers and corporate citizens.

Lets make TGT great again and bring back Mark Triton as COO to support CEO Fidelke and Chairman Cornelly

As if this approach to layoffs wasn’t bad enough, anyone else reflecting on all the attempted “feel good” moments at this year’s fall National and feeling even more betrayed? BC getting emotional about stepping down, humanizing Fiddelke interviewing his children and pushing the family man that he is, the constant preaching of bringing joy to all families, holiday magic, smiles, excitement, team target etc etc etc meanwhile, some of them knew this was around the corner?! I realize working in corporate America you have to have to be cold and manipulative to some extent because at the end of the day it truly is about the bottom line, but I can’t help but question how some of the leaders of this company could stand in front of us all with such happy & cheery faces knowing they were going to kick off the holiday season with mass layoffs.

Don’t need people commenting about their salaries and bonuses as to how they were able to do that. Obviously. Sometimes I just like to think they’re more human than they clearly are.

"Posting here on behalf of an employee who is working at Fid India (as this website only allows posts from within the USA)."
I am an L6 Principal Engineer in India and have spent the last 12 years at Fidelity, working across three different BUs. Over time, I’ve noticed a steep decline in the caliber of senior leadership at levels L7-8 and above. Their primary concern seems to be hosting “visitors” from the U.S.; the moment such a visit is announced, they go into “alert mode,” preparing PowerPoint slides, arranging floor walks and roundtable sessions, and coaching employees on exactly what they should or shouldn’t say. Most of this preparatory work is pushed onto individual contributors like me (L6 and below), but when these visits are deemed “successful,” managers usually receive all the credit—often in the form of a single congratulatory email or LinkedIn post from the visiting executive.
In prioritizing these presentations and visitor-focused activities, actual project work suffers. Those who create slides, manage schedules, or organize events are favored for promotions, while employees handling core technical tasks remain overlooked. Compounding this issue is that most senior leaders sit in Bangalore, leaving those of us in Chennai perpetually at a disadvantage.
Many of the managers in these tech teams either lack technical expertise or have allowed their skills to lapse, preventing them from contributing meaningfully to real project needs. Instead, they rely on strong presentation and communication abilities to secure positive performance reviews. This system rewards non-technical individuals, resulting in a leadership structure that is often incompetent and self-perpetuating. As a result, genuine technical contributions lose value, and the focus remains on “partner visits” and superficial, India-specific initiatives instead of substantive, technology-driven goals. This pattern holds across all BUs, with some business units experiencing even worse conditions.
I respectfully urge visiting executives to encourage senior leaders to focus on more meaningful work instead of devoting excessive effort to superficial presentations. Many of these orchestrated events offer minimal benefit and consume significant time that could be better spent on genuine product or project deliverables

There is a big employee meeting this week. Will the CEO be fully transparent and answer a lot of the tough and fair questions many of you posted on here. The CEO seems to be doubling down on keeping the BOD intact with no changes, keeping field sales leadership who have not lead and are reactionary and don't provide inspiring forward looking leadership and employee support, and head of Boca operations who is focused on the wrong priorities and on their pet side projects instead. The CEO is doubling down on all of this and net outflows are on pace to match last year. Leadership said the bleeding was done last year. Well that hasn't happened. That is why this meeting is so important. For the CFO, it is no laughing matter.

Penny spent some more of her displaced associates money today. Penny brought former St. Louis Blues player Chris Pronger in to the home office today to preach about the importance of what we do. Pronger said he needed financial guidance when he received a $7 million four year contract with a $4 million signing bonus at the age of eighteen. Penny and team are either tone deaf and/or just do not care. Penny has laid off people making five figures and trying to figure out which bill to pay this month by sending jobs to India. Penny has demoted some of her Enterprise Reimagined survivors who are now scraping by. Penny brings in a 51 year old ex jock who was a multimillionaire at the age of eighteen. This saga just keeps getting worse at the home office. Penny is just rubbing salt in the wounds of everyone affected by her Enterprise Reimagined project. How can Pronger give a speech about his financial life? Who did he think he was speaking to? Did he think he was speaking to a room full of Edward Jones ELT members who make eight figures annually? The most amazing part of Pronger's speech was when he said he too had navigate retirement woes. The man is 51. He could have retired at the age of 18 with his signing bonus if he wanted to. The home office has people literally making $40,000 per year and he is lecturing us about his retirement woes. Some of the people at the home office have been working there for decades and have no idea when they will be able to retire. They may have to work until the day the die thanks to Penny. Now, because of Penny, these people also have to look over their shoulders at the fear of losing their five figure job to someone in India. The change in culture from JW to Penny is absolutely stunning. Let's run down the cavalcade of rich people Penny has brought in to lecture the firm, Magic Johnson, Simone Biles, Hoda Kotb, and Chris Pronger. Penny said her biggest mistake was spending too much money when she first became managing partner. Penny is now slashing expenses (labor), but still wasting money which has nothing to do with serving clients better by bringing these people in who never say anything worthwhile or practical to their audience. Chris Pronger now runs a luxury travel agency in Chesterfield, MO. Maybe our displaced and demoted associates can put an application in with his company. I fear though only Penny and the rest of the ELT will actually be able to be one of Pronger's clients.

Optum's getting yet another CFO as the leadership revolving door keeps spinning. What can you all tell us about old Benny Boy?

Hahaha, what a bunch of fake actors

Note for Target legal: I am not leaking anything, just republishing a public document from, the source is below:

Transition Agreement

• Key Terms:
  Amy Tu leaves her role as Target’s Chief Legal & Compliance Officer on May 21, 2025, with her job officially ending June 1, 2025. She’ll receive her regular pay until then, plus 24 months of income continuation (~$3M) and up to $30K in job placement support.

• Pros for Employee:

  • Guaranteed two years of paid income after leaving.
  • Outplacement services to help find a new job.
  • Keeps rights to certain long-term incentive plans and benefits.

• Cons for Employee:

  • Must follow strict non-compete, confidentiality, and non-disparagement rules for up to two years.
  • Loses eligibility for 2025 bonus and must cooperate with Target post-departure.

• Business Impact (for Target):

  • Ensures a smooth leadership transition and protection of company secrets.
  • Prevents a top executive from joining or helping competitors soon after leaving.

• Source: https://contracts.justia.com/companies/target-1261/contract/1339058/

Shell drones and NPC’s it’s that time again to predict and possibly influence the future

What are your predictions for 2026?

Will Shell domicile move from UK to USA for economic reasons or a regional event?
Will Shell purchase another operator?

What assets must Shell divest in order to succeed?
How is Wael being received as a leader of the organization?

Is the organization genuinely invested and rewarding simplicity?

You control the future

I've been lurking for years and I have noticed there are two types of RTO posters. Those who don't want to give up their cushy remote job and those who are required to RTO and are extremely resentful that others are remote or have lax managers who allow their reports to coffee-swipe or ignor the requirement altogether.  

Although I HATE losing my one flex day, if leadership finally standerizes RTO for EVERYONE to follow I will stand up and clap. 

Thoughts:

1. Truist should publish the mileage-to-hub guidelines for transparency. If its 35 miles, then it should be across the board. Is the 35 miles as the crow flies? Or mapquest?  It should NOT be manager discretion.  Also, they should state whether moving outside the mileage limit would result in a remote opportunity? 

2. Truist should publish the definition of 'critical' verses 'non-critical' for transparency and post it on job profiles. This way 'critical' teammates can apply for open 'non-critical' remote positions. These teammates should get first consideration for those open positions since many have mentioned they would take a pay-cut to remain remote. 

3. Truist allows teamates to purchase up to 12 vacation days. Maybe they can offer four ten hour days as an option to eligible teammates? 

Commuting su-ks, I'm sure we can all agree on that, but the guidelines should be applied equeally and with 100% transparency. 

And no, i'm not Bill. Just a low-level teammate who is in the same boat as everyone else.

The biggest issue I am having with this layoff thing, is the absolutely lack of transparency they are giving us. What a failure on leaderships part and especially this new CEO. What a way to make your first real impact on the company — your likability factor and lack of decency is out the door already.

How hard is it for this company to at least tell people what the process is like / how things will unfold instead of making every single employee just be on edge for several days? Very cruel and clearly they are not taking their employee’s well-being seriously.

ELT has made it clear they frequent this site, so, what burning questions do you have but don't want to ask through their supposedly anonymous form?

PIP worst process, horrible HR mgmt.. Target needs to adapt to fast and simply this process.

TII - leadership and PEs in TII
Horrible, immature, cocky with zero substance, no INTEGRITY, no MORALS ,ZERO engineering and ZERO FOCUS in meetings /mails.. horrible characters.. must be fired in the spot.

I've been in a couple meetings late last week and management Sr director, ADs, SMs all mentioning the site as if our fear isn't valid. Basically they all were saying everything here is fake and no one really knows. Just strange that higher-ups mentioned the site by name and wanted to discredit everything on here. Who's know what is true on this site but for leadership to acknowledge it shows even they know some layoffs are coming.

Hey HQ, 1800 of you will be laid of next Tuesday. Have a good weekend but go ahead and don't worry about it, but we'll let you work from home. We will even make you work Monday without knowing. And thank you for everyone clapping and cheering for me when my kids told you I make bad Dad jokes. I am just a regular guy.

With cuts of staff, hiring freezes (yes, I used the f word which were never allowed to say out loud) and conflicting messaging from the top, how can HR an TA maintain it’s current staffing models? Furthermore, It’s absurd to market an organization to potential employees when we know our company is so unstable. How can you promote a company who has lost its direction, disoriented its culture and corrupted its sense of purpose? You can’t and you shouldn’t. And this hasn’t just happened…it’s been years in the making. We want to hire better but WE as a company need to BE better. No excuses or platitudes. 2026 should not be a continuation of 2023, 24 and 25.

I am hearing different views on this. While he has been given a retention bonus, word is that Dan is catching up to the fact that Sampath was the one who was supposed to turn Consumer group around and has not been able to do that. In fact he has misfired a few strategic moves. What do you all think. Sampath is gonna survive or……?!?!?

I truly hope Roundel leadership takes accountability for how this situation has been handled. As employees, we look for comfort, feedback, and — most importantly — transparency from our leaders. The continued silence and lack of communication leading up to Tuesday have been disappointing and disheartening. In times like this, openness and honesty are what build trust and show respect for the people who make this organization what it is. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case, and it’s left many of us feeling embarrassed and let down. I ask do better be better and just resign.

Have you ever looked at the wrist of our humble CEO. In one picture outside the Discovery District he is wearing a Rolex Daytona, which costs nearly $30K, has a 6 year waiting list, and requires you to have already bought several pieces from your jeweler.

In another picture in the Dallas HQ he is wearing a gold Rolex DayDate, which costs 44K.

Given this, he easily has 6 - 8 Rolex timepieces. I have no issue with leaders wearing expensive watches, but these Rolexes feel a bit tasteful given the ego our leader has demonstrated and how he treats his employees. I think a Cartier, Jaeger, or just about any watch would have been more humble and appropriate. But, the Rolexes scream “I have money and control, and you don’t” when he wears them.

Guys, if you ever think our leader is relatable or in-sync with the common employee - just know that he goes out of his way to distance himself from the rest of us. Only the best that money can buy for himself. Nothing but the worst for his subordinates.

It’s been a few months since the last one and the holidays are coming. Wait they did shake up a few of the incompetent last week!

Consider that being laid off by Tgt at this point could be blessing in disguise given the company's sustained decline under Cornell, who isn't going anywhere. Why is that again? No one should have any confidence that Tgt - under Cornell and his protege - will suddenly turn things around and become competitive with the likes of Walmart, TJX, Amazon and Costco, all of which has been hitting on all cylinders. Anyway, sorry to see the distress that many of you are experiencing, particularly while those most responsible for Tgt's long decline sip champagne. It's not right.

I never thought I’d see the day where Edward Jones turned into just another corporate machine. The same firm that preaches about “purpose” and “caring for people” just tossed hundreds of loyal employees aside like they were nothing.

Penny stands on stage talking about culture, humanity, and doing what’s right, but where was that when real people lost their jobs? Where was the compassion when the folks who gave everything to this firm got a calendar invite and a script?

They say “we’re one Edward Jones family.” Really? Because families don’t abandon their own while the top leaders keep cashing seven-figure checks. Penny took home close to $30 million last year. That’s not leadership. That’s greed dressed up as vision.

People here used to believe in something. We believed that this place was different, that we treated clients and coworkers with respect. But now it’s just buzzwords and hypocrisy.

The worst part? So many good people still inside feel stuck, scared to speak up, and scared to lose the job they’ve given years to. Even GPs… The silence says it all.

To everyone who got cut: you deserved better. You carried this firm. Don’t let this break you. The problem isn’t you, it’s a leadership team that forgot what it means to lead.

Edward Jones can say whatever it wants in the press. But inside these walls, people know the truth.

How are we doing?
Who's at the helm?
Are we making $$$?
Do they treat the worker better?

Will managers or directors will also get the prorated bonus or it's only VP and above?

The Q3 call will be a disaster as most quarterly calls have been since i left. Capt Clown will then go on about re-invention and how 'the street' is believing in the re-invention. LOL
Friend who is still there told me that Xerox isn't paying any bills until the new year. Probably won't have cash for payroll. Rest assured the SLT will get their bonuses and probably a raise. Congratulations to Steve, Louie, Miranda and all involved, you can celebrate running an ICON into the ground.

So maybe I'm dense, but I don't understand leaderships FOMO of AI , these guys are trying to throw AI at every problem, when most of T business models have nothing to do with AI directly, they complain about churn, and think AI is going to find some missing demographic, or want to use AI for lots of internal development, yet we're constrained by regulatory limits that don't play nice with GENERATIVE features of today's models.. Help me understand...

The almighty leader of global tech is spearheading an Amazon Alexa project that is a major waste of time and money.

I’ve been through many, many layoffs in my time in retail (20 years) and just sharing what I’ve learned having been in various roles at various levels including IC and leadership (dir+). I have also had really good friends and partners in HR and ops finance over my career who have been at various levels of need to know (and they share with me of course 😏).
THIS IS NOT INTEL - I do not have any information about TGT. This is more so sharing facts rather than feelings.
Simply put, the fiscal calendar is important when making layoff decisions. Layoffs are planned for the immediate expenses (the severance packages, outplacement programs, health insurance premiums etc) and forecasted long term savings.
You may be asking why Q4, well it’s because this is when most retail companies make their season or year. And because most of the prep work for the season is done and everything is execute mode so it doesn’t have as much impact on the immediate business.
You budget for these layoffs (yes, budget. So a layoff this big has been coming for a while). Once they are reviewed and approved by the board, goal is to get them in before Q4 so you can chip away at the expense drag that the layoff causes through revenue generation. You also want to hit the expenses in the current quarter, especially if quarterly earnings report is going to be rough. You want to minimize the impact to the next quarter.
Then long term the savings reflect in the new fiscal year and helps at a time when sales are generally slower.
In the simplest form you spend now to hopefully recoup some, protect the next quarter, and then save later in the new year.
In terms of WHO is impacted, it’s not an easy exercise and certainly not one taken lightly. I know that’s not easy to hear because it’s much easier to blame the proverbial big bad wolf, but I assure you no one in the general sense wants to be in this position. no one wants mass layoffs. Everyone would love to hire and build out their teams and be offering promotions and bonuses all the time.
Unfortunately, in addition to the sh---y macro financial environment, some poor decision making, some external factors, and some decisions made when the company was thriving (over hiring, overspending or over indexing into certain teams and initiatives) leads to this.
I’m grossly oversimplifying how the company got here but just keeping it simple.
So back to WHO. Well at the highest level (think SVP+) you would receive notice of expense reduction efforts (either a dollar amount or %) and they would look at where to cut and save (travel, discretionary spend etc) and then when there’s no more to save there, you move on to the teams. You look at where the work is currently, where it’s needed, where teams are doing similar work, or maybe work that is no longer value added, and decide where it would make sense to cut folks, where it would make sense to consolidate teams (for example if you have 3 directors with one direct report each, would it make sense to combine a team and create a team of 6 with only one director) or where it makes sense to have both a dir and a sr dir based on complexity, leadership necessity, size of team or where it might make sense to only have one over the other. At the end of the day you just have to do what’s best with the hand you’re dealt while trying to minimize the impact to operations, workload and yes, culture.
Because at the end of the day, there is a day after layoffs and morale of the teams is crucial to how you move forward (it’s kind of ironic but I digress).
I would venture to say with all of this in mind, many leaders have been quietly not backfilling roles, losing jobs through attrition (people quit and role is not rehired) or asking their leaders if there’s any work that could be stopped, moving resources from other teams where support is needed more and away from teams where there is maybe fat to trim in order to prevent or at least mitigate big cuts. But alas, sometimes the only way out is through.
Alright so who knows what, now? VPs probably knew changes were coming, and maybe could influence who and what in a general sense. Based on the posts on here, they just found out officially this week and they probably had to sign strict NDAs.
It’s also possible they walk into Monday or Tuesday and get handed a list of who and what so as to not have anything leak beforehand.
As for the people impacted…
The goal is to do this as fairly as possible.
Is it possible favorites are played when deciding who to keep? Sure.
Is it possible top performers were never at risk of losing their jobs? Sure.
Is it possible bottom performers were an easy first decision? Sure.
Is it possible a leader sees a name on a list and says “absolutely not” and a role is miraculously found for them? Sure.
Is it possible a leader sees someone moving elsewhere and says “hey actually it makes sense for this other person to go over there based on their skill and for this person to stay here”? Sure.
Will someone say “hey I actually want to retire so take me out and save someone else”? Sure.
Is it possible some people know where the bodies are hidden and so they must be protected? Sure. (I’m mostly kidding, but I’ve definitely experienced layoffs where people are asking “how are they still here” and we joke they must have compelling enough black mail to stay lol)
Will some people be promoted if it makes sense to the new org? Sure.
Will some people be demoted if it means that’s the only way they can have a role? Sure.
Is this an opportunity to finally separate someone who is so toxic and has managed to dodge every bullet until now? Sure.
Will people and leaders be moved, lose work or inherit work? Sure.
Is it possible they cut too deep and ask someone to come back? Sure.
Is it possible they didn’t cut deep enough and need to do it again? Sure.
All of this or none of this could happen (in my experience, it’s usually the latter).
At the end of the day it’s going to come down to the work, what makes sense long term for the company, how much it’s going to cost to keep or separate someone and how everyone fits into the larger strategy.
“Good” and “bad” people will go. Just as well as “good” and “bad” people will stay.
We will know eventually what happened in the “post mortem” (aka because we piece it together in here lol).
Anyways, the point of all of this is information however relevant it may be to this situation. Knowledge is power and although it might not give pause to your anxiety, at least you’ll go into the week with some understanding.

Word on the digital street: AI results are flagging Rick Gomez and Jill Sando as “OUT.”

NO official word yet since Fiddelke’s email, but AI whispers are blowing up across threads. If REAL, this could SHAKE Owned Brands, leadership, and strategy to the core.

Some say RUMOR, some say LEAK, some say REALITY. Either way, the chatter won’t die.

Who’s got insider intel, hints, or even half-confirmed whispers? SPILL IT ALREADY — we’re all ears ☕️

my manager are delusionally promoting and spending a project which has no value or use. millions have been spent and there is no use case or demand for it. when i try challenging, they start commenting on my capability and character. when anything fails, which it is bound to in many steps, they say its your fault. can someone please advise how to deal with such a psycho in EM speak? i do want to keep my job, but it ki-ls me inside to hage such a stupid egotistic manager. and fee others around them who just keep promoting an obviously failing, money down the drain project.

Nov 21st - Has anyone heard about some leaders told to keep Nov 21 open for something. I am not sure what...nothing good or just a management meeting? I saw a post here a while back that mentioned it but wondering if there is an update with more information.

Ryan “poorly tailored suits” Lance, CEO of ConocoPhilllips, stated

"We probably plateau later this decade," Lance said. "It's going to be slow decline beyond that, because there's a lot of resource."

What’s your technical perspective or intuition on production declines and soaring OPEX now that Ryan is viewed with contempt by field personnel particularly Marathon and Concho Honchos